Mrs. Mina Leazer's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 6

• I Can See the "White!"

  Funded Oct 13, 2011

  Please forgive the delay in response. Your donated whiteboards arrived just about a month ago, but I had been hoping to double the impact by sending pictures of our new interactive whiteboards as well. The two whiteboards were installed so that an interactive whiteboard could be mounted in the middle, and you could have seen how you helped bring our "vintage" classroom into the 21st century! There have been some unfortunate and bureaucratic delays, so these interactive whiteboards may not come for a long while.

  Nonetheless, thank you so much for your generous and thoughtful donations to our classroom. As I mentioned, our school does invest in interactive whiteboards which would have enhanced your gift, but now I'm just thankful that we have the whiteboards because they have helped the students at minimum to see and be engaged in lessons.

  Thanks to your whiteboards, we were also able to set up a digital projector in the classroom so that students can watch audio-visual presentations. This would not have been possible with our green chalkboards! The students have even been interacting with the images by writing on the actual whiteboards over the projected images.

  As I have mentioned before, I am grateful that in these difficult economic times, you were able to give to our students. I know they are touched by the fact that a world outside of themselves is thinking about their education and their future. Thank you for the moral booster for me as well. What a great way to keep us going in the mid-trimester slump!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Mina Leazer

• Can You See Me Now?

  Funded Dec 9, 2010

  Thank you for your generous donation to our classroom. Our students and I are constantly humbled and touched by the outside world's willingness to come into the classrooms and help out with basic necessities. Students often scramble to be the first in class so they can write the day's task on the whiteboards, and they have definitely helped students sitting in the rear to be able to see what I am writing. Thank you again for your kind thoughtfulness and taking the time to respond to our needs.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Mina Leazer

  This classroom project was brought to life by Barclays Capital and 3 other donors.

• How Do You Say...?

  Funded Mar 2, 2010

  As you can see from the pictures, we went from a hodge podge of mismatching dictionaries that I had picked up through my years of teaching, and a small set of paperback dictionaries whose pages kept falling out, to a beautiful class set of hard cover French-English dictionaries. Thank you for your generous donation to our class. The students are so used to getting the dictionaries from our self-service library on a daily basis, that they were a little surprised by the newness and freshness of our new dictionaries.

  Thank you for making our students feel important, honored and empowered. Vive le francais!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Mina Leazer

  This classroom project was brought to life by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and 3 other donors.

• Clean Slate

  Funded Mar 2, 2010

  When the students walked into the classroom today, they knew something was different, but they couldn't quite place their finger on it. "It's brighter." "It's whiter." "There's more space in here." All of their comments made me smile because it showed me what a difference the whiteboards made in contributing to a brighter, neater ambiance to the room. We're still working on drilling the boards into the old chalkboard frames, but I was so eager to use them that I propped them up anyway. I and the students are looking forward to using your gift to see a whole brighter future more clearly. Thank you for this breath of fresh air!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Mina Leazer

  This classroom project was brought to life by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and 3 other donors.

• Can You Hear Me Now?

  Funded Feb 24, 2010

  We used our digital recorders for the first time today, and it was a huge success! The students felt much more accountable for their work - and they erased and re-recorded until they felt like they sounded presentable. The entire class was engaged in different parts of the lesson as the digital recorders freed me up to circulate around the classroom and help some people who were practicing, some people who were listening, and some people who were ready to speak. Your gift has made the gift of language learning easier and more engaging.

  Thank you for your donation!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Mina Leazer

  This classroom project was brought to life by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and one other donor.

• How Do You Say...?

  Funded Nov 9, 2009

  Thank you for your generous gift of dictionaries to our ESL students. They were genuinely surprised and pleased to hear that they had been selected to receive a special donation that was dedicated just for them. Being a small portion of the school population, there are often times when the ESL students are not central to school initiatives, so it was nice to be the center of attention for once.

  The students have already started using their dictionaries, and I think it gives them a sense of dignity and pride to use them. Thank you for being part of their journey of acclimation to the United States. Many of the students come from poorer countries where even books were precious. To have their own library of dictionaries is a treat.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Mina Leazer