Mrs. Yau's Classroom Edit display name

Current requests

Past projects 3

• Building a Bridge to an Imaginary World Through Fairy Tales

  Funded Apr 25, 2018

  I cannot begin to thank you enough for your generous donations. These books have added so much to my fairy tale unit. I love seeing the students' eyes light up when I show them new books. This was especially true for these books. Many of my students live lives that are full of hurdles and disadvantages. Reading fairy tales helped them "travel" to a new world where they believe that anything is possible. I could see the excitement and hope when reading time began. The students would pick a book and find a cozy spot in the room to enjoy it. Then the class would be silent with them each enjoying their own story. Many of my struggling students' really started to look forward to reading time each day because these texts were stories they could read confidently on their own as they had heard them numerous times before.

  These books also greatly increased my students' writing stamina and ability. After many weeks of enjoying and being exposed to different versions of the fairy tales the students were invited to write their own adaptation of a traditional fairy tale. Their ideas were amazing from writing Cinderella in modern times going to a concert instead of a ball to the three little mealworms and the big bad chicken. They took their love for these texts and turned them into their very own fairy tales. The amount of writing that they produced was more than I had seen all year. All in all, these books have added so much excitement and enthusiasm into my students at a time in the school year when it can be difficult to keep their attention. This is all due to your donations so thank you!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Yau

• Learning About the United States is Still Important!

  Funded Jan 26, 2018

  I cannot thank you enough for your donation to our project. Every year the students are required to write a nonfiction all about book. For many years we researched animals and wrote books about this. This year I wanted to do something a little different and thus this project became my goal. I find that my students do not know much outside of their "world" in Lowell. We live in such an amazing country and I wanted my students to learn more about it. These books have made this possible.

  Seeing the students' faces light up when it was time for writing was more than I could ever ask for. I saw students become more interested in learning as much information as they could about the region of the United States they were researching. They would look and read through the books over and over picking out new bits of information each time. Many of them even had questions and wanted to research further as a result of their interest created from reading these books.

  The students learned some many important skills from this unit as well. They learned how to read and take notes at the same time. Also, they learned how to find key information and leave out information that is not as important. They learned how to write well structured paragraphs and then formulate these paragraphs into an entire book. Finally, they learned how to revise and edit their book in order to take it to publication. My students absolutely loved this nonfiction writing unit this year and that is thanks to all who made a donation to this project. It wouldn't have been possible without these amazing books!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Yau

  This classroom project was brought to life by The First Million Fund and 4 other donors.

• ChromeBooks for Digital Literacy and More!

  Funded Jan 16, 2017

  The addition of these 5 Chrome books has had a significant impact on my classroom and teaching. The students love having more access to the computers as we have now doubled the amount of technology in our classroom. I am now able to split the class into two groups and have half using the Chrome books while the other half works with me. Having this capability makes it possible for me to work at the students' individualized levels while teaching.

  The most impact has been seen in math. With the use of the online program Zearn, my students are able to receive extra support and practice for each math lesson that I teach. Zearn is directly aligned to our math program so when the students log in each day, they receive a mini lesson and then extra practice that is aligned to the lesson that I have just taught in class. Before the Chrome books, the students were only getting on Zearn two times a week. Now, because of the Chrome books each student is able to use Zearn every day in our classroom. As a result of this I have seen my student math skills improve greatly from the extra practice each day.

  The Chrome books have also impacted my students' writing. Each winter my second grade students research a topic and write an all about book. This year the students were able to take their final copy and publish the book on the computer. They typed their writing and were able to find pictures from the Internet to add to their books. Not only were the students excited to use the computers but also I saw their writing improve as a result of having more motivation to complete the book in order to "publish" it on the Chrome books.

  My students and I cannot thank you enough for your generous donation to make these Chrome books a reality in our classroom!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Yau

  This classroom project was brought to life by Google.org and one other donor.