Past projects 17
Keep Reading Engaging for High School Students!
Funded Jan 1, 2025Thank you for your generous donation. Thanks to you, our students will continue to read and enjoy reading. These texts will be relevant to their lives and make them better readers, writers, and most importantly, thinkers. Being able to choose our own texts is crucial in keeping teaching, engaging and relevant. Thank you for caring about the future!”
With gratitude,
Ms. p.
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 6 other donors.Provide Health & Hygiene Products Every Young Woman Deserves
Funded Nov 13, 2023Your generosity has allowed me to keep a generous amount of feminine hygiene products in my classroom to restock the gender neutral bathroom at my school almost daily. Students know now also that they can come to me if they need feminine products and without shame or question, I can hand them what they need to keep themselves healthy and clean.
Many folks take access to products like tampons and sanitary napkins for granted. However, for a teenager living in a home with no extra money for such products, this is a source of embarrassment and fear. Being able to offer products like these to our students who are deserving of dignity and hygiene means the world to me. Thank you for helping me support them in this way and for seeing what teachers like me do every day, beyond the classroom.”
With gratitude,
Ms. p.
This classroom project was brought to life by Townsend Press and 2 other donors.Light Up Our Room!
Funded Sep 20, 2022This project has been amazing for my students. Now we can turn off the horrible fluorescent lights and turn on our desk lamps and feel like we are working in a library.
When people come to visit our classroom, the first thing they always comment on his are amazing lights. The students feel like they are in college as they read by table lamp and work together at desks with lamps that they can move around as they need.
It is so important to give students an environment that feels clean, new and bright. You have helped me do that. Thank you so much for your generosity and for helping my classroom be the best it can be.”
With gratitude,
Ms. p.
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and one other donor.Help My Students Fall in Love With Reading!
Funded Apr 5, 2019The books you have provided for my classroom, have changed my classroom and students in countless ways.
It is so important for my students to feel like they are valuable enough to have access to new books. Many of them are used to using second hand books that are outdated and beat up. Since we all love the feeling of a beautiful new book that smells it feels crisp and new in our hands, I believe my students deserve that same experience.
Your generous donation give them the gift of feeling worthy and experiencing the joy of reading something you've truly picked out for yourself.
Thank you for putting New York City public school students at the forefront of your giving agenda. Our schools desperately need support like yours, so thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
With gratitude,
Ms. p.
Teaching Social Justice Through Poetry
Funded Apr 25, 2018Thank you so much for the wonderful class set of books you purchased for my classroom. This book of poems tells a story and inspired the students to think about how poetry can allow readers to think about the world around them differently,
The students in my class read some of the poems together whole class, some in partners, and some as homework, independently. We had rich discussions about the meaning behind the poems as well as the craft. Several students who claimed that they "hated poetry" had to admit by the time we finished this book that "this kind of poetry" is actually really cool.
The final project students created was to think of an issue in the world that deserved to have a voice to tell it. The students then mimicked the format of this book (written in persona poems) to express their fears, concerns, thoughts and opinions on the issue they selected. Some of the issues included immigration, victims of natural disasters, and Trayvon Martin to name a few. The projects were creative, powerful and personalized. It is something they simply could not have done without having access to these books that would have cost me hundreds of dollars out of pocket to purchase.
Thank you so much for supporting my work and my students' learning. It makes such a difference to know that there are people out there who care enough about our country's public school students to give generously, despite not knowing my kids personally,”
With gratitude,
Ms. p.
Unique Students Need Unique Seating Options
Funded Mar 27, 2018My class was so excited to see the new seating options arrive! Thanks to you, I now have a variety of accessible seating that accommodates students of all learning needs.
Imagine if you were a 14 year old student trying to sit through seven one-hour classes in a day if you had ADHD, emotional disturbance, or other attention deficits. Often times allowing a student to choose their own space in a room, or change positions will allow them to absorb information or get work done for the first time in a long time, because they are actually comfortable and have their own space.
I believe that not every student learns the same way, which is why the title of the project was "Unique Students Need Unique Seating Options". I believe this is true, and if you talk to my students, they will tell you that having extra, flexible seating helps them focus and makes them feel like they have a voice and can make some of their own choices in my classroom.
My school could never afford to provide additional, creative seating. Therefore, your generosity and willingness to help me meet their needs means the world to me. I always want to offer my students the best of the best. A public school education shouldn't mean being in a less inviting or comfortable work environment. Thanks to you, my students can be their best.”
With gratitude,
Ms. p.
This classroom project was brought to life by Ripple and one other donor.We Need New Books!
Funded Sep 23, 2016Dear Donors,
Thank you so much about the generous gift you have made in order to get me the novel "We Need New Names" for my classroom! This is a text I have taught before with great outcomes, so I knew that if I could get my students access to it that it would be life changing.
This novel will be used as a whole class text, but will be taught in a way that encourages and teaches students how to read at home for independence and pleasure. They will annotate the text with post it notes and in class we will discuss their findings and categorize their annotations into "literal", "inferential" and "critical" thinking categories.
We will have a whole class discussion on the book once we finish it, and they will ultimately write a paper on the book--- creating a thesis and backing up their assertions with text-based examples, just as they will be asked to do in college literature classes.
You have helped me to teach my students the joy and importance of critical thinking, reading and writing through helping me to get this class set of texts. I thank you from the bottom of my heart!”
With gratitude,
Ms. p.
Create Life-Long Readers!
Funded Mar 9, 2016As educated adults, many of us take for granted how we got here and the resources it took for our families and schools to educate us. My students come from a variety of backgrounds, but most of them come from households where there are no "readers" and they have not been read to as children. They face huge vocabulary deficits and several of my kids also battle learning disabilities that have made reading undesirable and unrewarding.
In my classroom, kids read grade-level texts together in class with my support, but independent reading is a huge part of what will move them to the next level--- which for many of them means catching up with their peer group. By choosing their own books that they read some of the time in class and all of the time outside of class, I'm able to help them see that reading is a joy when you understand the words, not a vice. After entering my class, you'll hear kids saying things like, "I never liked reading before" or "I've never read a book this good". By creating a culture of readers, I am trying to break bad cycles of illiteracy as well as fear and stigma around reading.
My students have been thrilled to get this new order of books. They immediately rushed towards the sports books that actually tell the stories of famous players that they admire like Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry. These biographies help them see that even their idols faced adversity as teenagers. The new "scary" books are also flying off the shelf. The kids have loved the old classic "The Face On The Milk Carton" and some of Lois Duncan's timeless books.
Working in a high needs urban high school is not easy, because independent reading library books are often viewed as "supplemental" or "extra" when it comes to the budget. We don't "need" these books--- but it is my belief as a teacher for over 12 years, that having an independent reading program changes lives. I am so grateful you also feel that way, and your generous donations will keep kids reading and loving it for years to come.”
With gratitude,
Ms. p.
Struggling Readers Need the Best Choices!
Funded Oct 20, 2015Dear Supporters of my wonderful students,
Thank you so very much for the fifty-two brand new, beautiful books that arrived last week to my school. As the various Amazon boxes arrived, I'd open them in front of my classes and there were especially loud squeals when they saw "Yummy" by G. Neri, "The Walking Dead" by Robert Kirkman and "Such A Pretty Girl" by Laura Wiess.
I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I already have kids finishing books you sent last week! Having new books is so exhilarating to me as a literature teacher, and I feel so lucky to teach at a school where reading is considered cool and my kids are so grateful to have current young adult literature to read.
It often feels difficult to be the best teacher I can be when I don't have unlimited resources--- New York City simply does not provide what my kids deserve and need to learn best. Your support is above and beyond generous, and you have truly made an impact in one of the most meaningful and last ways.
Thank you!!!”
With gratitude,
Ms. p.
Give the Gift of Reading!
Funded Apr 27, 2015You have each given my students the invaluable gift of words. Many of my students come to me convinced that "reading isn't for them" or "all books are boring" and having a hip, current library shows my students that there are choices. Kamau can read about his favorite basketball player, Qualea can read every book in the R.L. Stine series she loves and Leo can fall in love over and over again with John Greene's books.
Perhaps most importantly, your gift tells my students that I value them and other people value them. They are in a text-rich classroom that is up to date and beautiful. My room is "decorated" in book shelves and your donation allows me to make interesting displays that will catch their attention, and when they see that Amazon box come in, they all beg me to open the books with them.
My students are already using the books (and fighting over them in some cases!) in their independent reading which they do both in class (for 2 twenty minute chunks a week) and for homework. They are reading on the subway, reading in the park, and talking about reading, which is exactly what I want to happen!
So much of teaching in high-needs schools is engaging. Unless students buy in and relate and see how this can be for them, they won't ever progress. Thank you for making my job easier and more fun. Thank you on behalf of all New York City teachers for caring about our kids, and thank you for taking the time and effort to give your hard-earned money to literature. You're awesome! Every one of you! :)”
With gratitude,
Ms. p.