Ms. Luxton's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 5

• Bringing Out Their BEST With Incentives and Rewards

  Funded Oct 16, 2015

  What joy when the materials first began arriving to our classroom! It was as though Christmas came early this year: as you can see by some of our posted pictures, students were beyond thrilled, and what better way to inspire their best than to link behavior with rewards? What is truly wonderful is that your gift of funding impacts not only my own students, but all of our sixth graders this year. Imagine the difference you are making promoting the skills necessary to be successful in life: hard work, respectful interactions, perseverance, kindness, all of these "soft skills" which often are overlooked, but those we know are critical to success in life. As a school community then, we have set goals of being in compliance with the uniform policy, no use of electronics in the classroom, and staying within the bounds of our halls. Both a display board highlighting and explaining these expectations are posted, as well as the days' successes of achieving the goals and the rewards linked to these successes are also posted and updated daily (see photos, please!). In addition to the entire sixth grade community of students, individual teachers have rewards, behavior cards, reading certificates, tangibles and treats, and more to use to promote classroom behavior, too. My students, our students, are hands down super stars, but they, like each of us--and even more so for children--need the reinforcements you have so kindly and generously given to reward the very behaviors that need to be reinforced, skills that need to be honed, and traits that need to be cultivated in order for our students to go out into the world someday and be the successes that we know they are. I can not adequately express just how much the funding means to me, but I hope you know that you, Dietz Architects & Company, are impacted the lives of over 100 children in a positive way each day and for that, I am forever grateful. Thank you so very much and thank you for making a difference in the lives of children who deserve to be recognized. best best and”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Luxton

• He Named Me Malala Class Trip

  Funded Sep 14, 2015

  This is a wonderful opportunity and I can't really express how grateful we as a sixth grade learning community are to have been able last Friday to see He Named Me Malala. Malala: so close to my students' ages and such an inspiration as someone who has stood up to make a difference in the world. As I mentioned when I proposed this project in September, a prompt I gave my sixth graders--"Who Inspires You?"--left most of my 11 and 12 year olds without a response. So many of our students though wonderful, inquisitive, and caring have few role models in life. However, Malala embodies all of the best qualities a role model can possess; our students now feel empowered, as though they, too, can make a difference, and they can! We all came back to school wanting to do more to help Malala's causes and we are in the process of having a gently used clothing drive in which 40% of the funds will go to the Malala fund AND we will have updates on the girls we are helping. In addition, students are working on two projects simultaneously: a Power Point on someone who's made a difference in the world (most of the children chose Malala, of course!) and they are researching a topic from He Named Me Malala which interests them. The lesson plans I shared with the faculty here and I posted for free on Teacherspayteachers to hopefully impact other students in the States with the valuable life lessons Malala teaches. And, what better subject than Malala herself? This is what gives the lesson value.

  We, as a school community, thank you for not just the field trip, but for the opportunity to inspire, alter, motivate, and change the lives of our inner city students. This truly is an opportunity students will never forget.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Luxton

• A Visit With Emily Dickinson

  Funded Jan 15, 2013

  We've returned from the most glorious day at the Emily Dickinson Museum, and every part of our day is a reality because of you. Thank you! On May 14th, a group of 50 of my poets of the 21st century debarked on the town common of Amherst, then walked to West Cemetery and located the final resting place of Emily Dickinson. Her tombstone was bedecked with offerings of Spring flowers, beaded necklaces, thimbles, and students added lilacs, reflecting on how much one person's words and thoughts and dreams and concerns can impact the world. From the end of Dickinson's life we circled back to the beginning; students were enthralled with Emily's life brought into technicolor by our four marvelous guides at the museum. We then time-traveled through the Evergreens--the home of Emily's brother, Austin--which has remained untouched since the late 19th century. We celebrated with a picnic lunch of pizza afterwards on the rolling green of the town center. As Dickinson wrote, "Hope is a thing with feathers." This trip has given each of my students hope not only in the kindness of strangers, but also in their potential as poets themselves, and to the possibility that they, too, might someday walk the grounds of Amherst College as undergraduates. You are their heroes! Thank you!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Luxton

• Townsend Press: Playwrights Stand Up and Against Bullying!

  Funded Mar 1, 2012

  Thank you so very much for your generosity funding our playwriting project proposal: "Stand Up and Against Bullying!" Students have bloomed during this process, just as the flowers of New

  England are now, too, blooming; the colors of Spring are showcased in the shirts students' tie dyed

  for our play. To each of the 23 shirts, students' used the Crayola fabric markers and added one letter

  per shirt, spelling out in its entirety the title of our play.

  Students created their own anti-bullying play using excerpts from literature read in class. Scenes from Townsend Press' Bullying in Schools, Bud, Not Buddy, Where the Red Fern Grows, "The Tell Tale Heart," "Charles," "Eleven," The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, "The Scribe," and one chapter from Stephen King's novella, The Body, were adapted and enhanced.

  Although our "thank you" deadline to you is today (thank you!!! thank you!!!), we still have six glorious weeks left to continue in our work. The message we are bringing is one of a more peaceful and accepting community for all children, one where no one is bullied, or, if an incident does occur, children will have the skills to put an end to it. With your help, each of you have given my students and the multitude of lives they themselves and this play will impact, a kinder and more loving alternative. Although this is a literary vision of a world where bullying is never tolerated--a world which they, as playwrights of the 21st century have created--because of you, this beautiful vision can reach its fruition in real time, just as the flowers that surround us today do--all of which give us hope for a better and more loving and peaceful world. Thank you!!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Luxton

  This classroom project was brought to life by Townsend Press and 7 other donors.

• Meet an Author, Make a Friend for Life

  Funded Nov 30, 2011

  I really can't express how much your gifts of poetry mean to my students....sometimes the English language does fail us. Your funding has given my students a connection to their New England literary past and a new connection to themselves by both instilling a love of poetry, and giving each student the confidence to see themselves as poets of the 21st century. "Meet an Author Make a Friend for Life" allows me to create a unit that grows from poetic terms and forms upward, branching into universal themes clearly evident in the poetry of Kerouac, Plath, Emily Dickinson, Emerson, and other New England greats. Love, fear, anger, loneliness, all evident in their poetry, are fundamental feelings that even the most jaded twelve year old can

  identify with. In each American literary time period, I presented both the life and times of one of our New

  England poets, an example of his/her poetry to read and discuss using students' growing poetic vocabulary, as well as an assignment to write an original poem inspired by our "poet of the day."

  Before your gifts arrived, students were balking at the idea of reading and discussing poems, as well as having to write their own. When the books began arriving, however, knowing you cared so much about each of them gave even angst-ridden middle-schoolers the confidence to develop a new perspective on poetry that I really doubt they would have had otherwise. The gifts of poetry achieved a perfect balance between quality and relevance. Making the connections between poets of the past from our specific region and students themselves as poets of the future links this unit, this gift, to who they will become in the future. They have flourished with the poetry and channeled their energy into something constructive. Because of your generosity, 65 lovely children see poetry as the cultivation of endless curiosity and hope. You have done this. You will continue to do this as your gift impacts many many students to come in the future. Thank you.

  Here's a link to a website I designed as part of our thank-you; poetry blog is in the making. You've made many students appreciate and understand poetry in a more meaningful way. A gift of a lifetime, really--Ms. L

  http://www.wix.com/mluxton/meet-an-author”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Luxton

  This classroom project was brought to life by People's United Community Foundation and 17 other donors.