Mr. Lau's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 5

• Support Mental Health in the Classroom

  Funded Oct 29, 2024

  Thank you for the wonderful gifts you helped provide for my classroom. The fidget toys, sand garden, and journals were all used in various settings.

  In the classroom, students were very excited to see the fidget toys at their tables. After explaining how to use them appropriately, students could choose to use the toys to help keep them focused in class and to de-stress. Students use the items constantly in class to help. They also use them as talking pieces in my crew.

  The sand garden was used as an intentional tool to help students relax and calm down in mediation and therapy sessions, which I shared with the counselor across the hall. As well, students were able to decorate stones which went into the garden.

  Thank you so much for your support in helping my students. I can't express how much your gift meant to us.”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Lau

  This classroom project was brought to life by .

• A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words

  Funded Jan 28, 2020

  Thank you for your generous donations of picture frames to my classroom.

  For a whole week, my students explored everything from the elements of art to the exposure triangle. We even turned our classroom into a camera obscura by covering up all the windows; when we cut a small hole behind the window, we could see the outside reflected inside (but upside-down!).

  After a whole week of shooting photos, we all chose the best shots and framed them using your generous gift. Those frames really celebrated and professionalized all the hard work that the students had put in. They're up in my classroom and in the hallways.

  Even though we are out of the classroom now (with the given circumstances), those frames will last throughout the coming years and inspire more students.”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Lau

• Mobility Beyond the Trackpad

  Funded Oct 7, 2019

  Thank you for your support in funding this project! These mouses have been valuable tools for my computer science students in class. They can work more quickly now on their projects, whether they're dragging blocks of code in Scratch or trying to edit their latest photo in Photopea.

  Every piece of equipment that my students can access is a valuable tool for them. They work with greater efficiency. They don't get frustrated as easily. And they feel more professional as they think about possible careers in the future.

  My students are incredibly gracious, and they are thankful that you thought of them.”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Lau

  This classroom project was brought to life by Verizon and 2 other donors.

• Coding, Circuits, and (micro)Controllers in The Heights

  Funded Sep 26, 2018

  Thank you again for your incredible contribution to my classroom!

  I revealed the Arduino sets last week to my students, and they were thoroughly excited and intrigued. They had so many questions. What is this? What does it do? And what can I make? As we unpacked every piece, their curiosity only grew further. They explored every inch of the microcontroller. They wondered what the different colors meant on each resistor. And, thankfully, they picked up every tiny piece of equipment that found its way to the floor.

  The first task the students were challenged with was to make a single LED blink. For this, they only needed the circuit board, one LED, one resistor, and a couple of jumper wires. It was the first task, the easiest of the week, yet it was a huge challenge. Some students had issues completing the circuit. Others had a hard time writing the code. After every group was finished, one hour and a half had probably past. A long struggle for some, but we made student every student was successful. We learned that coding is not always easy and is just another challenge worth persevering through.

  The weeklong intensive continued, and their abilities sharpened. They learned about the major types of algorithms, such as loops and conditional statements. They learned to debug their codes, knowing that one missing semicolon could throw everything off. They always knew to check the long and short wire of the LED to make sure the circuit would be complete. At the end of it all, students had made keyboards, nightlights, theremins, and much more with their Arduinos.

  I can't thank you enough for providing this opportunity for my students. For many, it was their first experience with coding and circuits. And it definitely inspired them to explore more. Just read some of their reactions below:

  "YES YES YES I GOT TO DO A LOT OF COOL STUFF"

  "I am more interested in coding because this made me think about the specific words that need to be used for the program to function."

  "This intensive made me more interested in coding because now that I know some of the basics I feel motivated to do more."

  With these Arduino sets, I'll continue to reach more students at my school.”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Lau

• So What's This X-Y Axis?

  Funded Sep 15, 2016

  Thank you again for your amazing support! We received the new whiteboards a couple of weeks ago, and my students were immediately excited to start using them. Everyday, the whiteboards sit inside their desks, ready to use whenever they want an extra resource.

  The students have used them many times already. If they feel stuck on a problem, they use the whiteboard to tackle the math in different ways. If they don't have enough room on their papers, they use the whiteboards as an extra canvas. And when we play Jeopardy as a class, they use their whiteboards to all work on the problem together in teams and then to show their answers (as you can imagine, this gets really competitive).

  As we continue to learn more about functions , these whiteboards will continue being in great use. We'll discover what slope is, what y-intercepts are, and how functions can even be nonlinear.

  Feel free to reach out to me for more updates.”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Lau