Teacher DiColandrea's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 61

• Sponsor Our Speech & Debate Team Bus to States!

  Funded Mar 5, 2017

  Thank you so much for sponsoring us on our trip to the Speech & Debate Championship this past weekend! We took a record number of students and did better than we have ever done. Three of our kids got to the Semi-Finals (top 12 in the state), one of our seniors got to Quarter-Finals (top 24 in the state) and one of our sophomores came in 3rd Place in Impromptu speaking. This was the first time anyone from our school has ever walked across that stage for being a finalist at the State Championship!! We couldn't have done it without your help!!”

  With gratitude,

  Teacher DiColandrea

• Send Speech & Debate Team Officers to National Championship Qualifier

  Funded Jan 8, 2017

  Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to take our top kids to the national championship qualifier. We actually for the first time in our program's history got an entry to the final round (and also three entries to semi-finals!). Although they didn't qualify for nationals, they are first alternate, which is absolutely historic for them and for our program. And one of the students is just a junior, which means she will be back next year ready to go all the way.

  The beautiful thing about this kind of experience is that it also trickles down in impact to affect all of our younger kids who did not compete yet at this qualifier. They now know that something like this is possible for them too since they saw the older kids do it.

  I can't thank you enough for your support.”

  With gratitude,

  Teacher DiColandrea

• Help Inner-City Speech & Debaters Learn to Read the Economist

  Funded Mar 4, 2017

  Thank you so much for your generous donation supporting our classroom and our Speech & Debate Team. My students push themselves day in and day out to compete in spaces that do not always feel safe: we are one of the only teams on the national circuit made up entirely of people of color. Particularly in Extemporaneous Speaking and Student Congress, which are dominated by white men, my students are persevering so that they can literally change the face of these events. Your donation will mean that we have the tools we need to study advanced texts like The Economist as we prepare for competitions. The impact will be that students walk into tournaments feeling more confident that their voice belongs in that room.”

  With gratitude,

  Teacher DiColandrea

• Hotel for Speech & Debate Team to Attend National Tournament

  Funded Dec 30, 2016

  Thank you so much for the opportunity to compete at this national tournament! This was a terrific opportunity for us to practice our pieces before the competitive UPenn and Harvard tournaments later this month. This was our first time at this major tournament and we did a great job - we had three students advance to the Final round!! And one of us actually won the entire tournament in Original Oratory, the first time we have ever had someone come in first place at a national tournament. This was huge for us individually and also for our whole program. We couldn't have done it without your support. Thank you!!!”

  With gratitude,

  Teacher DiColandrea

• Send Brooklyn Speech & Debate Varsity Team to Long Island

  Funded Nov 30, 2016

  First off, Thank you for funding our bus to the Chaminade tournament! We got a chance to compete at a national level, which made for good practice. Most of the students were freshmen and sophomores who only competed once or twice. Competing at a tournament like Chaminade gave them the experience they need for upcoming tournaments and showed them good competition. Although this was our second time competing at this tournament, it was the first time a student made it all the way to finals! In Extemp! The only woman of color who advanced in that male dominated category! Once again, thank you for your support.”

  With gratitude,

  Teacher DiColandrea

• Our Speech & Debate Team Needs Computers For Our Research

  Funded Nov 19, 2016

  Thank you so much for your generous donation! Having brand-new working laptops for us to use has made an unbelievable difference in our ability to conduct research, prepare speeches, and be ready for tournaments. We have already downloaded the necessary debate software onto all of them and we use them every day to download articles that are relevant to our speech topics so that we will have access to that research during tournaments. We couldn't have done this without your generous support, so thank you so much!!!”

  With gratitude,

  Teacher DiColandrea

  This classroom project was brought to life by Ashoka & Think It Up Supporters and 5 other donors.

• Laptop for Brooklyn Speech & Debate Team

  Funded Nov 26, 2016

  Thank you so much for your generous donation! Having brand-new working laptops for us to use has made an unbelievable difference in our ability to conduct research, prepare speeches, and be ready for tournaments. We have already downloaded the necessary debate software onto all of them and we use them every day to download articles that are relevant to our speech topics so that we will have access to that research during tournaments. We couldn't have done this without your generous support, so thank you so much!!!”

  With gratitude,

  Teacher DiColandrea

• Laptop for Brooklyn Speech & Debate Team

  Funded Nov 29, 2016

  Thank you so much for your generous donation! Having brand-new working laptops for us to use has made an unbelievable difference in our ability to conduct research, prepare speeches, and be ready for tournaments. We have already downloaded the necessary debate software onto all of them and we use them every day to download articles that are relevant to our speech topics so that we will have access to that research during tournaments. We couldn't have done this without your generous support, so thank you so much!!!”

  With gratitude,

  Teacher DiColandrea

• Books for Speech & Debate Team!

  Funded May 2, 2016

  Having a class set of these books has been instrumental in building a really strong foundation for our brand new novices as well as our returning team members. These books give kids a simple and yet nuanced way of learning about geography and countries in context of each other that will help them not only in Speech & Debate but also just as global citizens to understand the world better.

  And of course, since the books are ours to keep, kids are annotating and highlighting to their hearts' content, which makes it easier for all of my students (and especially the new freshmen) to really grasp and process what they are reading.

  Thank you so much for your generosity in funding these books for us!”

  With gratitude,

  Teacher DiColandrea

• Send Our Speech Team to the Villiger Tournament in Philadelphia!

  Funded Oct 17, 2016

  We can't thank you enough for the opportunity to travel to Philadelphia to compete in the Villiger Speech & Debate Invitational at St. Joseph's University. Because of your generosity, we were able to take a record number of kids and - not only that - but we did better than we have ever done at any national circuit tournament!

  For the first time ever, we won a Team Sweepstakes award at a national tournament, coming in 8th place overall of the many schools that were there. That included taking 2nd Place in Duo, 4th Place in Oratory, a Finalist in Student Congress, Semi-Finalists in Humorous, Extemp, and Oratory, and even a Quarter-Finalist in Declamation (a freshman who was competing nationally for the first time!)

  We could not have done this without your support. Thank you so much!!”

  With gratitude,

  Teacher DiColandrea

  This classroom project was brought to life by Gates Foundation & Think It Up Supporters and 11 other donors.