Past projects 2
Civil War Classroom Book Set
Funded Jan 9, 2025First, thank you for the books! These texts will live in the classroom for years to come and while the impact has been great already, the gift will continue to improve students' understanding of this topic for years to come.
The books for this project have already been used in several ways. Students are currently doing an independent research project which has them exploring the deeper subjects within this topic. These books have been a pivotal resource that has given background knowledge as well as deep insights. Students first experience with these books was a book pass, an hour-long notes-taking session where students took 10-12 minutes to deeply explore one book. After each note-taking session, students walked around, exploring for another book to repeat that deep note-taking experience. Both the reading session and the act of book selection are powerful learning experiences for students because of the challenge they present.
Students are absolutely enjoying these classroom novels. They are frequently being taken off the shelves and used in independent research. I plan for this to continue in the coming months and years.
Again, I must thank everyone who supported this project; it is truly a humbling experience to see a wide group of people coalesce around an idea.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Zac
Media Literacy about World Events
Funded Nov 18, 2024Tis the season of gratitude, and it is in this spirit that I express my sincerest thanks. We received our Choices and Upfront Subscriptions, and instantly students took a shine to them. While I try to use these in the classroom for direct instruction, students often rifle through these magazines during our independent choice reading time. We have a lot of options on our shelves, but the fact that these are consistently grabbed and devoured shows the power of highly-engaging and informative content.
My students still are not the best when it comes to understanding the complexities of world events, but who is? However, having these magazines and reading them is helping. We started watching CNN10 and A to Z World News every so often, and students are starting to ask more current events based questions. In the weeks that we have been working with these materials, students have been asking more political questions and trying to engage with world events.
This was never about politics, but knowing that the younger generation will be more impacted by the current political decisions than us (primarily due to their increased life expectancy), the choice to bring these magazines into our classroom was designed to get them involved, and it is working. The students are more curious and critical. They are questioning the world with more vigor and not taking my answers at face value. One of the recent articles featured in Choices was about the ever-increasing amount of snacks in our diets. In the week that followed, students self-monitored their snack-food intake, and the results were eye-opening. Everyone over-indulged in this high-calorie, nutrient deficient food, and they were determined to change their habit! Another Choices Magazine focused on Screen Time, and while the results were similarly astounding for their high usage, my students weren't as determined to cut back (but fingers crossed that they change their minds!).
I mention these real-world issues and changes because it is important, and students are benefitting! Thank you so much for your generosity. Shaping the next generation is not possible without amazing opportunity, and your donation helped provide that. I cannot express how awesome that is, and again, I must thank you!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Zac