Past projects 3
Checkmate! Middle School Chess Club
Funded Jun 16, 2023Our Chess clubs have started. It is all thanks to donors like you that have helped this become a reality. We have 2 clubs going. One for 6th grade and another for our 7 and 8th graders. The original plan was just for 7/8 graders, but there was interest for 6th grade as well. It has been amazing to see the excitement in our students.
They were amazed at the amount of boards we got and they were excited to see that they got to play with them. I think opening them up and being the first ones to play with them were the best thing in the world. Thank you again for helping make this dream a reality. Please keep a look out for what our next project needs will be. Maybe chess timers, who knows what the future holds.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Hess
More Screen Real Estate Needed
Funded Dec 1, 2020With your assistance I am able to be a better teacher. I am now able to see everything and teach. Better than that I am now able to see my students on my screens at the same time as I am teaching. This is drastically improved my teaching abilities and my efficiency.
With the ability to have more screens, I am not having to slide windows over to see my students, or see what I am teaching and sharing with my students. In a world where I need to teach from a distance, through a camera, I needed all the desktop space as possible. You never realize how little screen space you have until you have more of it.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I am now able to use my time efficiently. This means that I can use more time in actually teaching my students, instead of wasting time moving windows around my screen to see something or share something. It is now always open on my screen and I can see it all at once. I truly and sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart for making a difficult job these days, that much easier.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Hess
This classroom project was brought to life by FamilyAlbum and one other donor.Coding Needs for STEM Class
Funded Dec 3, 2019This technology, that you have helped to fund, has an amazing impact on my students. Although I teach in a school district that provides Ipads to each student, this provided technology is not conducive to teaching Coding. My title at my school is 7th Grade math teacher, I am at a K-8 school. When I started at this school last year, I was told that I would also be teaching a STEM Coding class as an elective to 7th and 8th graders combined. I was excited to take on this challenge, however, I had never taught coding before. I quickly found out that you can only do so much coding on an iPad, which, needless to say, is very little unless you use an app from the app store. I knew I needed to get computers to be able to teach this class properly. I had a grant that got the ball rolling and provided me the opportunity to purchase chromebooks for my class. It wasn't enough to provide all the students in my classes with a chromebook, but it was a start.
This is where all you donors came in. Not only did you provide my students with enough to chromebooks to cover my current students, you gave me the ability to walk around the room with a laptop that allows me to write on the screen, to help my students better, to show them examples of coding without using a projector. This has been huge. Since I teach math as well, I am able to teach walking around the room, instead of being stuck at my desk where my computer is located. Students are able to show their examples on the screen of my laptop which is then shown on the projector. This new computer has made a lot of students smile and get excited for math and for the coding class. The printer that is currently used in my building is shared by everyone, it is also 10 years old. It needs to be replaced, but the funding is not there to do so. We make do with the poor print qualities that we get, but our STEM program needed a better printer. In our STEM program, we have a multimedia class, a robotics class, and my coding class. All three of us need to be able to print material for our students to use. Some prints are needed to be in color. The printer is and will be used by the STEM middle school program exclusively, and it will make a difference in our programs drastically. I know that there is more that I will need in the future, but for now, the students are able to learn with proper materials and supplies.
Coding is in pretty much in everything that we use that has any kind of technology in it. From our phones to our computers to old fashioned calculators. It is a career that is only growing in need, and there are not enough people to fill the positions that will be available when these students enter the workforce. My goal is to spark that curiosity, and passion to fill those positions in the future. The majority of my students have never seen or used a chromebook before in their lives. They have been so used to using ipads and Smartphones, that they do not have the understanding how the computers work. It has been a process for them to get used to using a computer. They ask every day, are we going on the chromebooks. They are excited to learn coding, they are excited to come to class. That excitement is why I teach.
From the bottom of my heart, and from the thanks of all of my students, present and future, we thank you for your donations. I thank you for helping me make successful students that will thrive in the proper environment. Thank you so much.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Hess
This classroom project was brought to life by An anonymous classroom supporter and 15 other donors.