Past projects 2
¿Hablas Español?
Funded Dec 18, 2016¡Qué maravillosa! This treasure trove of resources has opened a whole new world for my students. Many of them graduated from 8th grade excited about the prospect of continuing their Spanish-language skills in high school. Their eyes lit up when they recognized words and phrases in songs they heard on the radio, or in conversations at the corner store. Students who had previously mocked or stereotyped Spanish-sounding words have come to realize that Spanish is not an easy language to speak, and that bilingualism is a mark of hard work and valuable cultural knowledge.
After using these books and games, my students continued to ask for more resources and opportunities to practice their Spanish. Unfortunately, since the class was only taught twice a week for one semester, I was not able to provide them with the opportunities that they wanted. I no longer teach at this school, but I hope that these students carry with them the curiosity and openness to learning more about the world that this class provided.”
With gratitude,
Teacher Leibovic
Is Our Water Safe to Drink?
Funded Dec 31, 2017Thank you so much for funding our project, "Is Our Water Safe to Drink?" Thanks to these resources, 8th graders at Bregy have been able to design posters for each water fountain in our school that describes, in easy-to-read, color-coded format, which water fountains have acceptable or questionable levels of common contaminants. We were very pleased to learn that none of our water sources tested positive for lead! A few had moderate or high levels of copper and iron, and several had unusually low pH values. All in all, however, we were relieved to learn that our water fountains are generally safe to drink, with no serious health issues.
After testing our water fountains, the 8th graders were especially interested to watch the movie "Flint" which is not only a very scientifically accurate representation of the Flint water crisis and grassroots efforts to solve it, but also features Philadelphia's own Jill Scott in a starring role. As the year progressed, students occasionally asked me if Flint had finally gotten clean water yet, and even brought news stories to my attention about the city's progress towards achieving environmental justice. With your help, we have instilled lasting values of equality and activism into a growing group of Philadelphia youth!”
With gratitude,
Teacher Leibovic