Mrs. Nestler's Classroom Edit display name

Current requests

Past projects 6

• Writing Gives Students a Voice!

  Funded Jan 1, 2025

  I want to thank you so much for not only helping me with my writing instruction but for the impact that it has already had in my classroom! ThinkSRSD Writing Instruction is showing so much gains across the nation, but I can't wait to share with you the direct impact that it has already had in my classroom this year!

  My students just took their monthly state iStation testing. The gains I saw this month can be directly linked to the new writing instruction. The writing instruction I just received shows the direct link from reading to writing and vice versa. Every reading text is broken down with a topic, supporting evidence, and an ending/conclusion (TIDE). You will see our rocket ship on my whiteboard in the following pictures that represent TIDE for a constant reminder. We read for gist (who, did what, when/where, & why/how). This helps the students find necessary information in a text. This crosses over to our writing prompt and into our writing.

  I was so excited about this that I told our building instructional coach and she is helping me implement this instruction! We were excited to see the gains already. The engagement piece is evident as well. There are a lot kinesthetic movements that go along with gist! The kids are moving and having fun with using their highlighters to find the most important information in the text before writing. Pictures will show them using their black light flashlights to help the text pop with the highlighted areas!

  This program has a huge component of positive self talk! My students who struggle with writing at the word level are persevering and telling themselves that they can do it when writing gets tough! My students who were in tears with frustration and smiling as they give themselves that permission to use positive talk while writing!

  I can't tell you adequately in words how much this donation means to me this year and for the students I will have for the following years! I appreciate your very generous donation from the bottom of my heart! THANK YOU!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Nestler

• You've Got Mail!

  Funded Feb 12, 2025

  I'm speechless! Thank you so much for your generous donation! I can't wait to show my students their new system to help carry out their organizational skills. They will be so excited!

  Again, I appreciate your generous donation and can't wait to send you pictures of the item in action. I plan on tagging you on social media and giving you a big shout-out!

  THANK YOU!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Nestler

  This classroom project was brought to life by Panda Cares.

• Hear Me Out!

  Funded Dec 4, 2024

  Words will not adequately express my gratitude that I have for your generous donation. My students were so excited when I told them that they would each have new headphones that they could use for their laptops! They all started shouting and clapping. The smiles on their face will be an image that I will forever have thanks to YOU!

  Although I wish you could have seen their smiles, I do have a picture of of my students working on their laptops. I did tell them that they had to look forward for the picture, but please know that they all had smiles on their faces!

  We took our monthly state testing to see the growth for each student with our new headphones. It was wonderful having the students work on their test without any disruptions of the headphones not working or not fitting correctly. THANK YOU for bringing equity into my classroom.

  Again, I appreciate your generous donation and the impact it has had directly with my students' learning.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Nestler

  This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and one other donor.

• Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!

  Funded Mar 7, 2024

  Thank you so much for your generous donation! My students this year can't get enough of nonfiction texts. I LOVE teaching them about the world around them due to their engagement and excitement with learning about science and social studies. Now, students are able to build their comprehension skills by reading about the world with all the words that they have mastered! Oftentimes, as teachers, we must read the text to the students since there are many students who can't read at grade level. Now, the students can read with all of the spelling patterns they have learned! THANK YOU!

  With your generous donation students in my class, and classes yet to come, may take their nonfictions books home to read and share their newly learned information with their families! Due to the students' engagement with non-fiction texts, I expect the summer slide to be nonexistent this year with their reading! Thank you for allowing me to give my second graders a collection of nonfiction books to each of my students.

  I truly can't express in words how much this means to me and the families that will receive this gift! Thanks again!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Nestler

• Exploring the World from Our Classroom

  Funded Jun 13, 2023

  Thank you so much for your generous donation! We just completed our second week of school and the students LOVED learning about chocolate. They learned about where chocolate comes from, how it is made in factories, and what happens to chocolate bars that aren't perfect for selling. The students learned about the founders of two large chocolate companies. They were thrilled! I had just received the funded project last week and already the virtual field trip bundle allowed the students to have such a rich vocabulary and understanding into chocolate. Why chocolate? We just started reading the book "The Chocolate Touch" as a class. My students did not know where or how chocolate was made. They could not get enough of the our first virtual field trip thanks to you!

  I can't wait to for all the numerous field trips we can go on from our very own classroom thanks to you! This year, I have six students who speak five different languages (Arabic, Somali, Spanish, Karen, and Kinyarwanda). I can't wait to explore their country throughout the year! This will be so special and truly a gift from you to them!! A gift that will forever have meaning in their life! I want you to know that it helps build my classroom family where every student feels seen and valued! I want my classroom to be a safe place for ALL to learn and grow (myself included)! I have over 100 field trips to explore this year! Thank you for not only giving this gift for this year but for years to come! Thank you!

  Thank you again for your generous donation!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Nestler

• Don't Let My Students Run Out Of STEAM!

  Funded Oct 14, 2022

  Thank you so much for your generous donation! My class enjoys reading these STEM books and making connections from the text to real life math problems! I have several students who have commented that they don't need to know math because they don't plan on going to college or that it doesn't matter. My students are in second grade! Bringing the relevance of these concepts to their daily lives has helped with keeping my students engaged!

  There have been a few math concepts that have been extremely tricky for the students to grasp. Place value in particular. Once I read them the book, Place value by David a Adler, the students made connections from order left to right just like they learned in writing their spelling words in alphabetical order-left to right! This book helped teach this concept in such a kid-friendly way that the students didn't fully realize they were learning while hearing a story. Math story time is an engaging time for my entire class! All my students are involved and participating thanks to your donation. I love that I can use these mentor texts for years to come! THANK YOU!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Nestler

  This classroom project was brought to life by Panda Cares and 7 other donors.