Past projects 13
Just Mercy
Funded Jul 2, 2020This thank-you has been a long time coming, but it is truly heartfelt. Since this grant was funded, so many students have picked up Just Mercy from my bookshelves. For many, it is the book that turns my high school I-don't-read-nonfiction students into nonfiction readers. We talk a lot in my classroom about finding the books that are windows into new worlds, sliding doors into new ways of thinking, and mirrors that reflect our internal worlds in print. This grant helped me reach more readers. Thank you for helping me bring more contemporary nonfiction to my high school readers!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward
This classroom project was brought to life by Google.org and 4 other donors.March Book Madness
Funded Mar 2, 2020This is my sixth year hosting March Book Madness, and as you know, this past March looked drastically different than the previous years. We had just gotten a great start on our March Book Madness voting. We had narrowed our 16 favorite books down to 8, and we were about to send our favorite four books on to our semi-final round. Students were in our school library each day casting their vote and exploring our school library's resources. In mid-March, my high school classes completed a book scavenger hunt to familiarize themselves with even more resources offered in our school's library. And then suddenly, everything came to an unexpected halt.
We left school on a Thursday in mid-March and learned the next morning that we would not be returning to the building for a while. And then we learned, we would not return to the building at all this school year. Our March Book Madness voting ended before we could finish. And although we were disappointed not to announce a winning title and hand-out all our signed copies of books, there are a few positives that did come out of this project.
Our goal with this project was to inspire and engage our community of readers, and although we didn't quite finish our March Book Madness project as we expected, we did have a March that was filled with reading and conversations about books. Even when we went out of school and switched over to remote learning, our English classrooms made reading a priority. All of our students were reading, talking about books, looking for ways to get their hands on more books. The resources and texts that we shared prior to leaving school proved immensely useful. A few of our students emailed me directly to say thank you for giving away books. As a result of the pandemic and being out of our physical classroom, students had more time to read. I hosted virtual book talks with my students, and it turns out that our goal of inspiring and engaging our community of readers was especially important during this unprecedented time.
We didn't get to hand-out all of the books, but we'll hang onto them for next year to inspire and engage a whole new group of readers. Thank you so much for your generous support and for believing in the importance of literacy and the power of stories. I couldn't do it without you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward
This classroom project was brought to life by A group of anonymous donors and 5 other donors.March Book Madness!
Funded Feb 28, 2019It came down to a three-day deadlock in voting. We had spent the month of March voting for our favorite books, and we had finally narrowed it down to S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. By the close of the first day, 90 students had cast their vote: 45 for The Outsiders and 45 for Harry Potter. On the second day, it looked like The Outsiders would win, but by the close of the day 90 students voted for The Outsiders and 90 for Harry Potter. On the last day of March, with over 300 votes in 3 days, our school decided by 5 votes that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows was our favorite. The best part were the conversations being had about all of our books and reading that this March Book Madness voting inspired over the course of the month.
This project allowed us to give away signed copies of books to 21 of our students. However, by far the most important outcome of this project was the excitement for reading that it inspired in our school community. That excitement would not have been possible without your generous support. Your support helped us create a buzz around reading. I cannot thank you enough!
Keep reading!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose.org Community and 6 other donors.Get Us To TED!
Funded Nov 13, 2018What an amazing experience! While in New York City at the TED Ed Weekend event, our Grandville students had an opportunity to learn from and with students from Finland, South Korea, Brazil, Texas, Aruba, Russia, and more! We heard inspiring speeches from a student who created a medical innovation to detect silent heart attacks, from teen musicians and activists, from the youth poet of the United States, and from some of the cast of the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen, among many others. Our GHS students touched a brain, played with VR, and created their own animated videos. And now we're bringing it back to Grandville!
You not only helped my five students travel to this once in a lifetime event, but you've also helped so many of our current students. My student attendees have been sharing what they learned from the TED Ed Weekend event with others working to prepare their own talks. It was invaluable to learn from students and from the TED-Ed team. With your support, we will be able to share more of GHS student voices. Thank you so much for your kindness and support!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward
Power of Poetry
Funded Jan 8, 2018I can't seem to keep poetry on my bookshelves this year. My high school students are seeking out poets like rupi kaur, Amanda Lovelace, Shane Koyczan, Clint Smith, Sarah Kay, and so many others has been such a powerful addition to my classroom library. It is fantastic that I can not keep these authors on my shelves. It is because students are gravitating toward these writers, wrapping themselves in lines of verse, and checking these books out of my library. Poets are gossiped about in my classroom. "Did you see Amanda Lovelace's post on Instagram?" " Did you hear that Kwame Alexander has a new book coming out? You can win a signed copy!" Our building has caught the poetry bug thanks to your support.
And your support has grown beyond just the students that I have in my classroom. Other teachers in our building are borrowing the books and sending their students my way. You have helped many of our students discover new poets with voices like theirs through your support.
I cannot thank you enough for your generosity!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward
March Book Madness
Funded Mar 13, 2018When we noticed that circulation in our library was dipping compared to previous months, we knew we needed to do something exciting and engaging to bring our high school readers back into our school library. The March Book Madness bracket did just that! And your support was a crucial component of that success. We were able to give away signed copies of books to students who came into our high school library to vote. Each day, we had between 30 - 50 students casting their vote. And our championship round, a match-up between Harry Potter and the Perks of Being a Wallflower, was so close throughout the day that nearly 80 students cast their vote.
Our students were talking about books throughout the month of March. We saw the number of students and staff using our high school library increase. That is in part due to your support of our March Book Madness program.
Thank you so very much for all your support.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward
Elevating Empathy
Funded Sep 6, 2017The shelves of my classroom are not lined with the books that you have helped to supply my group of high school readers. Why not? Because they are in constant circulation! I cannot keep Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor and Park or Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give in long enough for it to gather dust. These stories speak to my students. The feedback that I have received over the course of this semester by making sure that my shelves are filled with a diversity voice has been overwhelmingly positive. My students have found themselves in these stories. They've considered other viewpoints, new ideas, experiences different from their own. And that part that excites me most as their teacher - they are talking about these stories.
Take for example Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give. I had a list of students who wanted to read this book. In fact, I needed to find a way to get my hands on even more copies. Students not in my classes were coming into my room looking for this book. Other teachers wanted to read this story. The power of this book has spread like wildfire in my building. Students are talking in my classes, in the hallways, in the lunchroom about this book. And it is because of the powerful, timely, and inspiring message that the story of Starr shares. My students in suburban Michigan do not have lives like the main character Starr's, but we can empathize with her struggles of understanding who she is, where she fits in, and how to find the power of our own voice. The Hate U Give exemplifies the power of a good book.
Thank you for helping me bring these amazing stories to my classroom. You have impacted an untold number of readers already. I cannot thank you enough.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Funder and 5 other donors.Building a Community by Breaking Out
Funded Oct 9, 2016When our boxes and locks first arrived, my students were skeptical. "What are we going to do with a couple of locked boxes?"
That all changed after my tenth grade English, journalism, and yearbook students completed their first BreakoutEDU challenge. I designed a challenge specifically for my tenth graders to become more comfortable with teamwork and public speaking prior to their first big class presentation. I put together another challenge for my yearbook and journalism students to become more familiar with how to use a DSLR camera. And now all three groups of students have been asking me to design even more challenges! In fact, I have a group of journalism students asking if we can design their final exam in the form of a Breakout challenge!
Adding the two Breakout boxes to my curriculum has helped to build in more problem-solving and teamwork into my curriculum. We get hands-on with what we are learning, and students work together to solve the Breakout challenge. Afterward, as we debrief, students reflect about what worked and what didn't when it came to working as a team. Overall, my students are engaged and energized by the puzzle aspect the Breakout box brings to our lesson.
I am so grateful for your support in helping me add this element to my classroom. I know that we will get a great deal of use out of our two BreakoutEDU boxes. In fact, we already have!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward
What a Picture is Worth
Funded Feb 23, 2016A picture is worth so much, especially when it comes to online journalism. A well-composed photograph draws us in. And with so many various media outlets, so much information sharing happening faster than we can comprehend, a carefully crafted image causes us to pause.
Pictures are essential to the new world of journalism, and prior to the funding of this project, many of our online school newspaper photos were being taken on personal cell phones. The image quality was lacking, and our readership was abysmally low.
The funding of this project has not simply meant that our students journalists take higher quality photographs. No. It has inspired us to seek opportunities to learn from local photographers and local photojournalists. Some of our journalism students are seeking out opportunities to learn more about what it takes to make photojournalism a career. And that started with access to a high-quality DSLR camera.
Thank you so very much!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward
This classroom project was brought to life by an anonymous donor and one other donor.Speaking Out with Diatribe
Funded Feb 28, 2016We are without words.
The lasting impact that Diatribe's performance and workshop has had on our community is ironically beyond words.
We've been talking about poetry, about empathy, about our stories for the months following the presentation. Poetry has not only been a more present part of our curriculum, it has also been at the forefront of our creations. Throughout the month of April, national poetry month, we were inspired to read, write, and perform poetry in a variety of contexts.
And now, we have our own poetry group forming! Students so inspired by the work shared and the conversations started by Diatribe's workshop that they have started to organize their own reading and slam group. I currently have one students researching how to publish her own book of poetry and another group planning a poetry slam at a local coffee shop.
The work of Diatribe spoke to our community, and we are thankful beyond words.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward