Past projects 7
Help 1st Graders Stay Engaged, Organized & Healthy!
Funded Sep 18, 2024Thank you so much for your contributions to my classroom. With these little ones, we are always washing hands, cleaning tables and using tissues and sanitizer. It is beyond helpful to have these items in stock and plentiful instead of having to constantly go to the store and purchase.
The ziploc bags are great for our book baggies that students bring books to and from home each night. They have also come in handy when students lose a tooth! We've used the ziplocs to organize our learning centers and academic tools.
The printer ink has been a life saver, allowing me to print visual supports, line spots, learning tools, and classroom signs - all of which help students academically, socially and emotionally.
Again, sincerest thanks for your donation to my project. My students and I appreciate your thoughtfulness!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Byrns
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community & an Anonymous Partner and one other donor.Help Newcomer Students Feel Welcome and Learn English!
Funded May 9, 2023The arrival of these Spanish resources made my students so happy. During reading periods, my Spanish speaking students struggled to find books they were interested in in Spanish, and the english books were too challenging. Before we received your donation, students had a few vocabulary worksheets with pictures to read, or they worked on an ipad. When these books arrived, they were so excited for reading periods, and they were also able to practice reading english words because they had the bilingual translations next to them.
Students also loved to sit with a teacher and learn new vocabulary words using these resources. It brought my students a sense of comfort, in a very overwhelming and new environment where their home language was not often spoken. We were able to give our students a selection of books to choose from during reading periods, and without your donation, this would not have been possible. Thank you so much for your generosity and thoughtfulness in providing our classroom and students with these supportive and enriching resources.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Byrns
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Foundation and 2 other donors.Help Replenish our Classroom Library
Funded Oct 22, 2021Thank you so much for providing us with a number of books for our lower and mid level readers. In the beginning of the year, we had a hard time finding new and exciting books for many of my students. Now, our library bins are full of options for them! Some of the titles we received from different batches were the same, which is amazing, because now students can read the same book as their classmates at the same time and have book chats about them. The more we can get kids talking about books, the better!
Your donation has also helped us build our library to match our reading curriculum needs. A few units we teach in 3rd grade are "Series Books," "Mysteries," and "Animal Research Clubs." We use a few mentor texts to teach students, but for daily during independent reading, students are supposed to read books in these genres, and before your donation, we had a limited supply. Now we can offer our students multiple book bins to look through while "book shopping" every week. We received lots of National Geographic animal books, in addition to other nonfiction animal books. Now, we are able to curate a stack of books for at least 10 animals for students to choose from for their research projects! For our mystery series unit, we had a lot of higher level books available, but now our developing readers can get the same quality of text with the Young Cam Jansen series you donated. Cam Jansen was a favorite of mine as a student, and I'm so excited to have at least 12 different titles for my students to read!
It has been so heart warming to see my students get excited about the new books we have introduced to ur classroom, so I again thank you for your donation. We feel so lucky to be recipients of your generosity, and wish you all the best in return!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Byrns
This classroom project was brought to life by Dollar General Literacy Foundation and 2 other donors.Putting Kids in Control of Their Learning with Flexible Seating
Funded Mar 23, 2020Thank you so much for donating these flexible seating options for my students! Especially now, during our socially distanced classroom, there are few options for students to have flexible seating choices, however, these cushioned chairs with backs are easy to move around the room, and students can space out comfortably and safely.
Students sit in these chairs during lessons and during independent work time. They constantly tell me how much they love the chairs, saying how comfortable they are, and always opting to sit in them rather than their desk chairs. They love how these chairs also have different levels of incline, so during lessons or written work, they can sit upright, but when they are enjoying some independent reading, they can set the seat back to be lower and have more of a reclined feel.
Each student has their own chair, so it's never an argument of who can sit there, unlike other options for flexible seating. We appreciate your generosity so much, and we are so grateful that there are donors out there helping to make daily life in the classroom so much more enjoyable.
Thank you again!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Byrns
Support 21st Century Learning In My Classroom!
Funded Feb 2, 2017First off, my students absolutely love using the Chrome books. Every day during reading, they rush over to me asking if they can use the Chrome book. We mainly use the Chrome books for a website that had hundreds of books that can be read aloud to you, and as it reads it highlights the words to support student learning of vocabulary and improve their phonemic awareness. We've also used them in partnerships to play math games that support fact fluency and mental math problem solving.
As technology becomes a bigger part of our society, it is important for us as educators to educate our students in a way that makes sense. Gone are the days of solely chalkboard writing; we are trying to teach our children to use resources around them to solve daily issues, and to develop the necessary skills to make them successful in their futures. Many schools, elementary level, middle and high schools are trying to raise funds to support 21st century learning so they can teach students to type, to use the internet, and impressively, how to code programs and apps. As a society, we are seeing the impact technology has on our lives and sometimes we see or face the struggles that can arise when we don't understand it. It's exciting to learn and grow with the students in this technological world.
The Chrome books in our classroom have been shared among everyone, and we are seeing a growing interest in reading. We especially see an increased motivation for our English Language Learners and Students with Disabilities, for whom reading is sometimes a great challenge and can be frustrating for them at times. Being able to use the Chrome books to listen to a story being read aloud, while being able to follow the words, has not only helped with their comprehension of stories, but also has helped their phonemic awareness. We are very hopeful that the more we use the Chrome books, the stronger our students will become in their academic work.
The students and I are so appreciative of your generosity, and we thank you very much for your contribution to our classroom.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Byrns
This classroom project was brought to life by Google.org and 8 other donors.Let's Get Interactive with Amazing iPad Apps!
Funded Jun 17, 2015Thank you again for helping fund my project for getting an iPad for my classroom! My students are incredibly excited to have this wonderful piece of technology in our classroom, they are always so eager to use it. Some students have the opportunity to have iPads at home while others do not - therefore we have a mix of students who are familiar with its use, and those who aren't. It's so wonderful to see kids working together, teaching each other, and having a great time while doing so.
As of now, the students mainly use the iPad for math apps, helping them build fluency with their multiplication facts, improve their skills involving factors and multiples, review addition and subtraction problems, and even work on some tricky word problems! We also have a few word study apps that help build student's vocabulary.
In their joy and excitement with using the iPad in the classroom, students are working together to play math games, encouraging each other, and giving helpful clues to one another. They work hard to earn time to use the iPad and I'm looking forward to seeing how these educational apps help enhance my student's knowledge. Thanks again! We're having a blast :)”
With gratitude,
Ms. Byrns
Help Us Teach Each Other Using an ELMO Document Camera!!
Funded Mar 14, 2015I wanted to send another quick thank you for donating to my project that allowed my class to receive an ELMO document camera. It helped my class so much last year be able to show how they used math tools such as protractors and rulers to measure lines and angles in preparation for our state test. It also allowed students to show their work in their notebooks of how they either solved a problem, or wrote pieces to a story or essay. By using the ELMO, I was able to underlines parts of a text that the students had copies of, and make notes in the margin to help them discover the main ideas, or significant events in the text that we could later refer to.
Additionally, this document camera helps me explain instructions for worksheets or show how students should be taking notes in their notebooks. Being able to project a physical, interactive object, such as a notebook and pencil, and being able to display the processes of our activities onto the smart board has given my students the opportunities to follow along step by step, and see a model of how something should look. As we read stories and texts that are projected, it provides a visual for students to look at and follow along, so that when we stop to think about what we are reading, we can jot our notes down right on the paper and students can see.
I am so thankful to have received your generous donations, my students and I are so fortunate to have this piece of technology in our classroom. As teachers, we appreciate the many things that we can do to help our students become better learners, and you've helped make that possible for me. Thanks again!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Byrns