Ms. Patricia Betcher's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 12

• Music Stands for Guitar Ensemble

  Funded Nov 16, 2024

  Thank you so much for donating for our music stand project. We have a separate space from our orchestra and band program and kept having to borrow stands from their rehearsal room throughout the day. It really cut into instructional time. Now we are able to utilize our time effectively and work toward our performance goals.

  The main use of our stands is for guitar ensemble, which is a growing program at our school. Since our virtual learning years, the number of students who take more than one year of guitar instruction has quadrupled. No other public school in the city offers a high quality classical guitar program that performs the rigorous music that we have grown to perform. We are excited to maintain our presence on the Arts Festival programs each season at the school.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Patricia Betcher

• Flexible Seating and Organization for Music Homeroom

  Funded Aug 19, 2024

  Thank you for providing us with a little reading nook. Students use these flexible seats every morning for starting their day in the morning to study for tests, complete homework and to plan their day out.

  During our advisory hour, my most regular group of students comes in and sits on these cute little chairs and meet with each other and complete homework together. Your donation has created a small community of individuals who come together and circle up on a daily basis. Their sense of safety, community and fellowship with each other is very steadfast. Without these, it would just be another traditional high school classroom.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Patricia Betcher

  This classroom project was brought to life by The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation and 5 other donors.

• Guitar Capos for Guitar Class

  Funded Jan 22, 2019

  Thank you for supplying us with capos for our class. Our guitar classes have truly transformed this year. Many students have been working on individual endeavors - learning music familiar to them. Having a capo on hand has been a tool that inspires kids to learn the music of their time. Capos allow students to be able to change the key they are playing in, to play for singers who may need a higher or lower key, or to access chords that they cannot play in open position. Without your donation, none of this is possible. Thank you so much for your donation to support my guitar students.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Patricia Betcher

• Broadcast Student Talent with Portable Mixing Speaker

  Funded Dec 23, 2018

  Thank you so much for making our classroom sound so much better and work much more efficiently. This BOSE S-PRO 1 speaker continues to be a vital component of our classroom to this day, several years later. I don't know what I would do without this item. We plug microphones so kids can sing karaoke, guitars in for amplification and we take this beauty on the road to have a simple PA system for small performances. I am so surprised that it has lasted this long but we take care of our equipment well! Thanks for helping us out!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Patricia Betcher

• Ukuleles for Urban High School

  Funded Mar 27, 2018

  Thank you for providing us with ukuleles. Guitar can be a challenging and frustrating instrument to learn at times. While we are having fun learning with the guitars, the ukuleles give our fingers a nice break from the steel strings. We enjoy coming to school to attend Ms. Betcher's music class because she is always coming up with different ways to teach us how to play the instruments.

  We are looking forward to learning some different songs that might be difficult on the guitar (fast chords, hard barre chords), but are much easier on the ukulele.

  We are learning our scales and chords, as well as how to play melodies using different types of picking (down and up with a pick, or finger style). We hope you'll get to hear us play some day.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Patricia Betcher

  This classroom project was brought to life by Ripple and one other donor.

• Half-Size and Three-Quarter Size Guitars Needed for Middle Schoolers

  Funded Aug 23, 2016

  Thank you for making my classroom not a "One-Size-Fits-All" learning environment. The smaller guitars have made the instrument more accessible for students with smaller hands. We are having a blast using them this year. I currently teach two sections of Guitar 1, and the first five weeks have flown by. Students expressed that their friends told them they'd hate guitar, but they are letting me know that this is their favorite class. I hope that we will soon be putting our skills to public performances so you might get a chance to hear our progress. It's been truly wonderful thanks to your help.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Patricia Betcher

  This classroom project was brought to life by the estate of Dorothea Lutz and 2 other donors.

• Guitar Mounts For Our Classroom

  Funded Jun 9, 2016

  After a long year with many changes, I am here to thank you for donating to our project to get our guitars mounted in an organized way. Unfortunately DonorsChoose won't let me reuse photos for different projects, so I have not attached any current photos of the mounts, but you can see the BEFORE pictures, where there are boxes, bags and packaging materials lying around the classroom in one gigantic mess.

  The mounts made it easy for students to run to the closet and grab a guitar when they had five or ten minutes to practice. It allowed us to have more time playing than taking out and packing away time.

  Again I apologize for the time in between your donation and actually being able to send this out. I appreciate all you do to support us. Next year I can only see these being used much much more!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Patricia Betcher

  This classroom project was brought to life by the estate of Dorothea Lutz and 9 other donors.

• Chord Buddies Needed!,

  Funded Oct 4, 2016

  I know it has been a while since you donated to this project. With all the mishaps that occur in the urban school world, I was still fortunate enough to set up my guitars in the new classroom I was switched to mid year.

  The students who benefited the most from your donation of the Chord Buddies were my Autistic Support classes. My high school AS students had learned piano, singing and some guitar in the past, but having the Chord Buddy Adapters was an asset to getting their fingers in the right place to play chords.

  By the last few weeks of school, I had kids who were really ready to get the Chord Buddy off the neck (that's the goal) and start forming the chords and patterns on the strings themselves.

  As I stated in the past, guitar is one of the hardest instruments to really get past a beginner level. They were strumming along to several pop songs, such as All of Me by John Legend, Island in the Sun by Weezer, and Passenger's Let Her Go.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Patricia Betcher

  This classroom project was brought to life by the estate of Dorothea Lutz and 18 other donors.

• African Drums for Urban School

  Funded Nov 29, 2016

  It has been a wonderful day. I have been transferred to a new school within the Philadelphia School District. I know teach several Complex Needs classes and grades 6-8. This Giving Tuesday Gift was a special treat. The kids will enjoy celebrating music with instruments from their history - not just buckets.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Patricia Betcher

• Philadelphia Music Class Recording Equipment Needed!

  Funded Aug 15, 2016

  What a wonderful summer treat to have another project complete for my students. This particular item will be the beginning to building a whole studio for my students to record professional-like projects. We are looking forward to the new school year with many new ideas from the refreshing summer!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Patricia Betcher

  This classroom project was brought to life by the estate of Dorothea Lutz and 11 other donors.