Past projects 5
Student Authors Hard at Work
Funded Mar 20, 2022Thank you so much for your generous donations. We are blown away at how quickly this project was funded! We appreciate your support of us and all of our students. These toners make our jobs just a little easier and allow us to get students their materials just a little faster. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pierre
Student Authors Hard at Work
Funded Nov 8, 2018Thank you so much for your generous contributions to this project! Because of you, students will be able to print, review, revise, and edit their work immediately. I will also be able to immediately give students the handouts and documents they need. I am deeply grateful for your support of our public school and children!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pierre
Time Travel to the Past
Funded Dec 7, 2017Thank you once again for your generous contribution. The 7th grade students and I loved reading "Chains" in Social Studies. We read most chapters together in class, along with the audiobook (through Audible). During our reading, we focused on a multitude of skills: vocabulary, historical contextualization, and character analysis. As a teacher, the best part of teaching the book was that it helped me to bring in a variety of voices to our study of the American Revolution. There were Patriot characters, Loyalist characters, indentured servants, and enslaved people caught in the middle. It's the most accurate representation of the full America during the Revolution that I have read, and it really helped the students to understand the many aspects of our country during that time.
Most days, we switched back and forth between me reading a chapter out loud and the audio book narrating a chapter. The variety of voices helped students to both follow along and to bring the characters to life. We stopped frequently to either discuss the events of the chapter or character motivations or so that I could show them illustrations and explanations of the historical events, places, and things mentioned in the book. Because two of the main characters are between 11 and 13, students really connected with their thoughts, motivations, and experiences. Discussion was rich and passionate!
While I think that all students gained an enormous amount from reading "Chains," there were a few groups of kids who were particularly impacted. Given that so much of American history in the colonial and revolutionary period is dominated by white, male figures, it is very meaningful to put a young, African-American girl at the center of a story during this time. It changes the way all readers perceive and understand these historical events. While I try my best to bring history alive and make it interesting, reading primary sources from the 1700's can be challenging and a bit dull at times! So for many students, taking the events we studied and presenting them through the prism of a dramatic and exciting story of conflict and survival made them more relatable and interesting.
Thank you again for making all of this possible!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pierre
He Named Me Malala School Trip
Funded Sep 9, 2015Thank you so much for donating tickets for the entire student body at our middle school, Mott Hall II. The trip was so exciting for our students. It's not a normal event to spend the first half of the school day inside a movie theater! Students were visibly and audibly moved by the story of Malala, as evidenced by the wide eyes and gasps heard around the theater. The entire school gave the film a standing ovation as the end credits rolled and teachers overheard many conversations between students and questions being asked as we walked back to the subway.
After we returned to school, individual classes held discussions and debriefs about the film. Students shared their favorite parts and parts that left them with more questions, both about Malala herself, Pakistan, the Taliban, and the entire state of affairs in the region of the Middle East. These discussions were especially rich in our social studies classes, where we had more time to explore the answers to their questions.
Thank you again for your generosity and support!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pierre
7th Grade Social Studies iPad
Funded Jun 14, 2015Thank you again for helping to fund an iPad mini for the 7th grade social studies classroom! It has greatly helped me to track student progress in real time and to access student work to review with students in class. It has been so helpful to be able to pull up student work and rubrics right on the screen to discuss with students, rather than having to send someone to a printer or make a separate appointment to come back when I have printed copies.
I also have been able to show students visuals to enhance both secondary and primary sources. I have been able to do the most with it in my social studies Explorations classes, where I have smaller groups of students who can more easily access some of the more exciting and fun apps, like the National Archives and Library of Congress apps, which allow students to explore, in great detail, historical artifacts. For example, last week, I gave groups of students free reign to explore a series of documents that ranged from early American history to more contemporary American history. One group of students looked at an original draft of the Declaration of Independence and another group of students explored artifacts documenting the birth of the Apollo program.
I feel like I have only begun to access the potential of this resource for our class. I can't wait to find new uses for it and create new opportunities for all students to access some of the great historical and political content available!
Thank you again for your support.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Pierre