Past projects 8
Starfish and Urchins and Squids, Oh My!
Funded Oct 17, 2018The impact of the Starfish and Urchins and squids, oh my! project has had an immediate impact, as the science classes reacted to the goggles and aprons with excitement. The students in one particular science lab made lava lamps while understanding the difference between hydrophobic and hydrophilic. What???!!! Meaning the fear of water, versus, the love of water! Students eagerly dressed for the experiments as the science teachers knew that this would be a messy one. The goggles and aprons will be used for even more lab experiments, as the field trips to the coastal bay to collect sea urchins and squids and dissect starfish are planned for after the winter break. Additionally, our students really feel like teen scientist/zoologist in the aprons and goggles as they are dressed for the part.
Thank you ever so much for making science exciting at our school!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Cooper
This classroom project was brought to life by Chevron Fuel Your School and 4 other donors.Songs In The Keyboard of Life: Teaching Students Songwriting
Funded Mar 31, 2018It is with great appreciation that I write this letter to thank you for helping my classroom grow with one more keyboard. The after school songwriting program has been very successful and adding one more keyboard to the fold has been perfect. I must also share that I was awarded a grant from a local university music education chapter and I will receive six more keyboards! I will now have seven keyboards that I can comfortably place students on to create a song. Your continued support in student creativity is heartwarming and I am happy to be part of that development.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Cooper
Hurricane Winds beneath Our Wings
Funded Dec 16, 2017It was a long two weeks away from our school after Hurricane Irma back in September. Our P.E. coach, somehow, made a long week into a fun week while we were at the high school across the street. She had about four balls to work with, because the locker room at our school was heavily damaged and mildewed after the storm. In the high school's cafeteria, the students cheered as the Coach guided them through games of fitness, motivation, team work and leadership.
Today, the P.E. Coach received volleyballs and basketballs replaced by great "anonymous donors", Donors Choose and Dick's Sporting Goods. You can only imagine the reaction when Coach yelled, "Hey, a few of you come over here and open up a few of these boxes!" To witness how many questions were coming at her at once was amazing. "Coach where did you get these from?" "These are for us?" And of course, "No way!" Coach immediately arranged her students into smaller groups and without a word, several students took on a leadership role to lead skills. You should see our Coach smile from ear to ear. Our students never missed a beat.
The arrival of the basketballs was timely, as the season is about to start. A new season, new basketballs, new attitude, new swag. The donation of the jump ropes, volleyballs and basketballs will sustain the physical education program and the competitive team sports. As for future projects, we will research grant resources like Donors Choose to acquire new team uniforms, as current uniforms were mildewed from Hurricane Irma.
Thank you Donors Choose. Only you could make this happen for our school,”
With gratitude,
Ms. Cooper
This classroom project was brought to life by DICK'S Sporting Goods Foundation - Sports Matter and 8 other donors.Take Me Out To The Ball Game! An Organ Demonstration
Funded Oct 23, 2017With much anticipation, the Williams Overture Digital Piano arrived this week in a huge box, just in time for one of my keyboard classes. The questions were coming so fast that I could not control them. The excitement was overwhelming and the dancing around was out of this world. All hands were on deck to open the box, that was delivered by a special service. Students clapped and cheered as I carefully pulled the various large pieces of the piano out of the box. Someone ran to get my tool box, as we have just a few pieces to attach, nothing too difficult. Finally, it is all put together and the moment came to turn it on. "It works!, a student yelled.
The impact of this particular keyboard is only the beginning. As we started the school year, several of my class set of keyboard are not fully operable, so this digital piano will allow my students equal time to learn how to play the organ. Of course, some are interested more than others, as the idea of going to the university to play on a real "King of Instruments" is sounding real good. Further, the keyboard students recently studied composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. Hearing his famous 'Toccata in Fugue in D Minor', which is heard mostly during Halloween, really heightened their interest! They learned how the organ was originally played and how the sound was produced.
Our next step is to plan for our field trip in January 2018, for the organ demonstration at a local university. The instructor is a member of the American Guild of Organist. My students will be learning about the organ through the AGO resource called, "Pedals, Pipes and Pizza". Several students will receive simple repertoire to learn to play using the organ feature on the new Williams Overture Digital Piano.
In the end, we will take a different turn from the pipe organ to a regular organ to understand how it is played in other ways besides for Sacred music. We will attend a major league baseball game and visit the team organist. We will invite her to visit our school first in order that our students can interview her and then go and see where she plays to, in the words of my students, "hype of the crowd!" Hopefully, one of my students will learn to play, 'Take Me out To the Ball Game' before then.
Thank you for realizing this project for me and my students. I have wanted to do this for years. I'm beyond grateful and beyond excited for my students. Exposure is the key to their success and I am always thinking, day and night, of ways to bring the world to them.
Musically yours.......”
With gratitude,
Ms. Cooper
The S.P.F. Cover Up: Scientist Protecting their Face
Funded Dec 16, 2015Dear Disney, Pat, Hal & Mickey,
Our teen zoologist have been deep into research at the zoo, Animal Kingdom, Monkey Jungle, and they are in the planning stages to travel to the Washington, D.C. National Zoo. The resources donated by you have allowed those, sometimes forgetful, students to participate fully protected from the sun's harmful rays and mosquitoes. Our teachers, in particular, loved the sun screen/mosquito repellent wipes. They have ordered more, as they are very handy and can travel easily on field trips
Our teen zoologist, this week, will display their knowledge to the public by demonstrating the facts about their assigned animals. Such animals include, Malayan Tapir (which looks like an elephant and the body is gray, head and legs are black), Arabian Oryx (which looks like a big goat), Somalian Wild Ass (which is a combination of a donkey, horse and a zebra!), the Lowland Anoa (which looks like a small cow with dagger like horns), a clouded leopard (which has clouds on his fur and has short legs, with a long tail), to name a few.
I cannot begin to tell you what a pleasure it is to teach these brilliant students each and every day. Thank you for supporting and believing in our work and the development our future scientist.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Cooper
Empire to INSPIRE: Creating a Sound Production Studio
Funded Nov 20, 2015The impact of your donation has been two-fold. First my students received first hand knowledge from an industry professional, D.J. Irie, who shared his professional experiences and how sound production begins in a studio like the one that we are implementing at our school. Secondly, he shared that he grew up near the very neighborhood that our school serves. He further highlighted the endless possibilities of sound engineering in various areas, including, but not limited to, radio, television, law enforcement, etc.
The impact of the quad (the drum set) has introduced a multiple platform for our students to create rhythmic patterns to record in the sound production studio. Our student instrumentalist have recreated, or remixed favorite solos into something new.
Thank you for believing in our program and the art of creating new music. Our students love the idea of a sound production studio. Two feeder high schools offer sound studio production, and I believe you have helped our students prepare for the next level.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Cooper
A Fraction of the Beat: Thinking of Fractions as Music!
Funded Sep 28, 2014My students received the tenor drum, along with the mallets today. I cannot begin to tell you how happy they are, especially the percussion section. The drum arrived in a timely manner as the students are learning note values and rest values in music theory. Additionally, the percussion section has one more drum, which has allowed me to add one more student on an instrument.
Seeing fractions as music lesson was relevant, as I used the newly installed Promethean board to display the division of a whole note, half note, quarter and eighth notes from the Essential Elements Interactive curriculum. The percussion section demonstrated a clear example of this particular lesson with the aid of the new drum.
MUSIC and MATH
Note Values in 4/4 meter = Fraction
1 whole note = 1 whole
2 half notes last as long as = 1 whole note.
4 quarter notes last as long as = 1 whole note.
8 eighth notes last as long as = 1 whole note.
2 halves = 1 whole
4 quarters = 1 whole
Throughout the school year, my students will continuously use fractions as a way to improve and understand the concepts of beat, rhythm, accents, duration, value, meter and syncopation.
Finally, thank you for your love and support of my music program. We are self supporting and keeping music alive in schools is vital. I hope that you will see the joy in my students faces on the pictures that I will send.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Cooper
Mama MIAmi! From Broadway to South Beach!
Funded Nov 14, 2013Through the generosity of the Donors Choose project there was an immediate impact on the chorus students. The young singers marveled mostly at how many Broadway musicals were purchased and the new compact disc player's great sound! Of course the other items like the DVD player and bass guitar was also well received.
The project was born out of the need to improve the chorus students reading achievement levels. I am happy to say that through the study of Broadway musicals and operas, 31% of my students have improved their reading levels. This is up from 19% when I wrote the project proposal.
The resources, rather, the musicals were used to open the world of musical theater to the learners. The chorus gained insight and knowledge of the components of musical theater. Students now have favorite tunes and can be caught singing, "How do you solve a problem like Maria", or "Edelweiss". This naturally led to students wanting more, thus they studied and attended the full dress rehearsal of the opera Nabucco. Later in the term, learners viewed The Wiz, followed by Fiddler on The Roof, now a new favorite.
With the onset of school-wide common planning, I learned how to incorporate language benchmarks in my music lessons. The study of the musicals was so engaging that the students never realized the infusion of the language arts benchmarks as we studied The Sound of Music, The Wiz, and currently, Fiddler on The Roof. An example of the benchmarks include:
*LA.6.1.7.5: The student will analyze a variety of text structures and explain their impact on meaning in the text.
*LA.7.2.1.7: The student will locate and analyze an author's use of allusions and descriptive, idiomatic, and figurative language in a variety of literary text, identifying how word choice is used, etc.
*LA8.2.2.1: The student will locate, use, and analyze specific information from organizational text features (e.g., table of contents, headings, captions, etc.)
We have a few more musicals to study before the close of the school year. I will continue this project into the next school year with even more classes.
I am forever grateful to Donors Choose and my dearest friends known and unknown who supported this project.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Cooper
This classroom project was brought to life by South Florida Kia Retailers and 9 other donors.