Ms. Higgins' Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 10

• Engaging Materials for Students With IEPs and English Language Learners

  Funded Nov 13, 2024

  I cannot begin to express how grateful and helpful these gift certificates to TeachersPayTeachers really are to the learning of my students. I teach in an ICT classroom which has students of various learning styles, and needs. To this, we also have students that are significantly below meeting grade level, almost at grade level and at hitting grade level standards. We also have English language learners from various countries with a variety of needs as well.

  While it sounds like a lot, and it is-all of these students deserve to be integrated into the 4th grade curriculum as well as supported from each person's academic entry level. Most of the materials on TPT can be uploaded onto Google Classroom and the students can work right on their laptops to complete the assignment and turn it in. If students are absent, they can complete the work at home. It helps to differentiate the work and I love finding math or reading passages that seem tailored to a particular group of students, especially ELLs and students with disabilities. The graphics and creative nature of the fonts are pleasing to the students as well. This is where the gift certificates help us tremendously.

  It would be nearly impossible to create or purchase these materials on my own, and the time, planning, and ability to focus on teaching and the students is why I appreciate your kind and generous gift.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Higgins

  This classroom project was brought to life by Young Sheldon and one other donor.

• Digital Lessons and Educational Games on Various Entry Levels

  Funded Sep 5, 2024

  I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your donations that help supply gift certificates to TeachersPayTeachers.com for myself and my students. I use the gift certificates to purchase materials that help me differentiate lessons and skills every week!

  This last week, I purchased math worksheets that had different levels of the subtraction skills we have been working on in our lessons. Some of my students really struggle with regrouping and applying place value concepts to subtraction and need lines in-between the place values and little boxes to remind them to regroup.

  I also have purchased many phonics and readable texts for my ELL students. They have already improved in their decoding and reading skills with these materials.

  It is always wonderful to know that through your donation, educators are not alone in educating our children!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Higgins

  This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Supporter and 3 other donors.

• Digital Lessons and Educational Games

  Funded Sep 24, 2023

  Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity towards our class at PS 83 in East Harlem. The project you funded has already been put to good use. I have used the Teachers pay Teachers gift certificate to find differentiated group work and to create homework packets in both English and Spanish.

  This year we have such a diverse group of wonderful students in our 5th grade classroom. Some are learning English, some are a few grade levels below, and some are a grade level above. All need engaging and rigorous materials. As a teacher, it is extremely challenging to find materials that benefit all the entry levels of the students, but Teacherpayteachers.com has been extremely helpful to me and the gift certificate will go along way to providing high quality materials to these students.

  Thank you for reminding me that teachers are not always alone in helping our students,”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Higgins

• See, Listen, and Learn!

  Funded Sep 29, 2022

  Thank you so much for the generous gifts for our fourth grade classroom. The students were so excited to receive the headphones, dry erase markers, and personal white boards. These items are used everyday and one of the biggest impacts for the students was to know that these items were not only purchased for them, but that there are people who want to make a difference in our classroom through kindness and caring.

  These tools have benefitted the students in many ways. The headphones allow them to work on individual activities or to listen to texts and the fact each have their own pair of headphones makes them responsible for their care as well. In math, we use the dry erase markers and white boards with every lesson. The students enjoy doing their math computations on the boards and sharing their work with partners. Knowing that they can easily erase mistakes or try again works much better on the boards then with paper and pencil. The students each have their own board and markers and learned the routine of taking them out for each lesson, putting them away, and taking care of our resources.

  We really appreciate using these materials every school day and are grateful that we have them to further the student's engagement in lessons, ownership, and choice in their learning. Thank you!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Higgins

  This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Funder and 2 other donors.

• Digital Lessons and Educational Games

  Funded Sep 29, 2022

  Thank you so much for the generous gift of "TeachersPayTeachers" gift certificates. The impact for the students and myself has been very effective. It has allowed me to provide much needed visuals for students within our ELA, social studies, and science lessons. I can also electronically send students lessons or group work that allows them to continue to learn from home when they are sick. Perhaps, the biggest impact is that I can easily differentiate lessons or group work by going onto "TeachersPayTeachers" and finding correlating activities that will challenge, support, or reteach skills as needed.

  One example of how we used this resources was in math last month. Our unit was on multiplication and I have students that do not know their multiplication facts, students that are comfortable with them, and a group of students that needed more challenging work and were excited to apply multiplication in different ways. I was able to find a fantastic activity for this group on "TeachersPayTeachers" and use the gift certificates to purchase a "project based activity" that was more advanced then the lessons in our unit. The project was for the students to open a movie theater and determine how much money and space they would need for this business to open. They applied all four operations to determine this and really had to discuss the logistics and come up with a mathematical plan that was in their budget. The students not only took on the challenge and engaged with it, but also want more projects like this with future math units.

  I would really have a hard time coming up with and planning this unit on my own for this group. Having the ability to purchase this for them without having to always use my own financial resources has been a game changer. We appreciate this gift and will continue to use it for years to come. Thank you for your kindness.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Higgins

  This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Classroom Supporter and one other donor.

• Digital Lessons for Students Both Online and in the Classroom

  Funded Aug 21, 2020

  I cannot thank you enough for your generous contribution to our class. As an educator, I knew this year was going to present unique challenges. How do I teach both remote students and students in the classroom at the same time? How do I keep them engaged while they are on a table, computer, or phone for five hours a day? The gift certificates you provided from teacherspayteachers.com has helped enormously with these challenges.

  Every lesson I teach is taught via slides and posted for students on Google Classroom. I have been able to find slides on teacherspayteachers.com that correlate with the standards and lessons I need to cover for the students in both ELA and math. These slides are made by teachers for teachers and are presented with fun visuals and fonts that make it easy and fun for the students. These slides also provide a way for parents to clearly see what the lesson is about and students can use them as a study guide for assessments.

  These slides have been so helpful for all the students because even if they miss class they can use the slides to see what they miss. I also appreciate the fact that students can't lose them or have the excuse of not coping it in their notebooks. The slides are posted for the whole year. I can also reuse them in future years as online learning, I have no doubt, will continue long after Covid19 is gone.

  Please know, you have made what had seemed an impossible task for this educator possible. When I received the email that this project was funded I was so touched and uplifted by your kindness. This impact will last beyond this project, because the students know that your power of giving has enhanced their learning and made this challenging time a little less.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Higgins

• Much Needed School Supplies For A Safe School Year

  Funded Aug 13, 2020

  I cannot thank you enough for your generous contribution of school supplies to our 5th grade class. The students were able to use the supplies from day one of school and the families were appreciative of having one less thing to worry about. The start of a new school year is usually filled with excitement and uncertainty, but this year both of those feelings were heightened exponentially. I felt that at least if the students and families didn't have to worry about having the necessary tools to start the school year it might ease the anxiety just a little.

  This year, most of my students are learning remotely and it was so important that they were able to receive the supplies before school began. I was so grateful that all the supplies were shipped before the start of the school and I was able to put together individual packages for the students with the supplies you funded. The families stopped by the school to pick them up and because of you all the students had their own, brand new, school supplies. In years past we would share markers, pencils, and crayons as a way to cut back on costs, but clearly this year that was not going to work. So it was wonderful that each child was able to have their own of everything.

  I do have a few students that are coming into the school building a couple times a week and during lunch, they must remain in their seats and eat facing front. It was disheartening at first to see them isolated during lunch, when as children they should be able to be social and play with each other. After the first week, I gave them each a pack of markers contributed by you and the students decided that lunch time would be art time and now they create and share their art with each other. I have posted their art around the room and inspired by them, I am added materials for them to continue to create with.

  Please know your contributions added joy, ease, and access for each student in this class and I am grateful beyond words.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Higgins

  This classroom project was brought to life by A Generous Donor and 2 other donors.

• Connecting America's Past With Its Present

  Funded Dec 19, 2019

  I want to thank you so much for the donations you chose to send to these fourth grade students. They loved and were so excited to open the box and see brand new books that were chosen and purchased just for them. We also discussed that these were made possible by people that wanted to "do good" to further their education. That made them think for a bit and become aware of what it means to give to others and I thank you for that.

  The books were chosen because I they relate to the fourth grade social studies units. We study the American Revolution and it's impact on New York and we learn about immigration during the last century. Both books do a wonderful job of enhancing the effects of these time periods on children. In the "I survived" book the story centers around a boy in New York fighting the war and in "Esperanza Rising" the story is told from the point of view of a girl immigrating from Mexico in the 1920's. This book in particular has become a favorite of many of the students and some of commented that they or their parents have also immigrated from Mexico or other countries and have shared their own experiences.

  These books will be used for years to come and have encouraged students to enjoy reading and analyze history closer and it could not have been done without your support.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Higgins

• Make "Time" To Read

  Funded Dec 4, 2019

  I want to express just how much your donation has meant to the students and myself. The students were so excited to receive the first installment of the "Time For Kids Magazines." They were even more impressed when they were told that they each had a copy and that once we used them in class they could keep them. I also made them aware that these were purchased for them by people that they haven't met, but who chose to "do good" and help aid them in their learning.

  The magazines came at just the right time as the fourth graders are preparing to take their ELA state tests next month. We desperately needed short nonfiction texts that had text features and challenging vocabulary on a variety of topics. These magazines fit all those requirements. Of course, there is the added bonus that the students get really interested in the articles and they relate to important issues from a child's point of view.

  I thank you for making a positive impact for these amazing students in NYC they really deserve to have quality materials in which to learn and develop and by giving to Donors Choose you have done that for them.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Higgins

  This classroom project was brought to life by An anonymous classroom supporter and one other donor.

• Take A "Seat" and Enjoy the Learning Journey!

  Funded Aug 26, 2019

  I can't begin to thank you enough for the much needed materials you provided for our classroom. On the first day of school, I gave the students a tour of their room and when we got to the inflated stability cushions the students got excited knowing that they wouldn't have to sit on hard tile floors during group work. A couple of them also said they liked the color. However, when I introduced the portable lap desks, I asked the students what they thought they were for and none of them understood what these weird shaped objects could be used for. I modeled by having a student sit in it and then placed my laptop on top and immediately the students were impressed and excited to use them.

  We use these resources daily. During small group work, a group of students work with a teacher right outside of the classroom for extra help in phonics or math and take the cushions with them. I also have students with ADHD and the bounce and texture on the cushions actually help them to focus better. The students have also used the cushions with the lap desks as added support and comfort. The lap desks have been invaluable as a motivation to start work and stay focused. They love using them when they have work to do on a computer and have learned to be extremely careful and respectful with the seats and computers. They take responsibility for working together to stack them neatly and understand that they must share with each other, but it has been wonderful that we have ten of these lap desks and so many students can use them at once. We just finished a narrative writing unit and I gave the students the option of handwriting and typing and in past years more students picked to handwrite, but this year all but one chose to type up their stories and the materials you provided for us made a lot of difference in their selection.

  Our next projects will be in writing literary essays, learning to type with both hands, and using more online resources to expand our fiction and nonfiction comprehension and research. Both the cushions and lap desks will be used daily this year and for years to come. They brought excitement to the students, taught responsibility and community and not least of all, smiles to one amazing class of fourth graders in East Harlem.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Higgins

  This classroom project was brought to life by Scotch™ Brand and one other donor.