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Mr. Davidson's Classroom

  • PS/MS 31 William Garrison
  • Bronx, NY
  • Nearly all 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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show projects from all time

Past projects 80

  • My Chess Team Needs Team Jerseys! Vol. 1

    Funded Nov 30, 2022

    These jerseys were great! We looked good playing chess! We played really good at chess! We won a few trophies. We won LOTS of medals. There was LOTS of motivation to do well and come to tournament, in large part to earn one of these jerseys! This wouldn't have been possible without your help. Thank you so much for helping my kids look so good and get so motivated! Players and coaches from other schools noticed as well, and we received many compliments on the jerseys. They definitely added to the intimidation factor during games :)”

    With gratitude,

    Mr. Davidson

    This classroom project was brought to life by Mission Tiger and one other donor.
  • My Chess Team Needs High Quality Chess Pieces!

    Funded Nov 16, 2022

    Thank you so much for your support with this project! We had a great year for chess. As a team we did well enough to earn several team trophies over the course of the year. On top of that, my kids also won many, many medals. Very exciting and motivating for them!

    Having great pieces really added to the mood when we practiced in our room. Several of my kids on different occasions commented on how nice our pieces were, especially compared to the ones we have to use at the tournaments. No shade to the tournaments, but they have to have hundreds of sets and they get run down. My kids took pride in my pieces, have treated them well, and I'm sure I will get great use of them for years to come!”

    With gratitude,

    Mr. Davidson

  • Help My Classroom Feel Like a Home! Vol. 1

    Funded Nov 29, 2022

    Mr. Davidson is the best interior decorator ever. A true genius at taking things, like furniture, and putting them in rooms. He gets the best things, the greatest things ever. Then he puts them in places. In rooms. Big rooms. Great rooms. Fantastic rooms - believe me. Then he moves them again and again until they are in the perfect spot. Everyone who sees them says so. And then people sit on them. They sit on the chairs. They sit on the tables. They sit on the clocks and lamps. It's a beautiful thing to behold.”

    With gratitude,

    Mr. Davidson

    This classroom project was brought to life by an Anonymous Classroom Supporter and one other donor.
  • My Kids Have a Fever for More Books! Vol. 3

    Funded Jan 23, 2023

    Thank you so much for helping to make this project happen! I'm trying hard to instill a love of reading with my students, and this year has seen a lot of progress. Together as a class we read a graphic novel series (books which I also got from Donors Choose years ago) which they really enjoyed. We read it together, discussed it, analyzed it - all the things I hope they will one day be doing on their own without being reminded.

    The next step was to have the students reading on their own, and that's where these books came in! The kids were really excited to try them, and thanks to their format they are accessible to my kids. All the comprehension and understanding is slow going, but it's a journey they wouldn't be willing to go alone without your help.

    Thanks again!”

    With gratitude,

    Mr. Davidson

  • My Kids Have a Fever for More Books! Vol. 2

    Funded Nov 30, 2022

    Thank you so much for helping to make this project happen! I'm trying hard to instill a love of reading with my students, and this year has seen a lot of progress. Together as a class we read a graphic novel series (books which I also got from Donors Choose years ago) which they really enjoyed. We read it together, discussed it, analyzed it - all the things I hope they will one day be doing on their own without being reminded.

    The next step was to have the students reading on their own, and that's where these books came in! The kids were really excited to try them, and thanks to their format they are accessible to my kids. All the comprehension and understanding is slow going, but it's a journey they wouldn't be willing to go alone without your help.

    Thanks again!”

    With gratitude,

    Mr. Davidson

    This classroom project was brought to life by an Anonymous Classroom Supporter and 2 other donors.
  • My Kids Have a Fever For More Books! Vol. 1

    Funded Dec 27, 2022

    Thank you so much for helping to make this project happen! I'm trying hard to instill a love of reading with my students, and this year has seen a lot of progress. Together as a class we read a graphic novel series (books which I also got from Donors Choose years ago) which they really enjoyed. We read it together, discussed it, analyzed it - all the things I hope they will one day be doing on their own without being reminded.

    The next step was to have the students reading on their own, and that's where these books came in! The kids were really excited to try them, and thanks to their format they are accessible to my kids. All the comprehension and understanding is slow going, but it's a journey they wouldn't be willing to go alone without your help.

    Thanks again!”

    With gratitude,

    Mr. Davidson

  • Help Me Motivate My Students With Trophies!

    Funded Nov 30, 2021

    Trophies and medals make the chess world go around for my kids. And I couldn't have done it without you! As I hoped, they get super pumped for earning medals. In the past they could get this motivator from tournaments, but this year with covid I could only take them to one. Which they won medals at! The pictures with all of us wearing the same shirt is when two of my kids earned medals at a tournament.

    In school though when I hold our weekly league days when they can earn the trophies, they bring their A game and can become super competitive. I remember this one day, one of my kids came to after school chess tired. He said he just wanted to do his homework and then relax a bit. Then I reminded him that was the last day to determine who got medals for that season, and he was immediately like "What?! Today is the last day for medals?!" and then he spent the rest of the time there in a frenzy, playing (and winning) as many games against his classmates as he could. He ended up winning first place that season and he was very happy.

    This project still isn't over though! Because of covid restrictions, I wasn't able to have in school tournaments the way I had wanted to. So the medals I've been giving out. But the trophies - I still have them! I'm going to try and make one big tournament happen before the end of this year. But I'm still going to have them next school year, so this project is going to be able to keep my kids motivated and having fun for quite a while yet.

    Thank you all again!”

    With gratitude,

    Mr. Davidson

    This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 2 other donors.
  • My Chess Team Is Running Low on Supplies!

    Funded Nov 1, 2021

    Thank you all once again for helping this project. It was as impactful as I hoped it would be when I made it. The clocks were helpful in multiple ways. Earning this right to use them became a powerful motivator for students to fully master the rules so they could start using the clocks. They became a status symbol that the students wanted. Most importantly though, it helped them to become better chess players! Time management is one of the most important things in tournament chess, and thanks to the practice my kids were able to get due to this project, two of them won medals at the one tournament I was able to take them to this year! Their success was very satisfying for them as well as myself, and I hope you also get the warm fuzzies knowing how you helped them out.

    And it wasn't some one off thing either. These clocks are going to help my kids for years to come!”

    With gratitude,

    Mr. Davidson

  • My Chess Team Needs Unlimited Lessons and Puzzles!

    Funded Nov 30, 2021

    Thank you all so much for your generosity! As I said in my project, doing puzzles online is one of the best ways for chess players at my student's levels to improve. And their puzzle efforts (made possible by this project) bore fruit! I was only able to take them to one tournament this year due to covid restrictions, but when we did go two of my students won medals there when competing against students from other schools. The ones who didn't win still had a lot of fun and they're super pumped to compete in more tournaments next year. And how are they going to be able to prepare over the summer when we're not meeting regularly? By using the puzzles unlocked by this project!

    Thank you all so much!”

    With gratitude,

    Mr. Davidson

    This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 2 other donors.
  • Learning in My Classroom Is Going​ out of Print! Help!

    Funded Nov 11, 2019

    I would describe the results of this project as a god send, but it was actually sent by you! As I said in the project description, this definitely wasn't the flashiest of projects but it's impact was there every day for me to see. It saved soooooo much time and it was such a convenience for me. As the school's lead technology coordinator, I know all too well printers are a rare commodity. They are the number one requested thing from fellow teachers and I almost always have to tell them no. Having a functioning printer (and a color one at that!) is such a convenience for me. The only down side is trying to keep the fact I have a color printer a closely guarded secret, but so far that's been going well.

    I used the printer to take some pictures of color fliers I posted in the hallways, but I didn't get enough to cover all six needed for the thank you package before Covid closed the schools. I might have to use out takes or put duplicates up. Sorry about that! But thanks once again!”

    With gratitude,

    Mr. Davidson

    This classroom project was brought to life by Verizon and 4 other donors.
Wondering what my photo is? It's a picture of outer space taken by my students and I with materials we got from Donors Choose! I'm a special education teacher in the Bronx. My students face a multitude of problems in our school. Lack of proper funding for books and other essential needs, growing up in a high crime high poverty neighborhood, and a general culture that doesn't put an emphasis on a strong education. And that's all of them! As a special education teacher, my kids face an additional hurdle - learning disabilities that make it difficult for them to read. The majority of the books I request are high interest books the students desperately need, as our school doesn't have a library.

About my class

Wondering what my photo is? It's a picture of outer space taken by my students and I with materials we got from Donors Choose! I'm a special education teacher in the Bronx. My students face a multitude of problems in our school. Lack of proper funding for books and other essential needs, growing up in a high crime high poverty neighborhood, and a general culture that doesn't put an emphasis on a strong education. And that's all of them! As a special education teacher, my kids face an additional hurdle - learning disabilities that make it difficult for them to read. The majority of the books I request are high interest books the students desperately need, as our school doesn't have a library.

About my class

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