Past projects 7
Together We Are All Winners!
Funded Aug 2, 2023Thank you so much for your generous gift. We have worked really hard at buliding community in our Advisory class. And your contribution is making a huge impact. The kids come to Advisory with so much pent-up energy after a long day of learning in a foreign language.
The games are such a great way to channel some of that energy into building relationships. The arts and craft supplies are great for students curiosity. And the Kareoke machine is awesome for having fun, taking risks, and learning English.
Thank you so much for being part of our Advisory class.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Tatera
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and one other donor.Welcoming Without Words
Funded Jul 29, 2023Thank you so much for supporting our black students with equitable shampoos and lotions. This fall we doubled our enrollment from African and Caribbean nations! Our students and families really appreciate your generous donations.
Since hair care products and lotions for black students are much needed (and often inequitably expensive), we have a special cabinet set aside in our donation room (the photos show this). Our students and families are very appreciative of having access to the products they need.
I thank you. Our community engagement coordinator. Our school social worker thanks you. But mostly our students and their families thank you :).”
With gratitude,
Ms. Tatera
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Foundation and 2 other donors.Language Matters: Antiracism and Feminism for Emerging Language Learners
Funded Feb 3, 2023Thank you so much for your generous donations. These books are perfect for my classroom! They a great match for the activities our Advisory class did in February. We launched the reading challenge during a team-building activity called crossing the line.
Not only are these books great for Advisory, but they are turning out to be a wonderful pairing with my science lessons. The book "Hidden Figures" paired perfectly with my unit on Astronomy. Already one of our Spanish-speaking students (who is new to the country this year) has checked it out and is reading it on her own. I will enjoy reading an excerpt from "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" when we do our unit on the Engineering Design Cycle. And all these books contain so many great stories about the diverse women who have pioneered STEM fields but often not received their due credit due to systemic racism.
With the help from you, I now have a lending library for my students that includes many antiracist materials and inspiring stories, while I ponder how to dig deeper into these topics in the coming months and into next year.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Tatera
Little Things Matter!
Funded Jan 31, 2023Thank you so much for the pencil sharpener, tickets, and stamps. The students are already doing better at pacing the lesson with the stamps. It has really helped with met to communicate time expectations across a language barrier. Some students even ask me to stamp their foreheads (I'm not sure why...but if it makes teenagers happy in school, I just go with it). And they look forward to their Friday raffle drawings.
The pencil sharpener is much more functional. Now I'm going to need to stock up on pencils for all that classwork :)”
With gratitude,
Ms. Tatera
Bring the Cosmos to the Classroom
Funded Oct 28, 2022Thank you so much for your support! We have just begun the astronomy unit and are learning about asteroids and meteorites. Today we did an experiment looking at how to identify meteorites and talked about how the fusion crust is created when meteors enter the atmosphere.
Many of the students were surprised that we we had real meteorites (that actually came from space!) in our classroom. One student even tried to argue with me that they had to be fake.
We will be using many of these materials all spring. I'm looking forward to digging into our soils on Mars unit in February and our spectroscopy and light unit in March.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Tatera
Tomorrow's Forecast: Hands-On Learning
Funded Mar 28, 2022Thank you so much for your generous gifts! The students really enjoyed the opportunity to go outside and take weather station measurements. Many of these students have never conducted experiments and taken actual data.
We have emphasized working across groups this semester, and this project gave students who are not normally classroom leaders due to language barriers the opportunity to both work with and even teach other students how to use the equipment.
As I am wrapping up the last few weeks of school and reflecting on this year, I wanted to thank you for your support.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Tatera
Intentionally In-Person: Turning off Phones to Tune in Interaction
Funded Dec 14, 2021I want to thank you for donating to the cell phone locker/charging station. Your timing was perfect! About a month after we started using it, the school district announced that we could lift some of our social distancing restrictions. So, students have been doing more group work and hands-on lab activities and investigations. In fact, we just finished a project in Integrated Chemistry and Physics where they applied some chemistry concepts to cooking cakes, cookies, and ice cream (teenagers love sugar!)
While I only have a few students in each class who are willing to use the cell phone locker, those students have improved their grades and are the ones willing to take risks, work with new group members, and try new activities. Little by little , we are building more collaboration...with help from donors like you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Tatera