Past projects 5
Magazines to Keep Reading Interesting!
Funded Nov 22, 2019I couldn't believe it when I looked at my email this morning and saw the project had been funded to completion. What a wonderful thing to wake up to! I cannot thank you enough for your support of our French program through this magazine subscription. We look forward to working with them in class after Thanksgiving break! Merci beaucoup!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Witzeling
Book Cart for French Learners
Funded Apr 28, 2019The new library cart you gave to my classroom is working wonderfully. Each day that we have free choice reading the old and new carts are lined up in the back of room during passing time and our full collection of books and other reading materials is on display. Students pick out their reading materials for the day and settle in for a quiet ten minutes of reading to start the hour.
I am noticing that because we have more space and are able to better display our library materials, a greater variety of resources are being chosen by students. Some of the readers, magazines, comprehensible newspapers and short stories that were cramped into cardboard magazine holders are able to be spread out and students are paying more attention to them. Some students are finding that they are really enjoying these materials that they had mostly ignored during the first part of the school year because they weren't displayed as attractively.
In addition, we now have room to grow the library. Having two empty shelves on our new cart means that the slow but steady stream of French texts that the other French teachers and I continue to accumulate have a home. Just this past weekend I ordered three copies of a new French reader and three books of short stories for beginning and intermediate French learners. Without this new cart, those materials would have had to be carried by hand into class and stacked on random surfaces. Thank you for your support of our French reading program! Reading is one of the best ways to increase student proficiency in the language, and thanks to you we are able to create space for that important and calming activity in our classrooms.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Witzeling
Comprehensible Magazines for French Learners
Funded May 13, 2019Merci! Thank you so much for your generosity. I am thrilled to be able to plan for next year knowing that these stellar level-appropriate and high-interest magazines will be available for my students. I know that they will appreciate having library materials of interest to them written at a level that they can succeed in reading. I can't wait for September to come!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Witzeling
This classroom project was brought to life by Craig Newmark Philanthropies and one other donor.You Don't Need a Plane Ticket to Visit France!
Funded Mar 8, 2019Merci mille fois! Thank you a thousand times! My classroom has been a very exciting place lately thanks to your generosity. After the project was funded the books arrived within just a few days through Amazon Prime. Once all the books had arrived I took them home to cover the edges and the spines with tape to prevent any damage. I started our twice-weekly reading time the next day by explaining to students how DonorsChoose works and then showing them each book one at a time. I read the title, the back cover or jacket of the book, and held the book open to a few different pages to give them an idea of the difficulty level of the text. As I went through the stack of books various students were shouting out "dibs" and asking me if I would hand them a certain book directly instead of placing the book on the table where other students might reach it first!
My students, mostly sophomores along with a few juniors and seniors, were especially excited to see the graphic novels like SuperDog and Olga because the illustrations help them to understand the story even if they come across some unfamiliar vocabulary. They also oooed and aaaahed over books they remembered from their own childhood like the Fly Guy series, Eric Carle books, and the Elephant and Rosie series. One of the new books is called The New Game and on the cover it has a graphic that says "Do you want to delete Mom?" That certainly got them laughing! One student said it was like Christmas in March. Another asked me if we could do a class read aloud in addition to free reading so we could spend more time with the books right away!
Students read in silence for the next 10 minutes with the books they had selected, completely entranced. A few students were eying those who had taken the new book they most wanted, hoping they would finish it before the 10 minutes were up. They'll have to wait until next time! In French 3 we read for 10 minutes at the start of class twice per week. The frequency and duration increases with each year of language. I am grateful that this large quantity of new books will provide something novel for each of my students during reading time for weeks and months to come. The other two French teachers in my building also use our French library for free reading time, so please know that students in all levels, French 1 through AP French, are enjoying your gifts. Our library cart is almost to the point of overflowing now, and I'm grateful that we are building up a large enough collection of resources that students won't get bored even if they take French every year of their high school career. Thank you for enabling me to keep reading interesting for my students even as we round the corner into the fourth quarter of the school year. I'm truly blessed to be able to implement a reading program like this that offers students choice and makes reading a treat instead of a chore.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Witzeling
Calculators for College-Bound Scholars!
Funded Sep 9, 2012The math department here would like to express our joy, excitement, and thanks for your donation to this project. It is great to see that you share our vision for reaching children and preparing them for college. In math studying social entrepreneurship this year we will learn that it is not just the quantitative aspects of a project that can measure its impact.
The tools that you have funded will enable students to explore and verify their own concepts. In addition, we will be able to use these calculators to create college scholarship and admission opportunities for scholars taking the ACT Explore test. Our scholars are eager to learn how to use these calculators, which will be standard throughout their high school and college careers.
We hope to share with our scholars all the concepts, skills and traits they will need to be successful in higher education. Thank you so much for your role in our effort. I can't wait to introduce these tools to the children. ”
With gratitude,
Ms. Witzeling