Ms. Coursey's Classroom Edit display name

Current requests

Past projects 9

• Great Literature for Middle Schoolers

  Funded Jan 13, 2025

  Thank you so much for donating to our class library! When my class gets a package from our Donors Choose benefactors, it always feels like Christmas! When our package from you arrived, my students got so excited, and were genuinely amazed to find a class set of Romeo and Juliet. They immediately turned to me and asked when we could start reading. This is the power that your donation has! It has inspired my group of middle schoolers to look forward to reading Shakespeare.

  In a time when books are being pulled from libraries and banned, I want to thank you for your support. These books are impactful, they shape readers for life. Thank you for being a part of that with me.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Coursey

• School Garden Supplies

  Funded Jan 13, 2025

  Thank you so much for your generous donation to the start up of our school garden. When my students and I began this project earlier this year, there were weeds in all the walkways, 17 fallow beds that all needed weeding, 10 fruit trees on the verge of dying, and 9 galvanized tubs with nothing but dead plants and weeds. In short, every part of our school garden was fallow and needed care. With your donation, we were able to go out and get started on the work a garden requires.

  With the right tools, my students were able to weed all 17 bed and 9 tubs, lay mulch down to stile the weeds, and fertilize and prune our fruit trees. We are on the path to a true farm to table experience! The tools you put in my students' hands, both literally and figuratively, is teaching kids how to raise and nurture their own gardens. These are skill that can last a life time. Thank you!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Coursey

  This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 4 other donors.

• Farm to Table Gardening Project

  Funded Jan 13, 2025

  Thank you so much for your generous donation to the start up of our school garden. When my students and I began this project earlier this year, there were weeds in all the walkways, 17 fallow beds that all needed weeding, 10 fruit trees on the verge of dying, and 9 galvanized tubs with nothing but dead plants and weeds. In short, every part of our school garden was fallow and needed care. With your donation, we were able to go out and get started on the work a garden requires.

  With the right tools, my students were able to weed all 17 bed and 9 tubs, lay mulch down to stile the weeds, and fertilize and prune our fruit trees. We are on the path to a true farm to table experience! The tools you put in my students' hands, both literally and figuratively, is teaching kids how to raise and nurture their own gardens. These are skill that can last a life time. Thank you!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Coursey

• Honors English Texts

  Funded Jul 4, 2024

  Thank you so much for your generous support this year! Due to your donation, I was able to purchase copies of John Steinbeck's The Pearl and Shakespeares' Romeo and Juliet for my 7th grade English Honors class to read. Since we were able to purchase them, I can give these texts to my students to keep. In this way, kids can annotate, read, engage with, and have these classics forever!

  In a time when teachers are being asked to remove books from their rooms, your support means the world. When kids read, they become more empathetic, they grow as learners and humans, and they engage with the world. Your donation helped support that process, and I am truly grateful. Thank you so much!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Coursey

  This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 3 other donors.

• School Supplies for Middle School Success

  Funded Jul 4, 2024

  Our new school year has begun, and my 7th grade English language arts class is more prepared this year than ever before. Thanks to your generous support, I was able to set up a fun, engaging, and academically rigorous environment. The supplies your donation provided allowed me to set up a classroom that informed students as soon as they entered the door that they would be both challenged and supported.

  Thank you again for your generosity! From basics like paper, to fun enrichment supplies like Play-dough, your donation helped set this year up to be a real success. Thank you again!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Coursey

• Novels for 7th Grade ELA

  Funded Nov 24, 2023

  Thank you so much for your donation to our classroom. I am so grateful that our project has been fully funded! The books that your donation went toward have arrived, and will be used in E102 to allow students to have their own copies of Romeo and Juliet (which allows them to annotate on their own as we read), and it also has added to our class selection of novels to enhance free choice during our upcoming "March Madness" book activity.

  Having great literature in English Language Arts creates buy in for students, enhances the learning we engage in, and promotes literacy and love of learning all around. Than you again for your support!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Coursey

  This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community & an Anonymous Partner and 7 other donors.

• New Novels for7th Grade!

  Funded Aug 2, 2023

  Thank you so much for your generosity! Because of your contributions, I was able to stock so many high demand, high interest novels for my English classes. The titles I chose represent a wide variety of experiences, and my hope is that I can help students find their perfect fit for literature. In a time when reading and books have come under fire in the classroom, I am heartened to see that there are good people out there who support reading and literature, with an aim at having kids read about lives and experiences that may mirror or challenge their own life experiences. Isn't that what good books do? They let us see ourselves and others more clearly and with more empathy. Thank you for being a part of that.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Coursey

  This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 5 other donors.

• March Madness Reading Challenge Novels

  Funded Jan 21, 2023

  I want to update you on the impact your donation has had in my classroom. When the boxes of books began arriving, I waited to open them in front of the kids. It felt like Christmas! I then put up a bulletin show the "heats" for our March Madness reading challenge. Next, I had kids engage in "speed dating" the books. As small groups, they went around and previewed each novel before selected the one they'd fallen in love with. I had them each sign up for a novel, and issued the challenge: read and rate as many books as possible for the month of March. The book with the most highly rated recommendations wins.

  At the end of the "speed dating" activity, students were so excited! Kids were telling me and one another which books they wanted to read, which books surprised them, and predicting which book would win March Madness. I even had a student say, "I don't really like to read, so I thought I wouldn't want to read any of these, but now, I want to read them all!"

  After kids chose their books, they all got a mug of hot cocoa, and settled in to start their novels. March Madness is already a success, and we're so grateful for the new texts.

  Thank you for supporting literacy and a love of reading and learning.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Coursey

• Scope Magazine Class Set

  Funded Nov 4, 2022

  I am so grateful for your donation. The subscription to Scope Magazine has been even more successful than I'd hoped! We get monthly high-interest non-fiction articles to read together, and the subscription also comes with engaging activities and assignments as well. Kids look forward to our monthly magazine delivery. We read together (in pairs or as a class), and kids practice important skills such as identifying main idea, supporting details, writing informational essays, poetry, etc. This has been such a great gift; I'm in the process to trying to get continued support to keep my subscription for next year, and expand to the other English teachers as well. Thank you so much for your generous donations. You've truly made a difference and an impact in my classroom!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Coursey