Past projects 15
Creative Building With Legos and Magna-Tiles
Funded Nov 10, 2024Thank you for choosing to donate to my classroom so that my students can have Legos and Magna-Tiles to play with when they complete their work. My students were so happy to open the boxes and see several cases of Legos, building bricks, and Lego base plates arrive. We had one small bin of donated Legos already in my classroom, so seeing our collection multiply so quickly brought a lot of joy and excitement. They immediately opened all of the mini bags of colored pieces and started building. I actually have mini builds scattered throughout my room now and will hopefully get a bookshelf soon to display everything on!
We also love having more Magna-Tiles in the classroom. Prior to this project, we had one small bin of Magna-Tiles from a previous Donors Choose project. There never seemed to be enough squares for building and lots of students had to share the limited supply. With this new project, we tripled our number of Magna-Tiles and had to move them to a much larger bin. More students are able to play with them during choice time and the creations are bigger and better than before.
I am always looking for new things to bring to my classroom so that it remains a fun and engaging space to be in. While requesting Legos and Magna-Tiles was one of my more simple projects, it has brought a lot of smiles and creativity. Thank you for being part of this awesome classroom experience. I can't wait to see what my students build next!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Seseske
This classroom project was brought to life by Charles Schwab Foundation and 6 other donors.Selfie Wall of Fame and Book Binding Success
Funded Apr 22, 2024Back in 2015, I started a tradition of taking selfies with students to print and hang on the walls of my classroom. Students can choose any teacher in the building that they have a relationship with to take a selfie with. I then email the photo to myself, print it on our school printers, and display them on my classroom walls. Before we returned to the classroom after the COVID shutdown, we had to remove everything off of our walls, and could only have items hung if they were covered in plastic. I took this time to carefully remove the years of selfies, laminated them, and rehung them. I also recently took a deep dive into my old laptops to see if there were any other selfies from my earlier years of teaching. I found selfies dating back to 2008 through 2014, which I took with my Canon camera!
When students, teachers, and administrators come into my classroom, they feel a sense of pride and love as they are surrounded by smiling faces of previous and current students and staff.
I also started a new initiative this year of having my students do weekly visual vocab activities. With this, I choose an essential vocabulary word from our current science section. I know my students meet the Criteria for Success when their visual vocab has the essential vocabulary word on it, has a short description written on it, looks like what the word is supposed to look like, and can tell someone what the visual vocab is showing.
This year, several of our students have gotten into having personal steering wheels to "drive" around the school. Many of them want key fobs to go along with their steering wheels that they put on key rings. Having extra laminating sheets is wonderful because now we can laminate new steering wheels as requested, though we do wait to be able to fill a whole sheet first. These boys feel so proud having (laminated!) steering wheels from cars like Corvette, Bugatti, BMW, Toyota RAV4, Hyundai Tiburon, Lamborghini, Mercedes, Nissan, and Volkswagen. Some even have vanity plates on the backside of the steering wheels. The year started off with just two students with steering wheels, and now at least nine students have them. It has sort of become an unofficial club - we love it and we are here for it.
I am excited to have our own book binding machine in the classroom. For years, I have borrowed one from our art teacher. It is a heavy and awkward piece of equipment that I have carried back and forth between her classroom and mine. She regularly uses it for her art classes, so I always felt bad asking to borrow it. In my project, I requested a similar book binding machine, but one that is a bit smaller and easier to carry. I am thrilled that I can now house this machine in my classroom and use it for projects whenever the need arises without having to ask permission and borrow from a colleague.
Thank you for supporting my classroom so that I can continue my Selfie Wall of Fame tradition. I am excited to show you photos of my classroom walls after I hang more up. With my new supplies, I can now laminate recent selfies as well as new ones that I know will happen. I also now have enough command strips to hang the selfies right away and hopefully for years to come!
Back when I started my selfie wall in 2015, my students had personal piggy banks where they earned plastic coins throughout the day. They used their money to "buy" things in the classroom like, "lunch with my teacher for $2.00," "sit in the fun chair for $1.00," "have my nails painted for $1.50," and "selfie with a teacher for $2.50." The majority of my classroom selfies were purchased through this reward system; however, things changed with COVID.
Our program has changed a lot since COVID. One of our biggest changes was having the majority of our students move from the MCAS alternate portfolio to the full MCAS test. We want all of our students to receive their high school diploma at their high school graduation, and the only way for them to do that now is to pass the MCAS test. If we kept our students on the MCAS alternate portfolio, they would receive a certificate of attendance in place of their diploma. We want to give our students every chance possible to walk that stage proudly and go on to greater things.
With this change, we changed our instruction to a richer curriculum. We no longer use the piggy bank reward system in our program. I knew I needed a new way for students to take selfies. This year, I started the "birthday selfie" so that all students have the opportunity to be featured on the Selfie Wall of Fame and can still choose a favorite teacher to take it with. We also take selfies with families when they come to visit our program and proudly display those as well. My ultimate goal is to fill the walls of my classroom and then hang them from my ceiling on clotheslines when I run out of wall space.
My hope is that when students come back to visit, I can show them their pictures on my classroom walls and say, "look, there you are back when you were in middle school," or "look, there you are with your mom. Tell her I said hello." We have had several students come back to visit us since June 2022, and they have all been shocked to see that their selfies are still displayed in my classroom. Our most recent post-grad visitor brought along her six month old baby girl. We obviously took a selfie together and our student and her baby will forever be on my Selfie Wall of Fame.
My Selfie Wall of Fame is simply this: once you are a student of ours, you are always a student of ours. We want to see our students grow, thrive, and mature into young adults who are contributing and happy members of their communities. Looking back at these selfies on my wall is a way to say, "look how far you've come."”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Seseske
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Supporter and 7 other donors.Colorful Additions to the Classroom Mini Version #3!
Funded Sep 6, 2023Thank you so much for donating to our classrooms. It feels wonderful knowing that we have such a strong community of supporters. We are grateful that you chose our project for your donation.
We have a new teacher on our team this year, and we wanted to use our project to help build their classroom environment. Before the year began, our new ELA teacher's classroom was pretty bare, from the blank bulletin boards to the blank storage closets. Now, their space is an inviting and safe space for learning. The new inspirational posters and rainbow trim pop against the black bulletin board paper and look great on the cabinets. Students walk into this learning space and feel like they belong.
Another item we requested for our new ELA teacher was colorful three ring binders, which are being used to organize student work and their writing samples. Each binder is beautifully labeled and grouped by class on the back counter in the classroom. Students can easily locate their binders and get ready to learn.
As simple as these next items are, I need to thank you for the Mr. Sketch markers, cardstock paper, erasers, and push pins. My students love using the markers on our Friday visual vocab posters where we draw and label important vocabulary from the science textbook. As you read this note, I'm sure you can picture students choosing their marker color and giving it a good sniff before actually using them. They all smell so good – fruit punch, cherry, and watermelon are the top scents! These visual vocab posters are proudly displayed around my classroom. The markers really help the vocabulary terms and meaning stand out from the drawings.
I used the cardstock paper on an earlier project in the year when my students drew half portraits of themselves and wrote a poem about their favorite things. I attached their poems to the portraits using cardstock to add a pop of color and also to give the poems a firmer paper to be displayed on. They all looked beautiful at our fall Open House. I still have a bunch leftover that I look forward to using on a future project.
I love having a jar of chunky erasers for my students to use during class. The erasers on pencils, including those pencil top erasers, just don't hold up to the strength of a middle schooler erasing something. I have the erasers in a jar in the middle of our learning space so that they are easily accessible for when my students need to fix an error or erase a line on their visual vocab posters.
With all the corkboards in our ELA classroom, our newest teacher loves having the push pins to display student work. Push pins are so much easier to use than staples since they can easily be removed without damaging the bulletin board itself. Plus, they add a nice pop of color to the work itself.
Finally, I love having the new storage baskets in my classroom. I use them daily to organize my students' science notebooks. My notebooks used to be scattered across the counter of my room, but now it is so easy to grab the basket full of class notebooks off the counter when class begins. Students also know the routine to close their notebooks and return them to the baskets at the end of class. It is amazing how simple it is to organize those materials now, and how good everything looks. I also use the storage baskets to organize instructional science children's books. Prior to having them, these books were not sorted, and it was difficult searching for one on a certain topic. Now, they are all sorted by categories in respective baskets such as properties of matter, energy, outer space, Earth, natural disasters, and weather. All I need now is another bookshelf for my overflow! Thank you for beautifying and organizing our learning space!
Thank you again for choosing to donate to our classrooms. We have so many amazing supplies, beautiful learning spaces, and organization because of you! My colleagues and I appreciate your support. Please keep an eye out for a future project. We are always thinking of new ways to make our classrooms the best they can possibly be. Thank you.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Seseske
This classroom project was brought to life by Charles Schwab and 5 other donors.Colorful Additions to the Classroom (Take Two)!
Funded Aug 15, 2023Thank you so much for giving to our classrooms and program. It is always an exciting feeling watching our project gain momentum and finally seeing it reach its goal. Thank you for that.
When we opened our packages, we shared them all immediately with our students. I loved watching their reactions and listening to them share their feelings of excitement, "Wow!" " I love those!" or "I can't wait to use that."
Visual timers are now in all our classrooms. Students enjoy watching the color fade on the timer and having that visual awareness of how much time is left for class or how much time is left before going to lunch. I also like being able to do a quick check in with the timer to make sure I'm on track with my lesson goal.
I think one of the best items I have ever received for my classroom are left-handed scissors. Our left-handed students (most for the first time ever in their lives) were finally able to comfortably cut paper. They shared things like, "These don't hurt my hand," "It actually feels normal," or "It feels great." What a wonderful feeling it was to see these students do something so simple as cutting paper. I even gave a pair of scissors to our speech-language pathologist, who is left-handed. As she cut a piece of paper, she had the biggest grin on her face. She told me that she had used universal scissors before, but never a pair made for left-handed people. Your donation towards this item has already impacted so many lives and improved the quality of cutting paper.
My colleagues and I love having Mr. Sketch markers! We have all already used them for anchor charts in our classroom. Mr. Sketch markers not only smell great, but they really are the best markers for chart paper projects. I know that I'm looking forward to creating more colorful anchor charts this year for my students!
In my science class, I have a new goal this year called "Visual Vocab Fridays." We are going to create mini posters of vocabulary for whatever section we are currently working on. Already, this has been a wonderful endeavor for my classes. My students are I engage in conversation about the vocabulary while we color and gain a deeper understanding of what the words mean. So far (keep in mind, October just began!), we have created mini posters for erosion (weathering, erosion, and deposition), chemical weathering (caves with stalactites and stalagmites), and coastal erosion. Students use their new colored pencils to add color to their posters. I love having many colored pencils so that students can use whatever color they want without having to wait for another student to finish using it.
My colleague who teaches math on our team is incredibly thankful to have a class set of clipboards, rulers, and dice. She often has students walking around the room collecting data. Having clipboards makes that so much easier for everyone involved. We no longer scramble to find clipboards to use! My colleague also loves doing lessons with dice and always had to send out emails to staff asking to borrow dice. Those days are behind us now that she has a full set of colorful dice to use whenever she wants.
Displaying student work is one thing that all teachers love to do. I love going into classrooms and quickly seeing whatever it is that students are working on. Prior to Open House this year, I had my students draw half portraits of themselves. We used colors of the world crayons so that students could match their skin tones. So much pride went into these posters. Finally, I had my students write "I am" poems that described their favorite things and special things about themselves (e.g., birth month, family role). My poem was, "I am Mrs. Seseske. I am brownies. I am November. I am mother. I am summer. I am Thanksgiving. I am run. I am breakfast. I am purple. I am beach. I am science. I am Massachusetts. I am cat. I am me. I am Mrs. Seseske." After the students finished their poems, I stapled them to our new cardstock and then attached them to the bottoms of their self-portraits. I used our new magnets to display them on our whiteboard. Families at Open House loved the portraits and poems. It felt great knowing that we used quality material for something that will absolutely be displayed at home.
Last but certainly not least, I'd like to thank you for the pencil grips. While not an expensive or large item, students love having them as an option for their pencils. I even sent one up to my student at the high school who inspired me to get them. Whenever he asked for one last year, I always had to say no, but now I can say, "yes, here you go!"
I am always thinking of new materials to bring to my classroom to make learning more fun, engaging, and enriching. Thank you for being part of my teaching journey and I hope you consider giving to my next project.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Seseske
This classroom project was brought to life by The SONIC Foundation and 4 other donors.Oversized Game Fun!
Funded Oct 2, 2022Thank you so much for donating to our classrooms! With your donation, we now have amazing oversized games in our program.
In 2005, I was a long term substitute in a 4th grade classroom in Rhode Island. In this classroom, the lead teacher who I was subbing for had a tradition of "Fun Friday," which I was excited to learn about as a brand new teacher fresh out of college. Fun Friday is celebrated on the last Friday of each month. On Fun Friday, there are no traditional lessons, just fun activities! I loved this monthly tradition and knew I wanted to continue it when I had my own classroom.
Randolph hired me in 2006, and I've celebrated Fun Friday with my students every single month for the past 17 years. Fun Friday has looked different over the course of my Randolph career. Sometimes, it included movies or arts & crafts, free choice time, or traditional board games. Fun Friday looks a lot different this year and feels way more fun.
Last year, I had this idea to bring oversized games to our program for us to use on Fun Friday. I shared this idea with my team, and as you'd expect, they were fully on board. We brainstormed a bunch of games and searched online for inspiration. We decided to request a 4 foot tall Connect Four, Cornhole, carpet Tic-Tac-Toe / Checkers, Giant Jenga, and Ladder Toss.
When it's not Fun Friday, our games are safely stored in our updated sensory room, so that pieces don't get lost and so that the games feel special when brought out. This strategy has worked so far, and Fun Friday has been an exciting day for the past few months.
Our students top two favorite games are Cornhole and Connect Four. Giant Jenga is a close second place. Our students are practicing friendly competition and are also working through natural disagreements when games don't go the way they want them to.
These games have brought a lot of joy and smiles to our students and staff. I am confident that Fun Friday will continue to include these oversized games for years to come. Thank you!!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Seseske
This classroom project was brought to life by The Allstate Foundation and 12 other donors.Comfortable and Cozy Classroom Vibe
Funded Aug 10, 2022Thank you so much for your donation to my classroom for our classroom rugs. As you saw in my recent photos I shared, I love having color in my classroom. Prior to COVID, I had a large rug in my classroom that students used. Many would sit on the floor during instruction or use a floor desk (a prior Donors Choose donation!!) to complete their assignments. However, when COVID hit, we were instructed to remove everything "extra" from our classrooms. My colleague who had donated the rug to me, brought the rug back to her home and its been there ever since.
When we returned from remote learning in the 20-21 school year, my classroom felt different. My walls were bare and the rug was gone.
At the end of last year, we renovated our sensory room (another prior Donors Choose donation!!). My team painted the walls and created a safe space for our students. When we were done painting the room, I realized a rug would complete the space. I then realized that if I was going to request a rug for the sensory rug, I could also request rugs for my classroom and bring back that cozy vibe I'd been missing.
When the rugs arrived, we immediately got them in their spaces: two in my classroom, one in my colleague's classroom, and the sensory room rug. My rugs inspired me to get my walls redecorated, so I took any free time I had to hang up my classroom selfies, which you can see in some of my uploaded photos. My classroom was getting its vibe back.
My students and I use the rugs every single day. During our daily dose of CNN10, we all (myself included!) lie or sit on the rug to watch the news. During Friday meditation time, students often lie on the rug to relax and practice their deep breathing. Once a month, my team hosts Fun Friday, which is the last Friday of the month. On Fun Friday, we don't teach any classes!! Instead, our students have choices of games in our classrooms. This year's Fun Fridays are all about the oversized games (another prior Donors Choose donation!!). In my classroom, students played giant Jenga on the rug, as you can see in one of my uploaded photos. The rug certainly helped protect us and the blocks when the towers eventually fell! In the sensory room, students are able to lie down on the new rug and relax in order to regroup. Finally, having the vacuum has been amazing to keep our rugs clean. Students have even helped vacuum and have also been amazed at the amount of dust that empties out afterwards.
The goal of this project was to create a cozy and comfortable vibe. As one educator said when she came to my classroom, "Oh my goodness! Just look at your room!!" This is exactly what I want people to feel when they enter my space. I want my students to feel comfortable learning and welcome in the classroom.
I love having all of my Donors Choose projects come together like this. Because of you and your support, I am able to provide my students with a fun, cozy, and comfortable learning environment. Thank you for all you do and keep an eye out for my next project! I'm sure it will be another great one!!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Seseske
This classroom project was brought to life by Charles Schwab and 5 other donors.Sensory Room Makeover!
Funded Feb 10, 2022I would like to take this time to thank all of you for your generous support of our sensory room project at Randolph Community Middle School in Randolph, MA. My team was completely surprised when our project was fully funded within 24 hours and felt thrilled as materials began to arrive.
Given the busyness of the school year and the incredible amount of responsibilities, we could not find the time to do our sensory room project makeover. In June however, we learned that our seven make-up days (two power outage days, two COVID closure days, and three snow days) would all be early release days. Teachers were instructed to inform administration of how we would "fill our time" in the afternoons. My team immediately emailed saying we'd love to use that time for our sensory room makeover project.
As you may recall, the sensory room is a former office space that is divided into two sections. During our final week of early release days, we focused our time in making over the back section. This back room will be dedicated to students who need quiet space to calm down and regroup. I am so proud of what we did there.
We decided to paint the back room purple since purple is a calming color. I've always loved those artistic geometric walls, so for the first time ever, I painted a geometric sensory wall that I will always be proud of. My colleague painted the top shelves the middle purple shade and painted the bottom shelves the darker purple shade. We weren't intending on painting the full back wall, but once the geometric wall was complete, we knew we had to finish the space, so we used the lightest shade for that wall. We are so proud of the space.
Next year, we are going to focus on the front section of the room as a space for students to calm down and regroup with projects, play with kinetic sand, or build their dream city out of MagnaTiles. We intend to paint the bookshelves you see in the picture a pastel rainbow. All will be welcome here.
When we brought our students in to see the painted room, they all gasped and stared. Some even went up to the geometric wall and traced it with their fingers. I asked how they would feel in this space. One of our students -one who frequently needs this space- replied with, "oh, I could totally relax in here."
This sensory room project has been a dream in the making for so many years. We now have a space to call our own and we have claimed it beautifully. I cannot thank you enough for giving us the push to make this dream come true.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Seseske
This classroom project was brought to life by Black History Month Partners and 9 other donors.Calculators + USB Hubs = Connection
Funded Mar 10, 2021Thank you so much for your donation to my classroom. Both in person and remote learning distance learners use the calculators daily for their math lessons. It is so helpful for them to have individual calculators that they can keep in their storage boxes since we are still not allowed to share materials in the classroom. I look forward to that day again!
Thank you for the USB hubs. Given all of the technology and equipment that we use in the classroom now, our teacher laptops were not equipped to handle all of the cords and connections. These USB hubs have been such a life saver for being able to connect everything at once and not have to pick and choose about which piece of equipment to use.
I am already starting to think about next year and what fun projects we will be able to do again. I am hopeful that we can share materials and sit next to one another in the classroom. I am hopeful that school will feel like it used to, even if things are still a bit different. Please continue to follow my classroom and projects. It is because of your support that we are able to do so many incredible things. We are in this together!!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Seseske
Personal Storage and Personal Supplies for Safe Learning During COVID
Funded Sep 16, 2020Thank you so much for your generosity in choosing to donate to my project that supplied personal learning materials to my students. Teaching during a global pandemic is obviously something I never could have imagined doing in my lifetime. It is certainly not easy; however, because of these resources, my students are able to participate in their lessons safely.
When we started the year, we had seventeen students learning in-person and thirteen students learning remotely via Zoom. When the supplies arrived, we eagerly put boxes together for all of the students. Our in-person learners got their boxes the very next morning. Knowing that our remote students needed supplies as well, my co-workers and I delivered them to each home with a safe-from-a-distance drop off. It was wonderful seeing these remote students and their families in person – even with all of us wearing masks. I know that these supply boxes were a true gift.
To start each day in the classroom, my paraprofessional helps get the classroom set up by taking the personal supply bins out of larger storage bins to place on each student's personal learning table. Throughout the day, students use what they need without having to share with others. This is the same for our remote learners, who engage in our live instruction via Zoom. I love seeing them get their supplies from their bins for our various learning activities. Because of these personal learning supplies, our remote learners truly feel connected to our lessons.
On December 15, we learned that our school was going full remote immediately. Instead of having three more days to get ready for winter break, we had just a couple of hours to prepare. I was filled with pride and gratitude as my students put on their backpacks and carried their boxes of supplies out to the busses, not knowing when we would be back.
We recently learned that in-person learning will resume the week of January 19. However, our learning has not stopped and our students have the materials they need because of you and your donation to this project. I look forward to the day when we can all sit together during lessons and share a box of markers, but until then, we will continue doing the best we can with what we have. Right now, we have everything we need. Thank you.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Seseske
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose 20th Anniversary Fund and 13 other donors.Wiggle While You Learn, Part 2
Funded Nov 3, 2019Thank you so much for your generous donation to my classroom. I am deeply thankful for your contribution and your support of special education. For the past thirteen years, my students have had typical classroom chairs at their tables. I wanted to give my students a better experience in my room; providing alternative seating seemed like a great idea.
I teach three sections of science (6th grade section, 7th grade section, and 8th grade section) and one section of social studies (my IEP caseload students). I am so proud to report that students use the wobble chairs every single day in every single class. Some students even use more than one wobble chair at a time by sitting on one and resting their feet on the bottom of another. I have a few students who also prefer to learn while sitting on the floor; the portable floor desks have been the perfect solution for them. They are able to stretch out their legs and get their work done while their assignment hovers above them. Students are rocking and wobbling in my classroom; I absolutely love it!
Because so many wobble chairs and portable lap desks were delivered, we received quite a large number of brown boxes to open. The students were very excited opening the different boxes and guessing the colors of the next chairs. They immediately wanted to sit on them and try them out; the chairs have been used since day one of being in the classroom. I used your gift cards to purchase two more wobble chairs for my classroom.
While I do not have any active Donors Choose projects right now, I am always thinking of ways to brighten and enrich my classroom. Please keep my classroom in mind for any future donations you make. Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Seseske