Past projects 17
Supplies for Writer's Workshop!
Funded Nov 22, 2019With your generous donation, we have been able to implement our Writing Workshop. In middle school we take parts of the writing curriculum from Lucy Calkins, and incorporate ideas from high school writing teachers Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle.
Every student has a Writing Notebook which they treasure and love, and in this notebook students are encouraged to write down all their dreams, their fears, their stories. I remind them to write about their lives and I tell them "Your Words Matter, Your Story Matters."
Students start with ideas in their notebooks. We set content and audience awareness goals and the "big picture" ideas they want to show. We write for an extended amount of time to develop the idea, then revise using the different colored pens right away. We look at basic revising tactics such as replacing words, adding more, removing ideas completely, and rearranging ideas. Although students tend to steer towards surface features such as spelling, punctuation, and word choice, this is where peer conferences are essential because they remind students to focus on the overall meaning they want to convey (they love peer conferencing!) After multiple rounds of collaboration, they choose the writing pieces they want to take through the full writing process. The goal is to have them write everyday about topics and issues that are important to them, to focus on the craft and structure in other authors' works, mimicking the style, and altering it into their own. We love Writer's Workshop because we learn, we collaborate, and we share, and we can't thank you enough for helping us grow as authors.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Dickinson
Help Us Have Book Clubs!
Funded Feb 22, 2020I can’t thank you enough for your generosity! Having Book Clubs means being able to offer my middle schoolers choice in what they want to read. This truly makes them invested in it empowers them to love reading. We are so excited for these books to arrive and appreciate your donation!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Dickinson
Novels to Enhance the Joy of Reading!
Funded Oct 15, 2019I cannot thank you enough for your generosity in helping provide novels to my boisterous, inquisitive middle schoolers. These book sets will be used as anchors for our Book Clubs later this year. Students love Book Clubs because it gives them an opportunity to be social with their peers. I love Book Clubs because it provides a chance for students to not only practice academic language, but to also think critically beyond the plot. Although the "shape of the story" is important, as the year progresses we focus more on the author's word choices and intentions. With Book Clubs students are able to critique the author's style in an engaging manner. I've enjoyed having junior high students participate in Book Clubs for many years. But after recently reading the book 180 Days by Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher, I have been trying to model my curriculum based on their planning, teaching, and reflecting. I am able to provide ample opportunities for students to zoom in and dissect great writing because you've given me a chance to provide the resources. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Dickinson
This classroom project was brought to life by District Partnership Program and 4 other donors.Middle School Reads!
Funded Jul 26, 2019Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your generous donation! Building a classroom library filled with books that truly speak to middle school students has only been possible with your help. We are not only reading for enjoyment but also carefully tracking our thinking with post-its and pinpointing theme theories and author's craft. We have deep, meaningful book talks (see attached pictures) that students look forward to because they not only learn about other interesting genres they might not have gravitated toward, but they get a chance to socialize (which middle schoolers love!) and practice their speaking and listening skills in a structured manner. All the while we are building classroom community in engaging discussions. Thanks to your donation my classrooms of readers will become future leaders.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Dickinson
This classroom project was brought to life by Google.org and one other donor.Civil Rights: Understand the Past, Change the Future
Funded Feb 12, 2019We are completely floored that you have generously donated to this project! I promise that your donation is not taken for granted! We will be using the texts you've purchased for our Middle School Injustice Unit. This unit is based on student choice. Students view each novel through a "gallery walk," where they look at all the books and record the ones they are interested in. They fill out a preference sheet and are placed in like-minded groups. We thoroughly dive into the historical background in these books - the injustices of the Guatemalan Genocide, the Cambodian Genocide, and the history of slavery in our own country. My hope is that through this unit, students appreciate what they have, show empathy towards others, and strive to overcome adversities in their own lives. This is all possible due to your generous donation. Thank you so much.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Dickinson
Most Important Ingredient for Inspiration? Great Books!
Funded Nov 13, 2018Thank you so much for buying books for my students! Because of your constant generosity, my scholars will become poetry experts in no time! All because of YOU, Juatos! I'm excited to expose them to the light-hearted and humorous poetry of Shel Silverstein, someone whom many of them have even never heard of. It will also be the first time they'll learn about Shakespeare's famous sonnets, and understanding them will now be a cinch with No Fear Shakespeare! Just as I have, they are going to fall in love with Pam Munoz's The Dreamer, Thanhha Li's Inside Out and Back Again, Kwame Alexander's The Crossover, and Heidi W. Durrow's The Girl Who Fell From the Sky.
Your generosity allows us to read these award-winning books, and we cannot thank you enough! You are our holiday angel Juatos! We love you so much.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Dickinson
Think Ink!
Funded Mar 27, 2018Thank you so much for contributing to our classroom. The ability to print is of the utmost importance to a Language Arts classroom, where written pieces are composed weekly. We type up a variety of papers such as short stories and literary analyses. We print out ideas for our debate and our argument paper. All the work we create is printed out and put into our portfolio. By the end of the year, we have a compilation of our hard work, which we reflect on and share. It takes so much ink to print multiple papers for 80+ students, so we are very thankful for your generous donation!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Dickinson
This classroom project was brought to life by Ripple and one other donor.School Store Supplies
Funded Dec 8, 2016The students and I are so thankful for your contribution to this project. Without you our School Store would not have been a success! The school I work at has this amazing positive behavior incentive program that rewards students for good citizenship and responsible behavior. Students are able to use these points to purchase items at the School Store. When hearing that items such as Polaroid cameras and gel pens were available at the store, students were so excited! It was so encouraging to see acts of kindness and an overwhelming urge to earn more points. These items were motivation for students to understand that outstanding work and behavior really does pay off! Thank you so much for your generous donation - we are so appreciative!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Dickinson
Inner City Students Need Supplies!
Funded Mar 13, 2016Thank you SOOOOOOOOO much for these supplies!! We are so happy now because we have lead pencils (they are so much better than regular ones) and folders. We have put our names on our things so no one is stealing them from each other. And even if we lose a pencil, we have extras! The notebooks have been useful as well because we have run out. This project has helped us keep organized and take responsibility for our things. Plus, we are SOOOOOO grateful that it was funded so quickly!!!! Of all things, that is what has made us the most ecstatic and feel the luckiest. Finally, this project has shown us that there are good samaritans in the world. Thank you.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Dickinson
This classroom project was brought to life by Ashoka & Think It Up Supporters and one other donor.Supply School Supplies!
Funded Feb 17, 2016Thank you so much for your generous donation! My students and I are so appreciative of the help you have given our classroom. With these materials, we are able to produce wonderful, colorful work. We have already used the notepads and huge post-it charts for class assignments! These materials have helped us chart our progress as we are reading our novels, and will also be used when we create our final projects! I cannot thank you enough for these much-needed materials. It is because of Good Samaritans like you that make this possible!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Dickinson