¡Vamos a Aprender! Let's Learn Spanish!

Funded Aug 28, 2023

Thank you for your generous donation of books, fidgets, cleaning materials and whiteboard markers to my classroom!

As you may or may not know, many teenagers do not read regularly. In my Spanish for Heritage and Native Learners course, we have Free Voluntary Reading once a week. During this time students choose a book that interests them from my library. They read quietly. What is the point of this activity? I work to get books into students hands that may get them interested in reading again. Reading can help students in developing empathy, understanding different perspectives, broadening their experiences, in addition to academic benefits. I hope that having a library with books about a variety of topics, fiction and nonfiction, short stories and novels, graphic novels and poems, written by diverse authors will help students find that book that will get them back into reading.

Furthermore, we have long class periods, 90 minutes! Students are used to having phones in their hands. An idea that I had to work to get the distraction of Snap, Netflix, constant notifications, etc was having fidgets available that could replace the phone. They have loved them and ask for them regularly. They help some of my students focus better and some get out some energy.

In addition, we have used the whiteboard markers to be able to include more students in activities. I have individual whiteboards. Students are able to write possible answers and hold it up. We keep points and compete, we write and pass the board to get all the table's ideas, we brainstorm and share, there are so many possibilities. I can use them more liberally now because I know that I have more markers for when ones inevitably run dry.

Finally, we are headed into the cold and flu season. It is great to have extra wipes for tables and chairs to reduce the passing of germs. It helps keep kids in schools. Also I feel like they deserve to come into a clean and well kept environment to learn even if we work in an over 100 year old building.

Thank you!! Everything that was donated to my classroom has been used and appreciated and loved. I cannot thank you enough.

Sincerely

Julia Helminiak”

With gratitude,

Ms. Helminiak