Past projects 8
Snack Attack for Regents Review
Funded May 9, 2023It is with great gratitude and appreciation that I write this letter to you for your kindness and willingness to give toward "Snack Attack for Regents Review" this year! With the awesome snacks, I was able to encourage more students to attend review sessions after school, because they knew they could concentrate without a grumbling belly.
My review sessions are usually challenging, even though we play competitive games, and when I asked if the snacks helped convince them to attend, every student emphatically said, "Yes!" They said they especially liked the variety of snacks and fresh water.
Thank you for your kind and generous donations! My students and I are very appreciative!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Lehnert
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Foundation and 6 other donors.Snack-Attack for Regents Review
Funded May 3, 2022I kept forgetting to take pictures at the later sessions because there were so many students in the room - sometimes up to 30 students - so the pictures don't show it, but your donation definitely helped get more students to attend review sessions after school in June of 2022! After the first session, the students told friends about the snacks and water, so more and more students showed up! One student said, "I thought the snacks would be small, but these are real adult-sized snacks!" So cute!
It seems like such a small thing, to offer healthy snacks, but when they've had a full day of school, and they still have an hour-long commute home on the subway afterwards, it really helps motivate them to stay and study if they can have something to eat. Each student was able to take a savory snack and sweet snack and a bottle of water (or two!), and they were so happy munching away while they worked on practice questions!
We had a 20% increase in passing rates on their Regents exams in June 2022 compared to the past 4 years, and I know the review sessions helped. Thank you so much for helping our students reach their goals! I think we will have to have "Snack-Attacks" every year!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Lehnert
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Drive-In and 6 other donors.Making Science Accessible for All With Chromebooks
Funded Aug 24, 2018Students LOVE their Chromebooks! I "flipped" my Earth Science classroom so students watch my lectures online. This way, we can spend more time practicing the concepts together - which is what students usually struggle with. Many of my students either don't have access to technology at home, or they want to complete their homework in a quiet space at school. So, students come up during their lunch time to use the computers to watch the videos and fill out their guided notes pages. In addition, if students are absent, they don't fall behind because they can just watch the video to learn the concepts.
Even though my recorded lectures are about 10 minutes, I can see that many of them are rewatching segments of the videos, so having the extra time with a Chromebook in school, away from a noisy household, is super helpful for them.
Thank you so much for making such a positive impact on students' lives!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Lehnert
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 5 other donors.Building Confidence Through Individualized Learning
Funded Aug 30, 2018Thank you so much for your donation! My students use the headphones every week to listen to the videos I've created for them. Most students only have to listen once, and they understand the concepts well enough to master them. But some students need to listen 2, 3 even 4 more times to fully "get it", and that's where the headphones are so very helpful.
Having the headphones and their own computer gives my students the opportunity to listen multiple times without feeling badly about themselves. No one else knows how many times they had to listen. No one else knows because the headphones give them privacy they wouldn't normally have in a traditional class setting.
Thank you for giving my students the chance to learn at their own pace!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Lehnert
This classroom project was brought to life by Verizon and 2 other donors.Ah-choo! Help Us Stay Healthy!
Funded Aug 7, 2017These materials have played a sort of invisible role in our classroom, but they allow students to have more time to learn. Every day, several different students wash their hands using the soap and paper towels, but they do this discretely so it took me a while to get some snapshots of them doing it! The most important thing, though, is the impact on my students. During allergy season in the spring and fall, students have easy access to tissues, and they come into my room from their other classes to get tissues because they know they are available. It's a great chance for me to have a quick check in with students and get to know them a little better! And, most importantly, because they don't have to go all the way to the restroom to blow their noses, they aren't missing out on valuable instruction time.
Students also love having clean desks in our classroom. Every week, at the beginning of the year, I wiped down the desks for them, and several students took over the job for me once they realized what I was doing. They said they appreciated that I cared enough for their health for them to have a germ-free desk each week that they wanted to help out! The wipes were also invaluable after our rock & minerals labs because they would leave so much dust behind on the desks. The Clorox wipes allowed students to quickly clean off their own desks at the end of class. If they had to use spray and paper towels, it would have taken much longer, taking time away from their practice with the minerals.
Thank you again for your donation for these materials. They have made all the difference in our classroom!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Lehnert
Making Science Accessible for All with Laptops
Funded Mar 28, 2018My students LOVED using the Chromebooks during the last couple of months! They used them to watch videos of Earth Science content to better understand what we were learning in class, and they loved playing the Kahoot review games to practice for the Regents exam.
I'm even more excited that my students who struggle in science (e.g., students with learning disabilities, or who are learning English as a second language) began to do better on quizzes and class discussions. One student told me that watching the videos really helped her to understand because she could pause the videos and go back and watch specific parts multiple times. And because she doesn't have Internet access at home, watching the videos during her lunch period was more convenient for her - she couldn't just go to the library after school because she has siblings to take care of when she gets home each day.
And finally, several of my students used the Chromebooks during class to work ahead on assignments. They were able to go to my Google Classroom webpage and look up the next assignment and get started on it during class! One student told me, "I like being able to do that because other students know that I'm working ahead and it makes me feel smarter, and I was never very good at science in middle school. So it feels good!" What an amazing gift you have given her -- to feel smart when she didn't think she could be successful in science! Thank you so much!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Lehnert
This classroom project was brought to life by Verizon and one other donor.Snacks for Science Regents Prep!
Funded Mar 27, 2018My students have been coming in every Saturday to attend two Regents review sessions - one for Algebra and one for my class, Earth Science. They are here from 9am til 1pm and by the time they get to the last hour, they are pretty tired. Your snacks have been the breath of fresh air they need to keep pushing themselves to the very end!
One student said, "Thank you for these fruit roll-ups, Miss! I love them!" She always rolls it around her pinky and snacks on it throughout the rest of the review session!
In addition to the snacks, they are always grateful for the water. I have a freezer in my classroom, so by the time they get the water, it's always a bit slushy. It's like a mad rush to get the slushy water when it is time for our "snack break!"
My students worked really hard this year during review, and I know it was in large part due to your generous gift of snacks to keep their bellies from grumbling while they are trying to concentrate on science. Thank you so very much!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Lehnert
This classroom project was brought to life by Ripple.Snack-Attack for Regents Review!
Funded Mar 28, 2017The first day we had a review session, my students were SO surprised at how great the snacks were! One student said, "Wow, Mrs. Lehnert, these are really good snacks! I was expecting just boring snack bars, but you went all out!" My heart was so happy. And, after that first day, the number of students who attended the review sessions just kept going up. Once they knew we had great snacks, and that they were able to choose which ones they wanted, it made it easier to choose to stay after school to work.
For each session, as soon as students arrived, they chose their snacks, and we sat and chatted for 5 minutes so they have some down time before we dove into learning. The first photo shows one group enjoying their snacks. We then began with some practice questions on paper, and after students felt more confident, we played review games on the computers that another teacher graciously let us borrow. One hour of review went by quickly because their bellies weren't growling and distracting them!
During the last few weeks of class, several students who were at the first 2 weeks of review sessions loudly proclaimed to the class how much better they understood what were doing in class because they attended review sessions! While I know that my planning makes a difference, if I didn't have the snacks, I would not be able to reach as many students. Giving more students the opportunity to be successful on their end-of-year exam will give them more opportunities for success in their future, and it doesn't get better than that.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Lehnert