Mr. Kalver's Classroom Edit display name

Current requests

Past projects 8

• In Music Exploration: Uke Can Do It

  Funded Dec 3, 2024

  My students are loving the new ukeleles and enjoy learning this new instrument. When this program started all that was available were some keyboards, but now with your aid you have opened up a world of music application through the stringed instrument that makes everyone feel like a modern indi-rock star, the ukelele. These ukeleles have been a medium of fun, music application and for many the first instrument my students have ever gotten to learn.

  When my students finished taking their first test this past week, tuned up, crackedopen the music booklets that came with the ukeleles and started learning our first uke chords together. The students were enamored with the sounds they strummed, and then they took their time to start reading the charts, laying their fingers down, and busted out the chords for the first song they will learn how to play, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star--Gmajor and Cmajor. This was their first time applying music skills outside of just appreciating music as a listener.

  As my students took their skills from listening to music application their faces lit up. At the end of class, the ones who took the opportunity to play shared their thoughts on the instrument. Some said, "It [the ukelele] was cool!" Others said this was their first time ever playing an instrument. Giving these setudent that kind of experience was surreal and made me so elated--sharing the opportunity to play music has always been ineffible, and sharing it with between 30 and 60 students a class each semester is a very warming feeling. My next steps for my students is to do a multi-instrumental project with centers where students take music theory of chords and turn it into a multi-instrumental application using the piano and our new donated ukeleles.”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Kalver

  This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 2 other donors.

• Keep Learning Lit in Kalver's Class

  Funded Nov 1, 2021

  My students are loving the hip-hop mnemonics for learning using Flocabulary. They have started diving deep into multi-culturalism through the Harlem Renaissance. Because of your videos they have been exposed to Floridian icon, Zora Neale Hurston and many other famous names like Langston Hughes and his poem "Dreams." My students are excited to learn new vocabulary terms, and work diligently to fill in the blanks in the Cloze activities as a group, when they watch the songs and videos from the projector.

  Several students who don't normally have an appreciation for rap and hip hop have found a new interest in this style of music because of your donation. With videos that effectively act as great anticipatory set for my lessons, this program has bridged into the main lesson smooth as butter. It is without a doubt that Flocabulary makes my students want to come to class and makes teaching way more fun.

  Thank you again for providing my class this tool. It makes learning too lit to quit.”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Kalver

• Making Organization Too Lit to Quit

  Funded Oct 27, 2021

  I am excited for another full year of implementing in-person activities and my students having folders for the new semester. Before today, their folders were falling apart.

  My students were excited to get new folders. One student gasped with joy, and her face lit up. Another was pumped for another folder to put their drawings all over. With the prongs in the folders, these students will be able to stay more organized and some have already started making title and concluding pages for creative control of their new materials. These durable folders have students stoked to learn more, and fill with new information.

  Thank you for making this new semester of materials happen for my students; these will surely keep them most organized and ready to stay in it to win it.”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Kalver

• Mindful, Musical and Organized

  Funded Sep 16, 2021

  Thank you for the Toss and Talk ball, classroom instrument, sports-book and tripod.

  Dramatic projects in my English Language Arts Class, fun reads, and SEL devices are what is going to make for an unforgettable school year, and I have you to thank.

  More than anything else, the greatest resource from your donation has been the Toss and Talk Ball. This SEL device, and aforementioned Toss and Talk ball has our students knowing each other more this year than any other year I have been a teacher. I swear, this ball has a lot to do with it. It has made this school year as normal as possible, in a time of ab-normalcy.

  My classroom doesn't have a cameraman, but prior to your donation, it has had a camera and a Clapboard. When we do Shakespeare like a pirate, or read plays together this tripod is going to keep the camera steady, so students can partake in video recording projects and opportunities for extra credit, allowing them opportunity to gauge their skill at reading, reciting, and memorizing. It's a great aid in 21st century teaching.”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Kalver

• Comics Vs. Graphic Novels

  Funded May 16, 2021

  Thank you for your amazing donation for the book Maus, a graphic Novel zoomorphing events and people in History. It is with your thoughtful gestures that my class has access to a tangible form of the novel, which is most necessary for a successful Multi-cultural Novel Study. These students are so happy they have access to their own classroom-copy--it makes the learning experience.

  Because my students are hands on learners, reading in my classroom looks like faces in books, hungry for the mix of pictures and images and text-bits. For the majority of my students, this book exposes students to a more digestible telling of one's memory of the Holocaust and Surviving it in comic form.

  The students love how the book ties the informative text to the events. My students who enjoy it the most are those who have a fire for learning about the Holocaust. Student S.L enjoyed the novel so much, she competed it days before we could complete it as a class.”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Kalver

• Maus and Surviving History

  Funded Apr 23, 2021

  This donation has enriched the experience of my students and their knowledge of the Holocaust in my classroom. Because we live in a technological age with tons of information available to us, we also have access to misinformation. The Scholastic Magazines have guaranteed that only factual content has been put in the hands of my learners, and it connects concepts of colonization such as the part of the magazine "Conquering of Europe," with activities that reward and connect my students' to a proper celebration of learning; playing the board game RISK.

  In my classroom reading has been very eye-opening and allowed students to make connections to what we learned about the Harlem Renaissance in the portion of "A Shattered History." Students were able to cite connections with the literature during our the Virtual field trip to the Holocaust Memorials.

  My creative students have been using their skills as poets to turn new "Words To Know" into poems. It was nice watching them take the Words to Know in the Glossary, and make them into art. The following poem is written by my student, RR.

  Deathcamp of mayhem,

  People dying left and right.

  We try to live

  While being forced to march to death.

  -RR

  I love how powerful this Scholastic Magazine has made my students' writing and understanding of history, in my Language Arts Class.”

  With gratitude,

  Mr. Kalver