Past projects 5
Bilingual Dictionaries for Busy High Schoolers!
Funded Nov 6, 2024Words cannot express how thankful we are for your generosity in helping us obtain these freshly bound Merriam-Webster's Illustrated Spanish-English Student Dictionaries! Deep down we are all visual learners. For my ELL/MLL students in the classroom, anything from photos, to labeled diagrams or illustrations grabs their attention immediately as they grapple with familiar and new concepts in English as well as their home language. Several of our more shy and soft-spoken students have eagerly opened these texts- appreciative that there are pictures in addition to words.
In our classroom, reading and making use of bilingual dictionaries and glossaries is a daily practice for two reasons. One: it reinforces literacy and language acquisition skills for students to identify cognates and interpret new word meanings. Two: for many state and standardized assessments students must know when and how to use bilingual resources in order to maximize their time and effort when translating from their home language to English, independently. All of this is to say, thank you for making learning more accessible for our students!”
With gratitude,
Ms. R
This classroom project was brought to life by Reese's Book Club and 4 other donors.Pupils Learning through Podcast Journalism!
Funded Sep 29, 2021We did it! This funded project would not have been possible without YOUR support! Thanks to your generous donations, my students have been able to launch our middle school's first ever podcast series through Soundtrap.
My students love the editing and sound design features of using Soundtrap to record their podcast episodes. They especially love including "loops" for intro and outro music to create a cool vibe for their podcast episode. I watched as some students eyes lit up as they realized they could become content creators with the simple tools offered through the Soundtrap software to showcase their skills and have their voices be heard.
We appreciate all your support in making this possible and I hope to continue this Podcast Journalism class for years to come!”
With gratitude,
Ms. R
Enrichment Texts for Tutors!
Funded Mar 16, 2021Wow! It is truly an honor for you to put your faith in our heartfelt mission to help students read and achieve! You may or may not have heard of the "Everything You Need to Ace _______ in One Big Fat Notebook" anthology, but rest assured, it is a bread-and-butter staple for middle schoolers (especially our 8th graders!).
Now having the English Language Arts and Math editions of these books, our MS 890 Scholars Program has the resources it needs to be even more successful. The MS 890 Scholar Program is an academic peer tutoring program in which high-achieving students help mentor their peers in subject areas they struggle most with- particularly ELA and Math. Picture this: our scholars and learners sitting side-by-side with pen and paper (or tablet!) at the ready, while studiously using these books as a reference for their math projects, literary essays, test prep, and so on.
Our 8th graders appreciate these enrichment texts the most for their candid, yet insightful explanations and colorful graphics. They consider these books a go-to study guide as they prepare for high school.
All this is thanks to you! We appreciate your support, and our students will continue to learn and grow because of it.”
With gratitude,
Ms. R
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 5 other donors.Two Screens for Teaching Tweens
Funded Feb 19, 2021I would like to take a moment to thank you for your generous donation! It has not been an easy year, and so I can't reiterate enough how grateful I am for you thinking about my students as we adapt to blended and remote learning settings. Two Screens for Teachers has gifted me with a second computer monitor screen to effectively reach my remote students, all thanks to you!
Since the project has been funded, my second computer monitor screen allows me to facilitate multiple lessons from 6th to 8th grade with ease. This technology is helping students not only interact with the me better, but with each other. Having two computer monitor screens makes it easier for me to track student engagement, take attendance, and conduct lessons, especially for those students with special needs and those who are English Language Learners. Having two computer screens makes it more manageable for me to utilize other remote learning platforms. This includes conducting virtual lessons on Google Meets, screensharing assignments on Google Classroom, and having one screen to project my Pear Deck Google Slides presentations while I use the other screen for my teacher dashboard. My students benefit from this level of productivity and it shows in their smiles and their eagerness to respond to discussion questions shared on these two screens.
What I love most about having an additional computer monitor screen to work from is how it helps me organize my lessons effectively while I'm teaching remotely. In short, a second monitor helps me to be a better educator and really meet my students' needs right where they are. Thank you again for taking the time to put action behind intentions and fund the "Two Screens for Teaching Tweens" Project. Your positive impact is making a big difference in our classroom!”
With gratitude,
Ms. R
This classroom project was brought to life by Edpuzzle and 2 other donors.Reaching Remote Learners through Pear Deck
Funded Oct 22, 2020I would like to take a moment to thank you for your generous donation. It has not been an easy year, which is why I can't reiterate enough how grateful I am for you thinking about my students as we adapt to blended and remote learning settings. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Pear Deck Individual Premium subscription, it helps me design lessons that provide social-emotional check-ins, poll student responses, and create accessibility for students with different learning styles to type or draw their responses to various prompts and questions.
Since the project has been funded, I have used Pear Deck Premium to facilitate multiple lessons from 6th grade to 8th grade. This technology is helping students not only interact with the me, but with each other. Pear Deck Premium makes learning more user-friendly to those students who are quiet, who are English Language Learners and/or who have special needs. Regardless of what grade I'm teaching, my students always enjoy using the interactive tools offered on Pear Deck. What's more is that after concluding a Pear Deck lessons, Pear Deck automatically generates a "Lesson Takeaway" in the form of a Google document. This "takeaway" includes all the slides from the lesson, including each individual student's responses to the interactive slides and formative assessments. Students can use their Pear Deck takeaways not only to recap the lesson but to upload into their digital portfolio. One poignant example of just how much having the Pear Deck Premium subscription has made an impact is a lesson I taught my 6th graders. Students were practicing how to apply a writing strategy and were correcting a teacher-made "weak example" of how the writing strategy was applied. The students were able to annotate, highlight, and type their responses- demonstrating not only their understanding of what the strategy was, but also how to apply this writing skill at a mastery level.
What I love most about Pear Deck Premium is the exclusive "Teacher Dashboard" feature which allows me to see all student responses in real-time. The dashboard function also allows me to "star" exemplar student responses I want to share with the class, or leave a comment for students to receive praise or constructive feedback. Pear Deck is so easy to use because it fully integrates into Google Classroom- the primary online learning platform our school uses. In short, I feel that Pear Deck Premium helps me to be a better educator and really meet my students' needs right where they are. Thank you again for taking the time to put action behind intentions and help fund the "Reaching Remote Learners through Pear Deck" Project. All of this has been made possible because of you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. R
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Donor and 3 other donors.