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Ms. Murphy-Olsen's Classroom

  • Edison High School
  • Minneapolis, MN
  • 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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Past projects 8

  • Growing in the Community: Building a Community Garden

    Funded Oct 23, 2024

    We are using the new resources to create a welcoming environment for our immigrant students. The resources have created the indoor portion of a Community Garden. The materials will house the garden until spring. The resources have supported conversations that build vocabulary as well as community in the classroom. Students in this classroom are immigrant students who are learning English as an additional language. The materials and building vocabulary of plants, materials and resources for the project supports nature-based learning and engagement in the classroom. In addition to being resources for a classroom garden,the materials have offered a place for students to gather and to talk and to be with each other. For example, the resources have given students the opportunity to make connections with their lived experiences in their home countries. The resources have also provided a catalyst for conversations with students about life and problem solving. With your support, immigrant high school students are beginning to see the process of food production and growth. Overall, our students are using the new resources for engagement with each other, connecting with shared experiences and enjoying good, whole food.

    Students were surprised and had a lot of questions! With your support, the materials transformed a traditional science classroom into a unique learning space where students are engaged in project-based learning, in addition to the daily content of the class. Students' curiosity of the materials has provided opportunities for vocabulary development as well as engagement with nature-based learning in terms of creating questions and engagement with nature-based learning.

    Upon seeing the lights set up in the back of the classroom, you could feel the excitement of the students grow! We began by growing strawberries and mini-tomatoes. Now that we have spent some time growing, the students are reaping the fruit of their labor. During class, students are able to walk up to the plants growing under the light and eat a tomato or strawberry. We have plans for growing so many more varieties of produce!

    Thank you for your generous donation. This equipment will benefit students not just this year, but for many years to come!”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Murphy-Olsen

    This classroom project was brought to life by The Allstate Foundation.
  • Growing in Science: Helping Immigrant Students with Mental Health

    Funded Sep 23, 2024

    We are using the new resources to create a welcoming environment for our immigrant students. The resources have created the indoor portion of a Community Garden. The materials will house the garden until spring. The resources have supported conversations that build vocabulary as well as community in the classroom. Students in this classroom are immigrant students who are learning English as an additional language. The materials and building vocabulary of plants, materials and resources for the project supports nature-based learning and engagement in the classroom. In addition to being resources for a classroom garden,the materials have offered a place for students to gather and to talk and to be with each other. For example, the resources have given students the opportunity to make connections with their lived experiences in their home countries. The resources have also provided a catalyst for conversations with students about life and problem solving. With your support, immigrant high school students are beginning to see the process of food production and growth. Overall, our students are using the new resources for engagement with each other, connecting with shared experiences and enjoying good, whole food.

    How did your students react when they first saw the materials?

    Students were surprised and had a lot of questions! With your support, the materials transformed a traditional science classroom into a unique learning space where students are engaged in project-based learning, in addition to the daily content of the class.

    The next steps of the project will be to continue to support growing the plants and produce inside the classroom during the winter months. Students will be able to contribute to this process by watering, transplanting plants as they outgrow their containers and recording growth. Students will also have opportunities to learn how to use the materials and why each of the resources is important in this project. Most of all students will begin to take the lead on the Community Garden project, and students will discover themselves as leaders and 'experts' for their peers to view as resources.

    Upon seeing the lights set up in the back of the classroom, you could feel the excitement of the students grow! We began by growing strawberries and mini-tomatoes. Now that we have spent some time growing, the students are reaping the fruit of their labor. During class, students are able to walk up to the plants growing under the light and eat a tomato or strawberry. We have plans for growing so many more varieties of produce!

    Thank you for your generous donation. This equipment will benefit students not just this year, but for many years to come!”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Murphy-Olsen

    This classroom project was brought to life by Google.org Teen Mental Health Initiative.
  • Newcomers! Coffee! Community!

    Funded Feb 18, 2019

    Thank you again for your donation to the Newcomers! Coffee! Community! It has been such a great experience to see different sides of students during this project. For example, you will see one of the students, G, in the photos; he took no time in putting together the coffee cart. Another example is I. She is in several of the photos because of her leadership strengths--Keep your eye out for this business woman! Students have created advertisements, listing where, when, and how much, and students have been recruiting staff to buy coffee throughout the school.

    With Newcomers! Coffee! Community!, members of staff are able to create positive relationships with our newcomers while they order their coffee; these informal conversations are so important in engaging students.

    Thank you again for your support with this project! We are looking forward to Quarter 4 and a growing project.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Murphy-Olsen

  • Let's Dance! Let's Learn! Let's Try Something New!

    Funded Jan 30, 2018

    Several of the students are getting ready for the Ragamala Performance by participating in a Dance Residency with the Cowles Center for the Performance Arts. These students are working with actor, dancer, teacher, musician, and choreographer, Rush Benson, in a five-day percussive dance residency. Students are learning rhythm, counting, steps and how to communicate with sound and movement to create a piece of work. The Ragamala Performance will be occur in the middle of this residency. This live performance will serve as a model for the students' performance at a share-out in May as well as provide students the opportunity to be an audience member.

    One of the highlights of this trip will be to see 100 EL from our high school together in a shared experience. This experience will be a time for 100 ELs and several staff members to come together to enjoy time together. Being a part of this shared experience will provide opportunities for learning about the performing arts and opportunities to make fun memories outside of school with peers and staff.

    The Ragamala Performance aims to engage students with ideas for their futures. It is my hope that the performing arts will continue to inspire students to consider careers in the performing arts as well as spark curiosity for hobbies and interests. I also plan to continue applying for performing arts residencies for my students to narrow opportunity gaps.

    Thank you for your interest in this project!”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Murphy-Olsen

  • Daily Human Needs!

    Funded Feb 24, 2017

    Thank you for your interest in our school and our students' needs. The need for basic, daily materials, like a toothbrush and toothpaste, are critical. Connections are constantly being made between students' health, attendance and achievement.

    Thank you for taking the time and placing resources into this project. Students, as one can see from the photos, are so delighted to be invited to take a toothbrush, toothpaste and/or soap. There is a level of humanity that has reached these students through your donation.

    Thank you for your support of recently arrived immigrants; you are helping create a sense of home and of comfort.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Murphy-Olsen

  • Daring Teachers!

    Funded Jul 15, 2016

    Dear Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,

    About a year ago I read "Rising Strong" and " Daring Greatly" with a lens for personal enrichment. And, when Brene Brown created an online course called "Daring Schools: Four Pillars of Courage, " I couldn't resist encouraging a team from my district to sign up for the course! "Daring Schools: Four Pillars of Courage" course integrates themes from "Rising Strong" and "Daring Greatly" into the course. Placing courage before comfort is one of the several sentences I underlined and wrote, "How? When?" on a post-it note. As I studied the two texts, I underlined ideas that inspire me. Many of the underlined sentences or phrases are underlined because they encourage mindshifts in teaching and learning.

    "Daring Greatly" and "Rising Strong" by Dr. Brene Brown offer strategies in beginning, sustaining and continuing brave conversations. Brown encourages engaging in courageous, not necessarily comfortable conversations for moving industries into productive, risk-taking and truthful places to live, work and be. Being courageous means being vulnerable and taking risks means being acknowledging the possibility of falling; "Rising Strong" and "Daring Greatly" are lessons for inside and outside of the classroom!

    "You can choose courage or you can choose comfort, but you cannot choose both" is one of Dr. Brene Brown's quotes that is found on the top of many memos sent by our principal. This message comes directly from Brown's research in "Daring Greatly" and "Rising Strong." Our principal and the group of "Daring Teachers" reading the two texts are empowered with qualitative research and personal stories from the texts to begin making changes in the way we talk and work with and about our students. While in team meetings, I find myself thinking about Brene Brown's data around mindshifts and climate changes.

    Thank you for your generous gift!”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Murphy-Olsen

  • WIHS Scientists

    Funded Jan 12, 2016

    Wellstone scientists proudly wear the white lab coats around school, in science labs and during discussions. "Where did you get the coat?" and "What is this coat?" are questions students ask when they see Wellstone scientists wearing the white lab coats between classes. During science labs, learners wear the lab coats to look like and to feel like scientists. As a part of entering the science classrooms, students wear the coats during discussions. Proudly wearing the lab coats has become a part of looking and being a member of the science community. Our Wellstone scientists are using the lab coats to be empowered in their present classes as well as to think about their future careers.

    Exploration and play were two of the words used to describe students' first reactions of the white lab coats. Many of the photos are from the white lab coats' launch day. Students observed peers and themselves as future doctors, scientists and professors while trying on the lab coats. A sense of excitement filled the room as learners tried on the coats and took pictures of friends in the the coats. Learners saw themselves as valued at school; the white lab coats continue to give our learners the powerful label of a Wellstone scientist. Staff will never forget the day the white lab coats appeared and students saw themselves as we see them-proud and valued.

    As the science program at Wellstone International High School continues to strengthen, the white lab coats will play a role. Students now have a visual, tangible thing that helps them to see themselves and their peers in potential careers of their dreams. The lab coats are allowing students to explore options and to "try on" thinking about dreams as a reality. Wellstone scientists will continue to wear the lab coats during lectures and during labs as a way to look like and to truly act like the scientists they are. As the school year progresses, the white lab coats will continue to engage learners to science concepts, another step towards graduation.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Murphy-Olsen

  • It's a Great Day To Be A Biliterate Lion!

    Funded Dec 20, 2014

    "Beautiful!", "My Language!", and "Very good, miss!" are just a couple of the comments I have heard from my students when they have been using the resources we received. My students say many things about the dual-language dictionaries we received. The most powerful thing I witnessed from my students is not what they have said, but the look on their faces when they see their language in a book in our classroom.

    In the classroom, we are using the dual-language dictionaries everyday. I am using the dictionaries to help to communicate with my students about a homework's due date or information about a word. Learners are using the dictionaries to help each other with words as well as in the writing process.

    This project continues to boost learning in the classroom in many ways. Everyone has become a language learner with the dual-language dictionaries when we read, hear and repeat a word in all students' languages. It has been an empowering experience for students to be able to translate words for others to repeat in their language. To see and to hear students reading and saying their language provides an opportunity for sustaining biliteracy.”

    With gratitude,

    Ms. Murphy-Olsen

Washburn High School is an community high school in the Minneapolis school district. Students come from various places around the city and the world in search for a strong academic experience. Washburn serves American-born students as well as refugees or undocumented students. Many of our students are homeless and/or highly mobile. For some English language learners children, Washburn High School is the first experience of formal education. One way to support learners is to support home language development. Dual language resources, like the dual language dictionaries, encourage academic language acquisition in the home language as well as English. Staff's greatest desire is for students to find Washburn a comfortable, safe, validating place for personal and academic growth.

About my class

Washburn High School is an community high school in the Minneapolis school district. Students come from various places around the city and the world in search for a strong academic experience. Washburn serves American-born students as well as refugees or undocumented students. Many of our students are homeless and/or highly mobile. For some English language learners children, Washburn High School is the first experience of formal education. One way to support learners is to support home language development. Dual language resources, like the dual language dictionaries, encourage academic language acquisition in the home language as well as English. Staff's greatest desire is for students to find Washburn a comfortable, safe, validating place for personal and academic growth.

About my class

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