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Ms. Poulos' Classroom

  • Sanchez Elementary School
  • San Francisco, CA
  • More than three‑quarters of students from low‑income households Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more

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Make a donation Ms. Poulos can use on her next classroom project.

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Past projects 9

  • Flexible Seating for Neurodivergent Learners

    Funded Dec 5, 2024

    My students sometimes want to sit and sometimes they need to rock in their seats to focus. The flexible seating options will help them decide what is best for their learning. Sometimes, it is just the idea of having a choice, that can help students feel better able to learn. Thanks again for giving them the option to decide.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Poulos

    This classroom project was brought to life by The Campbell Foundation and 3 other donors.
  • Neurodivergent Learners Need a Flexible Learning Environment

    Funded Oct 21, 2024

    As the state of education hangs in the balance, I want to thank you for caring about our most underserved students.

    Once again, I must beg for things that should be funded by the government. Bless you for making a difference in the lives of our future leaders. Our nation needs you more than ever.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Poulos

  • Structured Literacy Spelling and Reading Practice Books

    Funded Dec 11, 2020

    I work as a reading intervention teacher with small groups of students. I appreciate the structure of IMSE lessons. The lessons give students the practice they need to develop in their ability to decode and encode. Every lesson has a review of previous skills and a chance to apply new concepts in phonetic concepts. The IMSE practice books from the project help my students apply their phonetic knowledge during the dictation portion of my lessons. My students appreciate the predictable lesson structure which allows them to practice reading and writing everyday.

    I notice that they are retaining the spelling of tricky "red" words like 'said/through/could/would/', because we are constantly reinforcing them in the lesson dictation component.

    The best part is that they are engaged and making progress even in distance learning through Zoom. I can't wait to make even greater gains when we return to in person learning! Thank you for making this possible and giving me the opportunity to better serve my students and their families.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Poulos

  • Structured Literacy Can Help All Students Become Readers

    Funded Sep 5, 2020

    The Institute for Multi-Sensory Education training I received this past July, has made a difference in my teaching and in my students' learning. I work as a reading intervention teacher with small groups of students. I appreciate the structure of IMSE lessons. The lessons give students the practice they need to develop in their ability to decode and encode. Every lesson has a review of previous skills and a chance to apply new concepts in phonetic concepts. My students appreciate the predictable lesson structure which allows them to practice reading and writing everyday.

    They love that it is multi-sensory. We use sand to practice our letter sounds and letter formation. We also use a textured screen to practice writing our non-phonetic words. The kids are using all their senses to make the learning stick. I notice that they are retaining the spelling of tricky "red" words like 'said/through/could/would/', because we are constantly reinforcing them in the lesson dictation component.

    The best part is that they are engaged and making progress even in distance learning through Zoom. I can't wait to make even greater gains when we return to in person learning! Thank you for making this possible and giving me the opportunity to better serve my students and their families.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Poulos

    This classroom project was brought to life by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and 5 other donors.
  • Bringing Words to Life-The Power of Vocabulary Instruction

    Funded Oct 14, 2019

    The Wise Word Program has been a wonderful way to build my students' vocabulary power. It is explicit and so easy to implement. I love that it is easy to plan and very engaging for my class. They love the colorful photos that go with the read-aloud.

    The program helps build their listening comprehension skills. They love to hear stories be read for a second time because they get to play a listening game to show their word awareness with a hand gesture as they listen for the target word. At first, I thought they wouldn't think a workbook would be interesting. Boy, was I wrong! They love the colorful pictures and different ways to show what they know. I can also assess how much they are understanding with the quizzes at the end of each unit. 70% of the class met the last unit goal. The program also has many extensions and ways for me to reteach students that need more support. I can't wait to see how the extra support from the Wise Word Program will positively impact their reading comprehension after a full year! Thanks for contributing to my class and believing in our children.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Poulos

    This classroom project was brought to life by Volkswagen.
  • Engaging Visual Presentations Help my Students Learn English.

    Funded May 13, 2018

    The projector is used on a regular basis during English Language Development. When I pair it with the document camera, my students and I can practice shared reading. We practice chants chorally and also annotate texts for vocabulary or grammatical structures. It's great to be able to do this with students. The projector allows me to model highlighting for important details and key words in non-fiction texts as well. Students are beginning to take on more of the load of this work, because they have seen it modeled many times. It is also great to motivate good behavior with Class Dojo. Students like to see their points projected as they earn them for staying on task and participating.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Poulos

  • Literacy Intervention & Reading Recovery Room Needs TLC

    Funded Oct 5, 2015

    I'm so glad that my materials finally came! The white board is beautifully clean and I'm able to hang charts using magnets. Students noticed it right away. I placed it behind my small group table so I can use it as I teach.

    The carpet arrived this week and my upper grade students wanted to sit and lie on it right away! In our English Language Development class students use the rug for partner talk and read alouds. We also use it in my intervention groups when we play word games. Students place word cards and search for pairs with similar patterns. They love feeling cozy on the rug and the dark color makes the cards pop out visually. Thank you, so much for helping me do my job and give my students what they deserve!”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Poulos

  • IPad Transforms Teaching And Learning

    Funded Oct 7, 2013

    Students have been happy to have the iPad in our classroom. We use it for art lessons. Our resident Leap artist can sketch while I project what he's doing, so that students can see his technique. When we needed images for our drawings we found them on the iPad and could draw from the photos we found. It's great to use to show short movies on Brainpop. Recently we watched an animated movie about the human heart and online safety. And when students were curious about silent movies we watched a clip from Buster Keaton's The General. I'm still perfecting my own presentation skills and recently bought a gooseneck stand so that I can use the iPad as a document camera. No more overheads! Students love to show their own work with the camera and a couple are teaching me a few tricks. Students like to play math games on it, too. I love how engaged students are. I'm also still learning how to use the many educational apps that are available like, Evernote, Skitch, Toontastic and Explain Everything. Thank you all for contributing to my own professional development as well as making learning fun for my students.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Poulos

  • Make it Shiny and Engaging with the LED

    Funded Oct 13, 2012

    The LED projector has given me great flexibility in teaching my language arts, math and science lessons. It has also made learning so much more engaging. I love the availability of images and power points that I find online and use them often to teach lessons and reinforce what we're learning.

    Recently we had fun practicing our times tables with a fun song we found on You Tube. I projected the video and we chanted/sang the song with the words on the screen. We also played a science rap about the phases of the moon. It was an animated video and the children also enjoyed singing along to the rap. What a fun way to learn. Teaching writing lessons has also been a lot easier for me. We do shared writing using the laptop and project our work up on the screen. Students can copy and edit with me at their desks. We can make it large enough for everyone to see and the best part is I can save our shared writing on the computer. Our language arts anthology is also digital and reads highlighted text from our stories. Students love reading the books in a big way. Everyone can see the illustrations and read along aloud or silently. I am so grateful that you chose to fund this project and my students lives are the better for it.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Poulos

    This classroom project was brought to life by Quill.com and 8 other donors.
Our school is located in an urban area of Northern, California. 95% of our students qualify for free or reduced price lunch. The majority of my students are English language learners. Our school is committed to providing all students access to the curriculum especially as we move towards full implementation of the Common Core Standards.

About my class

Our school is located in an urban area of Northern, California. 95% of our students qualify for free or reduced price lunch. The majority of my students are English language learners. Our school is committed to providing all students access to the curriculum especially as we move towards full implementation of the Common Core Standards.

About my class

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