Past projects 39
A Bulb To Bring Our Projector to Life
Funded Nov 21, 2014Thank you all for helping fund a bulb for our Epson projector!
My students and I use the projector almost everyday. I use it to show BrainPOP and Khan Academy videos, project directions, model note-taking, and in numerous other ways that enrich my students' learning. My students used it to share presentations and to explain their math problem-solving strategies. This week, my students used the projector to share Keynote presentations they created on animal adaptations.
Our Epson projector is a tool for universal access. In a classroom with 23 students, seeing is essential for learning. The bulb you helped fund insures that my students can see any material that I or their classmates present.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Alvarez
We Will Wiggle While We Work
Funded Aug 22, 2014Thank you all for supporting this project!
My students love the five Hokki stools we received! They prefer sitting on the Hokki stools to sitting on their chairs, which they claim are uncomfortable and hard to sit on for long periods of time.
We rotate the Hokki stools daily, so that everyone gets to sit on them during the week. I have observed that while sitting on the Hokki stools my students are able to focus better, be more quite, and keep working for longer periods of time.
My students and I wish we had more Hokki Stools!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Alvarez
This classroom project was brought to life by Gates Foundation Back To School and 21 other donors.Jamba Juice Gets Us Active
Funded Jan 16, 2014On behalf of my students, thank you for all of the resources your donations have brought to our classroom! The playground balls you funded allowed my students to continue to play basketball, handball, and soccer during recess, lunch, and physical education time. You brought back the fun to these times of the day!
The Hokki stool has been an invaluable resource for one of my students who has an incredibly hard time sitting on classroom chairs. Thanks to the Hokki stool, he was able to remain at his seat 90% of the time. He was also more focused as compared to when he sits on a regular classroom chair.
Last, the earphone splitters and iPad styluses you funded were essential in allowing my students to share technology and maintain a quiet classroom. Thank you all so much!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Alvarez
This classroom project was brought to life by Jamba Juice and 13 other donors.Disney Presents: Return Of The Butterflies
Funded Nov 30, 2013Thank you all for funding this project! My students really enjoyed caring for the lady beetles and butterflies. Through this experience, my second graders learned about the life cycles of insects and my third graders were able to review what they learned last year. They also learned that animals have structures that serve different functions in growth and survival. My students made observations every day and recorded them in their science journals. So they also learned how to behave like scientists.
Thank you for making this project a reality!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Alvarez
This classroom project was brought to life by Disney and 14 other donors.These Too Are the Seeds From Which Writers Will Grow
Funded Oct 23, 2013Thank you for helping fund this project! My students love the books you helped fund.
They especially like "I Wanna Iguana" and "I Wanna New Room," which are very funny stories.
In addition to being entertained by these stories, my students and I used these two books to discuss persuasive writing strategies. It was much easier for my students to understand these writing techniques thanks to these two stories.
It is amazing the impact that a story can have on students' writing. I immediately observed an overall improvement in their writing after using these books as models.
Thank you so much for bringing these wonderful books into our classroom!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Alvarez
A Few Apps a Day Keep the Boredom Away
Funded Aug 27, 2013Thank you all for making this project a reality! The apps you have helped fund are a tremendous asset to my classroom. My students are able to use apps like "Math Tables" to review and practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They have also been using "Toontastic", "Scribble Press", and "Picturebook" to improve their writing skills. We are still exploring how to use all the tools that are part of the app "Paper". Your donations have made a great impact on my students' learning and we are very grateful for that!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Alvarez
This classroom project was brought to life by Kia Motors America and 20 other donors.Now is the Time for Kids to Read Nonfiction!
Funded Sep 19, 2013On behalf of all of my students, thank you for bringing Time for Kids into our classroom. My students love the magazine. They eagerly devour the articles and then excitedly share what they learned with classmates. Time for Kids is adding to what my students know about current events and the world. One of the articles about the impact of Typhoon Haiyan on the Philippines even encouraged some of my students to donate the change in their piggy banks to help people who lost their families and homes. The magazine is also encouraging a love of reading in some of my students who prefer reading nonfiction. My classroom library has a limited amount of nonfiction books, so my nonfiction readers look forward to the next Time for Kids magazine. Time for Kids has been a wonderful addition to our classroom. Thank you for making this project possible!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Alvarez
I Can Be Financially Responsible with an iPad
Funded Jan 25, 2013Thank you all for donating to this project! My students have been using the iPad with Retina Display you helped fund to strengthen their math skills and to learn more about money management. With the help of an app called "Counting Money," my students have been practicing how to count coins and how to use coins to make different amounts of money. Using an app called Farmer's Market, my students have taken on the role of cashier at a farmer's market to practice calculating the appropriate change for various items. Last, we have been using an app called BrainPOP to watch short films that help my students learn about money, comparing prices, and keeping a budget. Thank you so much for supporting my students' learning!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Alvarez
This classroom project was brought to life by CreditReport.com and 9 other donors.The Good, The Bad, And The Bully
Funded Dec 27, 2012Thank you for helping fund this project! We began using the books you funded the moment they arrived. Most recently, we read "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?" The main idea of this book is that everyone carries an invisible, emotional bucket with them everywhere they go. This bucket is filled with our positive feelings and thoughts. With our actions, we either fill or empty other people's emotional buckets. The language of this book has now become part of our classroom vocabulary. It informs every discussion we have related to student actions and helps my students make decisions about how to behave.
Bullying is an ever present impediment to student learning and safety. Eliminating bullying requires a consistent, on-going effort that involves the adults at a school site and the students we teach. The books you have funded have allowed and will continue to allow my students to address the varied ways in which bullying happens and given them strategies for dealing with bullying.
Thank you so much for your generosity!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Alvarez
This classroom project was brought to life by Townsend Press - Bullying in Schools and 3 other donors.If You Give a Class Some Tools...
Funded Dec 23, 2012The Apple TV has been a wonderful asset to our classroom! I use it almost daily to enhance my lessons. Since students learn better by reading and listening, than just by listening, I use the Apple TV to project my presentations. For example, I use it to mirror from iPad apps like "Pages" and "Keynote" when I introduce content and vocabulary. The Apple TV also allows me to project educational videos from Brain Pop and Envision math using our Mac Air.
The true power of the Apple TV emerged, however, when I learned that any iPad in our classroom can mirror content. My students have been able to use the Apple TV and an app called "Geoboard" to show classmates how to form various polygons. They have also used it to project Book Reports they wrote on our student iPads. Thanks to the Apple TV, my students were able to read each others' writing, give each other positive feedback, and suggest changes to make the writing better.
The Apple TV has made learning much more interactive for my students. Thank you for funding this project!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Alvarez