Past projects 8
STEM in Color!
Funded Aug 14, 2024Thank you so much for your generous donation. You will never know just how much the gift of receiving a color printer has greatly impacted our students. I want to take the time to highlight two ways utilizing the color printer has led to surprisingly powerful outcomes for our students.
During our Science Fair Night, we were able to use the printer to print out materials for parents, activities for students, and boarding passes for our school planetarium. It was amazing to see how the addition of color made for an engaging and successful Science Fair Night. We are often tasked with putting on mandatory events such as Science Fair Night by our district with no budget. In the past, all we could do was give a short presentation and hand out black-and-white materials. This year we had an event! We were able to not only give information about the science fair but also create enthusiasm for the upcoming event. Students were able to participate in scientific activities while parents received important information that could aid their students. Our pride and joy involved inviting students and parents into our school planetarium that our students helped build. We were able to print out boarding passes for students to keep as souvenirs.
We also used the printer to honor our school's mission of being culturally inclusive. During Hispanic Heritage Month, our ESL students were able to create a cultural wall that celebrated their Hispanic Heritage. Students were able to take pictures, print them out, and talk about their culture. This has since grown to include students of Filipino heritage to celebrate Filipino Heritage Month. It has further grown as students, parents, and staff members add to the wall and share their cultural backgrounds. This has led to academic success for our ESL students. Just by talking about their heritage when presenting their stories on the wall, students are more confident when speaking in class. As students gain confidence, we are seeing students participate more and advocate for themselves by asking for the help that they may need. Thank you again for your donation.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Jones
This classroom project was brought to life by The Gates Foundation and 2 other donors.Virtual Field Trips!
Funded Aug 25, 2021Thank you for the generous gift of a 360-degree camera. Because of your generosity our students can now take virtual field trips. With the pandemic, in person field trips are no longer possible. We are fortunate to have VR googles at our school, but we lacked the content for our students. Now with the 360-degree camera we are able to create content for students to both educate and engage them.
We live in close proximity to many historical sites, botanical gardens, and zoological parks that are unknown to my students. With the 360-degree camera I can travel to these sites and take pictures and videos in order to create virtual field trips for my students. Although we cannot leave the building, we can still expose students to places they would not be able to see otherwise.
So far, we have been able to create virtual field trips to our local zoo and the local pumpkin patch to start. Students were able to see plants and animals at the zoo for science lessons as well as math counting lessons. Although students could not pick the pumpkins, students were able to have a virtual experience traveling through the pumpkin patch.
Thank you so much for your generous donation. You will never know just how much one camera has greatly impacted the lives of my students. We look forward to many more virtual adventures!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Jones
Virtual Learning!
Funded Aug 4, 2021Thank you for your generous donations. With your help we were able to provide quality virtual instruction to our students. When schools shut down, we were left with limited resources to provide students with virtual instruction. We quickly learned that we that we were unprepared for the task that we would be undertaking with virtual school. The teachers pay teachers gift cards that your donations provided has been a life saver in our virtual classroom.
When we were tasked with teaching virtually, we were provided with inadequate resources. We had to learn a brand-new learning platform in a limited amount of time. Providing virtual instruction to five- and six-year-old students proved to be a daunting task. We had to find ways to both teach and engage our students. Our school district offered very little support and the resources they provided were not on the learning platform we were told to use. This left us with few options. One option available was teachers pay teachers. Teachers pay teachers has provided a lifeline to engaging activities that we could use with our students. But this proved to be costly. With your generous donation the burden of how to pay for engaging resources has been lifted.
One of the most popular resource with my students are boom cards. Boom cards act as flash card activities that students love. I can purchase specific standards of learning aligned activities that I can deliver directly to students during the lessons. I can fast pin the activities and send the link directly to students in zoom. Students love clicking on the "blue letters" to receive their activity. Instead of sitting during a lesson, students are active participants. This has greatly improved our student engagement and attendance.
Thank you so much for your generous donation. You will never know just how much the gift of teachers pay teachers gift cards has greatly impacted the quality of education received by my students.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Jones
Let’s Get Digital!
Funded Dec 23, 2020Dear donors,
Thank you for your generous donations. With your help we were able to provide quality virtual instruction to our students. When schools shut down, we were left with limited resources to provide students with virtual instruction. We quickly learned that we that we were unprepared for the task that we would be undertaking with virtual school. The teachers pay teachers gift cards that your donations provided has been a life saver in our virtual classroom.
When we were tasked with teaching virtually, we were provided with inadequate resources. We had to learn a brand-new learning platform in a limited amount of time. Providing virtual instruction to five- and six-year-old students proved to be a daunting task. We had to find ways to both teach and engage our students. Our school district offered very little support and the resources they provided were not on the learning platform we were told to use. This left us with few options. One option available was teachers pay teachers. Teachers pay teachers has provided a lifeline to engaging activities that we could use with our students. But this proved to be costly. With your generous donation the burden of how to pay for engaging resources has been lifted.
One of the most popular resource with my students are boom cards. Boom cards act as flash card activities that students love. I can purchase specific standards of learning aligned activities that I can deliver directly to students during the lessons. I can fast pin the activities and send the link directly to students in zoom. Students love clicking on the "blue letters" to receive their activity. Instead of sitting during a lesson, students are active participants. This has greatly improved our student engagement and attendance.
Thank you so much for your generous donation. You will never know just how much the gift of teachers pay teachers gift cards has greatly impacted the quality of education received by my students.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Jones
Laptop for Learning!
Funded Dec 20, 2020Thank you for your generous donations. With your help we were able to provide quality virtual instruction to our students. When schools shut down, we were left with limited resources to provide students with virtual instruction. We quickly learned that we that we were unprepared for the task that we would be undertaking with virtual school. The laptop that your donations provided has been a life saver in our virtual classroom.
Before receiving the laptop, my old laptop would often freeze and malfunction. I would often have to end class for extended periods of time in order to restart my computer. My eight-year-old laptop simply was not up to the task of teaching virtually. It would take me over an hour just to get it started in the morning. Now I can open the laptop and have it ready in seconds. Gone are the days where I have to wait for the laptop to start. Now with just a touch of my finger I can log onto the laptop and I am ready to roll. Time spent on waiting for the computer to load is now spent on getting ready for my students. I know longer have to waste instructional time because the computer crashed. I can provide the high-quality professional instruction that my students deserve.
My previous laptop would crash when I tried to share my screen or allow students control in zoom. Now students can see colorful animated presentations and even manipulate the screen. Students get a kick out of being able to control my computer from their home. This has greatly improved our student engagement and attendance.
Thank you so much for your generous donation. You will never know just how much the gift of an up-to-date laptop has greatly impacted the quality of education received by my students.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Jones
Project Headphones
Funded Dec 18, 2020Thank you for your generous donations. With your help we were able to provide quality virtual instruction to our students. When schools shut down, we were left with limited resources to provide students with virtual instruction. We quickly learned that we that we were unprepared for the task that we would be undertaking with virtual school. While students were provided with a Chromebook or iPad we had no idea just how important headphones would be. The headphones that your donations provided has been a life saver in our virtual classroom.
Before receiving the headphones, we had a hard time getting students to participate. Students had a hard time hear instruction due to background noise in the home or daycare. Sometimes students would have headphones, but they did not have the accompanying microphones to allow them to be heard when speaking to answer or ask questions. It was both frustrating for us as teachers and the students. Now students are excited about putting on their headphones. Our class participation has greatly improved with students being able to both hear and speak into the microphones.
Our school is located in a low-income area and combined with the pandemic; parents simply could not afford to buy headphones. At our special drive through pick up for the headphones there were many tears of thanks from parents and smiles of joy from students.
Thank you so much for your generous donation. You will never know just how much one pair of headphones greatly impacted the lives of my students.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Jones
My Project
Funded Dec 16, 2020Thank you for your generous donations. With your help we were able to provide quality virtual instruction to our students. When schools shut down, we were left with limited resources to provide students with virtual instruction. We quickly learned that we that we were unprepared for the task that we would be undertaking with virtual school. The iPad and apple pencil has been a life saver in the classroom in a variety of ways.
One way that the iPad and apple pencil has improved our learning experience is by being able to view the zoom lessons for virtual teaching on multiple screens. I can now log into zoom on the iPad and view the zoom lessons. This allows me to see the screen as the students see the lesson. If the screen has not yet loaded, I know to wait to begin instruction. If the sound is not playing, I can turn it on quickly without wasting class time asking students. If the size of the print needs to be enlarged, I can quickly zoom in to make the print larger for students. I can also use the whiteboard feature to write notes and messages with the apple pen.
Not only can I see what the students see I can also make the iPad zoom screen the zoom host. Having the iPad and apple pencil has allowed me to share my screen during our zoom classes. I can display educational applications that students can both view and manipulate. With the control feature on zoom, students can be an active part of the lessons. This helped to greatly improve student engagement and class attendance. Student's love being able to not just view programs without them freezing and malfunctioning, they can now be an active participant. Before having the iPad and pencil I struggled with how to engage my young learners. Students would play with toys, zone out, and not log into class. Now students are excited to see what new activity they will be able to participate in. One of the student's favorite activity is a phonics application that allows them to build words during our guided reading time. Student's love being able to build the words sound out the words and read the sentences. This has greatly improved the reading skills of my students.
When we returned to school in a hybrid model the iPad became even more invaluable. Not only were we tasked with teaching students in person with social distancing, but we also had to teach students virtually at the same time. With the iPad I am able to move about the classroom and interact with my in-person students while monitoring my virtual students. During transitions I am able to walk my in-person students to various destinations in the building and still interact with my virtual students without having the virtual students sit by themselves in either the breakout room or the waiting room in zoom. This allows me to have more face-to-face time with my virtual students and helps to make us feel like one classroom family.
I am beyond grateful for this generous gift of an iPad and apple pencil. With the inclusion of the iPad and apple pencil we are now able to foster an engaging and enjoyable learning environment that will provide meaningful learning opportunities that will promote academic success.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Jones
OSMO In The Classroom
Funded Aug 29, 2019Thank you for your generous donations. With your help we were able to provide learning stations using the OSMO. The students in our classroom are individual learners with unique learning styles. Whether students are auditor learners that learn through sound and music, verbal learners that prefer words and writing, or kinesthetic learners that prefer to use their hands and sense of touch, the OSMO learning system has engaged each type of learner. During math stations the student's use the OSMO to practice computation skills. During literacy stations the students use the OSMO to both spell and read high frequency words.
The OSMO games include a variety of literacy, math, spatial reasoning, and coding features that offer a hands-on interactive learning experience. By having the OSMO learning system as a part of our classroom, students are be able to incorporate technology into their independent learning centers. With the inclusion of the OSMO we are now able to foster an engaging and enjoyable learning environment that will provide meaningful learning opportunities that will promote academic success.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Jones
This classroom project was brought to life by Verizon and 5 other donors.