Pause For A Moment Of Science: Enhancing The Learning Environment

Funded Sep 16, 2019

Words can not describe how thankful I am for the donation of the calculators and stools. I am so glad that Donors Choose has such wonderful people and networking to make this possible for my classroom. The stools helped make my classroom more adaptable and functional for the students. Before, students would have to carry their chair across the room to a lab table and then carry it back before the next class comes in. Since I teach both seventh and eighth grade, some days they are not always completing labs simultaneously. Also, with only having them for 42minutes, moving chairs would take a chuck out of our precious learning time.

The past few months having the stools have been a dream!! Students love them and have the opportunity to sit or stand. They are perfect height for the table and they are sturdy. When the stools arrived, it was like Christmas morning. My students helped unpack and organize them in our classroom. This gave them a sense of pride and ownership. The transitions in class are much smoother and quicker which leads to more learning time.

As for the calculators, again my students could not believe the brand new calculators we have received. They asked me how I received them and I explained the Donors Choose page to them. We used them for the first time this week. Since we are in the Matters and Interactions unit, the students are calculating density, mass and volume. It was nice to see the surprise when I had calculators because in the past I did not have them and I hated to see the disappointment on their faces. I would borrow what I could from the math teachers, if we were lucky, sometimes being one calculator per group. Now I have one calculator per student which is awesome!!

As I mentioned before I can not thank you all enough for the help, love and support. Your thoughtfulness changed my classroom environment and the faith my students have in the good of people.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Ward