Past projects 10
Supplies for Various Activities
Funded Mar 10, 2025Thank you so much for your donations. This will allow us to finish the year strong and hit the ground running next year. As funding for all things that are typically supported continue to be cut I feel fortunate that there are people out there willing to support education still.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Tanaka
This classroom project was brought to life by Hawai’i State Dept. of Ed and Marc & Lynne Benioff.Social Emotional Supportive Learning
Funded Oct 14, 2024Thank you for supporting our classroom project. In a perfect world we would be funded for all student needs, and not constrained by a limited budget. Often social emotional supportive practices are not funded because they are not deemed essential. Unfortunately these practices are the most important aspect of school, as supporting their social emotional health helps students succeed academically.
Even though social emotional services often do not receive the necessary financial support from the department of education here, much more emphasis is placed on schools doing more to support social emotional learning. Your support enables me to create an advisory environment that is conducive to this.
In our advisory we do things like read-a-louds, board games, and arts and crafts that stimulate creativity and social interaction (not on a device). Students learn real world application of social emotional skills and are very happy and friendly. Your snacks help to contribute to the friendly atmosphere in advisory.
Some of my students come from severely impoverished backgrounds, and your snacks also provide them with food when they otherwise would go hungry.
The school supplies like pencil sharpeners also help us to continue to have a working classroom environment.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Tanaka
This classroom project was brought to life by Hawai'i State Dept. of Ed and Marc & Lynne Benioff.Cell Phones: Good for Communication, Bad for Learning
Funded Aug 7, 2024So far your donations have really started making an impact. I was able to provide boxes for each one of the classrooms on my team, and our school year has started off quite smoothly.
The level of anxiety seems to have lowered, both for teachers and students. Teachers aren't having to wonder if students are texting in class, or trying to arrange a meetup with other students in the bathroom (quite a big issue in past years). Students seem to be having an "out of sight, out of mind" experience. They forget about their phones and instead focus on their learning and in creating real interactions with others.
Being able to start this right away has made this transition much easier. Thank you for funding this project so quickly. It truly is making a difference!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Tanaka
More SEL Learning
Funded Feb 15, 2024Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity! My students continue to enjoy a positive social emotional environment in advisory because of you!
The snacks, games, puzzles and books have been most welcomed by students during our no tech fun Fridays. Battleship and Uno seem to have become the most popular games in the collection. The stress balls have also become a great item for students to use. Many students have actually asked to borrow them in social studies class during student presentations to help them focus better. The containers you've provided definitely help to keep things organized and neat!
Thank you so much, from my students and myself!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Tanaka
This classroom project was brought to life by Hawai'i State Department of Education.More Social-Emotional Learning
Funded Dec 6, 2023Thank you so much for your generosity and kindness. Our advisory program has been spending two weeks a month doing SEL activities. Rather than droning on and on like a teaching in a Charlie Brown cartoon and telling students what SEL is, we are instead trying to implement activities for students that actually have them utilize and build social-emotional learning skills.
Some of the activities we have implemented are no-tech Fridays, where students play board games with each other (thanks to the kind donations from previous donors choose campaigns). We also are doing a classroom read aloud of a novel for fun (since kids don't read for pleasure any more). In both cases having a snack during the process really adds to the feelings of comfort and positivity. The arts and crafts materials from this donors choose campaign will also enable us to have advisory periods where students can work together create crafts for their friends and families, which will also help build their social skills and their ability to think about others.
Thank you so much for helping us to find ways to have students experience actual social emotional learning in a way that helps them to build those essential skills to help them be come more thoughtful, well-rounded human beings.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Tanaka
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Classroom Supporter and 2 other donors.Actual Social Emotional Learning
Funded Oct 25, 2023Thank you so much to the State of Hawaii for offering a generous stipend for teachers on Maui whose students have been affected by the August Wildfires. Although Upcountry did not experience anywhere near the destruction and loss that Lahaina did, our community still saw devastation, loss of homes/property, and our students and their families suffered trauma. We have also received many new students whose families had to relocate from Lahaina as a result of the fires.
The state gave each teacher at our school 1000$ to help with supplies for the school year. I felt that the best use of this money was to purchase things that will help students build real life, positive connections with each other, and create an advisory setting that is welcoming and feels like a safe place for them. There has been an emphasis on social emotional learning in the middle school setting, but like all initiatives I feel that most schools have taken the wrong approach to this. Rather than actually supporting students' social and emotional health we turn it into just another lesson, unit, and curriculum that talks at students about SEL but doesn't actually allow them to experience it. I'm hoping that these board games and snacks will enable me to create an environment that actually supports their SEL. Thank you.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Tanaka
Help Students on Maui Affected by the Fires
Funded Aug 15, 2023Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity. Our school has a number of students who have been affected by the fires, and your donations will go a long way in helping them get back to feeling a sense of normalcy again.
I just received all of the items from Amazon, and put together back pack kits for students who need school supplies. Our counseling department will be in charge of getting them to students throughout our school that lost everything in the fires. As you can see from the pictures, you were able to help out ten students who were in need of school and personal supplies. Thank you!
It seems as though there is so much negativity happening in the world today. I am so grateful to you for not only providing our students with supplies they need, but also showing them that goodness still exists. I am hopeful that they will remember how your kindness makes them feel and will follow your example of giving as they grow older.
Thank you so much.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Tanaka
This classroom project was brought to life by The SONIC Foundation and 5 other donors.Hearing Is Believing
Funded Sep 20, 2022Thank you so much for all of your donations. My students are very happy to be able to have access to headphones in class. Although students are asked to bring their own headphones to school every day, not all of my students can afford headphones. Your donations ensure that all of my students will have access to this vital technology in our room.
The headphones will be used in a variety of ways. Students will be able to use them for specific educational purposes, like listening to text to speech (for struggling readers) or watching videos about different historical sights. They will also be able to use them to listen to music while they complete one of our many in class projects. It will help make the classroom environment not just educational, but more enjoyable too!
As a title one school we do receive more federal funding than other schools, but as a title one school our students need more support than others. I wish we did not have to solicit donations to provide an adequate environment that supports our students, but until that happens, I am so thankful to have people like you out there to help out. My students thank you as well!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Tanaka
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 3 other donors.In Need of Classroom Chairs
Funded Nov 2, 2021Thank you so much for providing the funding for our classroom to get new chairs. We have been sitting on the same classroom chairs for well over a decade in my classroom, and the current chairs are old, scratched, and some are even cracked right where students are sitting. This is not only distracting to their learning but makes sitting in class dangerous. The state had to cut funding for classroom furniture a long time ago, and since then it has become much harder to replace old, broken furniture. Your donations mean that my students have one less distraction to worry about as they try to apply themselves into improving themselves! Thank you.
I did not tell my students that we were getting new chairs, so when they showed up to school the first day after the big shipment came in they were overjoyed. These new chairs seem pretty basic, but compared to our old ones they are a definite upgrade. No cracks to pinch their legs, no scratches to annoy their backs, and the backs of the chairs even flex slightly, allowing them to rock out some of their energy in a safe, quiet, and non-distracting way.
The first project that I posted replaced most of the chairs, but not all of them. This current project that you funded will allow me to completely replace all of the old chairs so that each and every student is able to have a new, comfortable sitting experience!
As school budgets seem to be getting increasingly smaller, it is a comfort to know that there are people like you out there who care enough to support students throughout the country. Even though something like a classroom chair seems like a small thing, all of those small things really add up to big things to help our students feel supported. Thank you so much for being there for my students and all the students out there. You really make a difference.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Tanaka
Desperately Seeking Better Chairs
Funded Aug 6, 2021Thank you so much for your contributions to new chairs for our classroom. This project helped me to replace most of the worn out chairs that my students have been using. The old chairs were old, dirty, and many were cracked in the seat area, making it hazardous for students to sit down.
We did the "unboxing" in my homeroom, and my assistant and I helped students to switch out their old chair for a new one. My students were very grateful and excited for their new chairs. They were pleased that the backs had a little bit more flex to them than the old chairs did, and all of the students who were able to sit in a new chair agree that the new chairs are "waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy more comfy" (a direct quote from one excited student in my homeroom).
I have one more project open that is almost funded, and that should replace the rest of the older chairs with these new ones. Our school's custodial department used to get a furniture stipend every year to replace old and dilapidated furniture, but that funding was pulled a long time ago. Since then we have had to make due with what we've got, so donations like this one really go a long way to creating an environment that is welcoming for students and more conducive to learning. My students definitely appreciate the gesture of goodwill! We can't wait to have all of the chairs replaced!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Tanaka
This classroom project was brought to life by Hawai'i State Department of Education.