Mrs. Christensen's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 8

• Scripts for Classroom Study by Student Actors, Directors, and Designers!

  Funded Aug 14, 2024

  Thank you so much for your support of my students. We are so excited to receive these scripts and enjoy reading them together in class as we deepen our understanding of the literacy, creativity, and analytical skills that bring the page to life on the stage. We appreciate your support!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Christensen

  This classroom project was brought to life by The Gates Foundation and one other donor.

• Light It Up!

  Funded Aug 15, 2023

  Thank you so much for your support getting my students mobile lights they can work with to implement beginning elements of lighting design in my theatre and film classes. The picture I've included here shows those lights popping blue on the curtain in our little theatre for our radio play shows. It's my introductory theatre class that is creating that production and one of my students who needs special accommodations took to the lighting design like a fish to water. Because of these lights, he was able to communicate his interpretations through selecting colors and has been able to design and implement his own ideas about placement, angles, and brightness. Even though he also plays a character in the show, he prefers to spend his time on refining and maintaining the lighting instruments and design. Without your support of this project, his engagement, experience, and success with this class would have been very different.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Christensen

  This classroom project was brought to life by The SONIC Foundation and one other donor.

• Short Stories for Reluctant Readers

  Funded Aug 9, 2022

  As a reading intervention teacher, it is important to me that students develop a love of reading, take ownership over their reading, have agency in text selection, and are guided to a greater endurance with text length over time. The books you've donated to our classroom have been so helpful in these areas. My diverse students now have access to a variety of stories with characters reflecting the unique identities and experiences in my classroom. The anthologies contain short or very short stories to entice reluctant readers. Thank you for helping to provide these materials to my students at a time when budgets are narrow and opinions, perhaps, even more so.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Christensen

  This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 6 other donors.

• Audiobooks Without Digital Distractions

  Funded Aug 9, 2022

  The CD players and headphones have been amazing! One-third of my reading intervention students choose to use them every day. One is listening to The Outsiders, another is listening to the Foo series, and the third is listening to a variety of shorter stories available through Scholastic. Thank you so much for helping my students access these texts, all of which are well above the tested level for their independent reading. The time it takes them to sound out any tricky words destroys their understanding of the sentence or paragraph. They are enjoying fiction, being exposed consistently to fluent reading, and encountering grade-level vocabulary words without it feeling burdensome. Thank you for how you've helped bring this technology to our classroom.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Christensen

  This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and one other donor.

• Literature Circles

  Funded May 24, 2022

  Thank you so much for our World War II collection of books for literature circles. I want to share with you two stories. The students in the pictures of the slideshow are both in 8th grade. Both of these young men are testing at 4th or 5th-grade reading levels. Neither had much confidence at the beginning of this school year in their reading abilities.

  Early this year, one student picked up "Hidden." He read it cover to cover in one sitting, enjoyed it, and passed a book-specific quiz on it, proving that he had understood it. He loved the book, and he loved the sense of achievement he felt. Since "Hidden" opened the door for him, he has gone on to read over six full books, passing each of their quizzes. He currently holds the record in his class for the most words read.

  When the taller student selected "The Book Thief," I held my tongue. His test scores indicated he would likely have trouble with the book. I didn't want this student to become frustrated with reading and give up. I told him it was a great book and that I would be interested to hear his thoughts on it as he read. He has now passed page 134 in the novel and he is still invested. It is slow-going. It is a challenge for him. But this novel is teaching him academic grit and I couldn't be more proud of him.

  Thank you for making these things possible.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Christensen

• Poetry for 8th Grade Peeps

  Funded Jan 23, 2022

  The students have loved exploring iconic poetry. A mixed class of 7th, 8th, and 9th graders had an excellent discussion of repetition, rhythm, and figurative language on "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. Students freely explored the poetry in small groups, mining out figurative language and powerful quotes to share with their classmates. We've also shared the books within our SDJH English Department. A class of students with exceptionalities has particularly enjoyed Emily Dickinson. I'm thrilled by our initial implementation and can't wait to improve our use with the anthologies in the upcoming school year as we make poetry a regular vehicle for building proficiency with complex texts.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Christensen

  This classroom project was brought to life by Utah State Board of Education.

• Handbells for Mini-Musicians

  Funded Oct 24, 2016

  Dear Donors,

  Thank you so much for supporting our school music program and contributing to our beautiful handbells! The Kindergarteners who opened the packages were astonished that someone would send them such "awesome class presents!" I had a hard time getting good pictures of this moment because each student moved so quickly to unwrap a bell and test it's sound.

  Of course, we immediately put them to good use, practicing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and the theme from "Star Wars." The lessons were so much fun, we put these activities into the lesson plans for First and Second grades as well. The students love the bright colors matching the solfege notes and musical alphabet they are already learning.

  Even though we have the largest class sizes in the nation here in Utah, we now have enough bells for my Kindergarten, First and Second grade classes to have one bell each when we play a C major song as a group! The students still take turns, but instead of waiting for a bell, they simply trade colors with a neighbor and get to practice a different part of the song! We plan to use the bells on a regular basis, reinforcing our understanding of pitch, the musical alphabet, solfege singing and rhythm.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Christensen

• Keyboarding Station for Music Centers

  Funded Jul 11, 2016

  Dear Donors:

  Within seconds of walking into the music room on the first day of school, the students were drawn to the keyboards with exclamations of "whoa!" and "awesome!" Their joyous reaction to the keyboards was quickly followed by a bombardment of questions about who would get to use them and when. The students were delighted to know that all respectful and responsible students would have the opportunity to play the keyboards this year. They were very impressed with the generosity of "our donors" for supplying us with such beautiful instruments.

  Our first "testers" loved that the headphones meant no one had to hear their goofs and that they could pass the headphones over to a friend to get an audience of one. Some of the older students quickly discovered the song bank and began to play tunes they knew in conjunction with tailor-made, prerecorded back-up arrangements. Some of the younger students spent much of their first turn at the keyboards gently running their fingers over the keys and smiling.

  Each day I face at least one question of, "is it a keyboards day?" My students love the versatility, the beauty and the privacy of these instruments. They are certainly the most spectacular part of the music room! As we progress in our understanding of how to read, play and compose music, the keyboards will be utilized at every stage and by all abilities. They provide visual feedback on what note and key are being played and allow for musical layering and composition. They are excellent instruments and exciting learning tools. And without you, we would not have them.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Christensen