Past projects 31
An Appetite for Reading? Satisfy the Craving!
Funded Aug 1, 2022Thank you for your generous support of "An Appetite for Reading? Satisfy the Craving!" My students and I were thrilled to receive an influx of new books to add to our classroom library. The books in this project represent a variety of lengths, topics, and genres and, fittingly, appeal to the eclectic reading tastes of our classroom community.
In addition to the reading we do collectively, students have the opportunity to engage in independent reading--with a book of their choosing--for 15 minutes every day. Over the course of a school year, that amounts to 45 hours of reading! Imagine the quantity and quality of books a student can consume in such a time frame? The possibilities are vast.
The books provided by the funding of this project will be in heavy rotation for the daily 15 minutes students spend absorbed by this most important activity. Thank you again for your kindness and generosity.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Clendenny
The United States and Japan During WWII: Reflections in Literature
Funded Dec 24, 2020Thank you for your generous support of "The United States and Japan During WWII: Reflections in Literature." At the start of winter break, I received news from DonorsChoose that the project had been fully funded, and I cannot think of a better way to start off a vacation on a positive tone. The first day back at school in 2021, a box of books was delivered to my door--a most welcome omen for the new year!
The timing of the delivery was perfect, as my students concluded their study of non-fiction primary sources about the topic before school concluded for 2020, and 2021 sees us learning about its reflections in literature. We are in the middle of reading Eleanor Coerr's Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, and students are riveted by the tragic account of a young girl who becomes an unwitting victim of the atom bomb disease.
I am the process of packaging copies of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes with copies of Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken to mail to students who prefer to read hard copies of the books. Once our school re-opens for in-person learning, I will collect these mailed copies and redistribute them so that additional students can experience the sensation of holding literature in their hands.
Your generous support of this project is ensuring that the pandemic does not stop students' learning and instead stokes their appetite for reading. Thank you again!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Clendenny
And The Mail Played On: Sending Instructional Materials to Students
Funded Oct 22, 2020Thank you for your generous support of "And The Mail Played On: Sending Instructional Materials to Students." I was thrilled to receive news from DonorsChoose that the project had been fully funded!
When schools closed in March 2020, I found myself making regular trips to my local post office to mail students items such as greeting cards, books, journals, hard copies of instructional materials, and care packages. Students appreciated receiving the deliveries and often e-mailed me photos of their contents. I found the practice of sending mail was a way to keep in touch with students while promoting their engagement in the coursework.
Now that schools have re-opened, albeit in a limited capacity, I find myself continuing to make regular trips to my local post office to send materials to students who have opted to learn remotely. The materials in "And The Mail Played On: Sending Instructional Materials to Students" will facilitate that endeavor and ensure that my students receive what they need to address their educational and socio-emotional needs during this new era of learning.
Now when students e-mail me photos of the packages they have received in the mail, I'm sure the pictures will feature the shiny, school-color-themed padded envelopes; the stamps featuring ethnic cuisine; the festive stickers sealing the envelopes of birthday cards; and the like. Thank you again for your generous support of this project!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Clendenny
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Donor and 3 other donors.Freeze Frame: When Students Become Paparazzi
Funded Jan 23, 2020Thank you for funding "Freeze Frame: When Students Become Paparazzi!" Pictures are the cornerstone of the process of producing our school's annual yearbook, and the equipment my students and I received through the fulfillment of this project ensured that we would have a copious supply of high-quality photos to incorporate into the design of each page of the 2020 yearbook.
Before schools closed in response to the pandemic and remote learning commenced, students enjoyed borrowing the camera to capture photos of themselves and their classmates at school events such as the Valentine's Day Dance and Bulletin Board Bonanza (the latter being an after-school competition that entails students decorating the hallway's bulletin boards with essays and projects to both publish and celebrate student work and to curate eye-catching instructional tableaus that dazzle the event's judges!). And toting the school-color-bearing red camera in the stylish and functional black shoulder bag made students feel like professional photographers immortalizing scenes from an important event!
A great feature of "Freeze Frame: When Students Become Paparazzi" is the project's longevity. Once we received the materials earlier this calendar year, the students used the camera to take photos that would eventually appear in the 2020 yearbook; the yearbook published just in time for students to receive their copy at this year's unprecedented, yet decidedly celebratory, drive-thru graduation. While the production of the 2020 yearbook has reached its conclusion, each new school year starts the yearbook process anew, and prospective yearbook-club members and I look forward to continuing to use the equipment to take photos for the 2021 yearbook, the 2022 yearbook, and so on and so forth. Thank you again for generously supplying my school with crucial equipment--your donation will have a lasting impact on our school community!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Clendenny
This classroom project was brought to life by Anonymous Arts Supporter and one other donor.And The Students Wrote: Pandemic Journals as Primary Sources
Funded May 5, 2020We are living in unprecedented times, and students are one segment of society experiencing the new reality especially acutely. In New York City, students left school on a Friday afternoon in March looking forward to upcoming events like homecoming, Pie-A-Bration (a celebration of March 14's Pi Day), prom, and the senior class trip; 48 hours later, all these events--and more--were abruptly cancelled when in-person instruction was suspended for the indefinite future. This jarring change in routine left many students feeling confused and unmoored. How could life as we know it change so suddenly?
Giving students the opportunity to catalog their observations, experiences, and feelings through journaling is a constructive way to manage life during a pandemic. Your generous support of "And The Students Wrote: Pandemic Journals as Primary Sources" has provided my students with the materials they need to create a record of living during a time of quarantine. Receiving the notebooks and pens and pencils has been a tangible source of hope during a time when hope feels ephemeral, and my students and I are grateful for your offer of catharsis through writing. Thank you for your kindness and generosity!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Clendenny
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Drive-In and 3 other donors.The Write Way
Funded Oct 23, 2019Thank you for your generous support of "The Write Way," which provided personal notebooks to the students in my Creative Writing class that they can use to write their response to the daily writing prompt!
As class was getting underway the day I planned to distribute the notebooks, some students spied the stack on a nearby desk and immediately began peppering me with questions about what they saw: "Miss, what's that over there?" "Miss, are those for us?" My answers to these queries proved satisfactory when I shared that the items were spiral-bound notebooks and that, yes, they are for the students in our class. They couldn't wait to get their hands on them!
As I distributed a notebook to each student, I asked that everybody write his or her name on the cover. Students dutifully recorded their names in stylized fonts, and many students chose to surround their name with images and symbols to personalize the notebook even further.
At the end of the first week of using the notebooks, I asked each student to show me their daily entries so that I could assign them a grade for their work. I was amazed to see the flourish with which students had been writing--the entries seemed to increase in length each day, and several students, without my prompting, inscribed a favorite quote or saying on the first page as an epitaph to their writer's notebooks.
The notebooks have been a huge hit among the students, and they are approaching writing--a daunting task for many a high-schooler--with growing eagerness and confidence. I appreciate that your generosity has made an instructional routine a treasured task for everybody from reticent writer to the aspiring author. Thank you again for your support and kindness!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Clendenny
Staff Book Club Inspired by PBS's Great American Read!
Funded Dec 30, 2018Thank you for your support of "Staff Book Club Inspired by PBS's Great American Read!" I was thrilled when I heard that the project had been fully funded, as were my colleagues when I told them that we were ready to launch the staff book club by reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez!
In the field of education, there is a great deal of literature about steps teachers can take to avoid "burn out" so that they might be their optimal selves in the classroom. Participating in a staff book club is one such measure for educators to ensure they are taking care of themselves so that they are in a position to prioritize the needs of the students they teach. The benefits of reading are well-documented: mental stimulation, stress reduction, and improved focus and concentration are among the advantages of picking up a book and devouring its contents. Indeed, the members of my school's staff book club look forward to the books we read each year as an opportunity for both professional enrichment and self-care.
Our book club meeting to discuss One Hundred Years of Solitude was lively and engaging and offered a time and place for staff to convene for the purpose of sharing ideas about a timeless story. The trials and tribulations of the Buendía family provided a platform for a conversation about gender roles, political influence, and familial obligations, literary themes that have relevance and immediacy in today's everyday life. When the book club meeting adjourned, members' minds were still buzzing with these ideas, and it is likely that the conversation continued in classrooms where lessons on colonialism, industrialization, and current events (among other topics) were taking place.
Your generosity supplied the resources to facilitate my school's staff book club, and we appreciate the role you played in enabling us to read and discuss important literature. Thank you for supporting the work of educators so that they may meet the needs of the students they teach!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Clendenny
The Nazi Hunters: A Quest for Justice
Funded Oct 30, 2018Thank you for the generous role you played in helping us secure materials for "The Nazi Hunters: A Quest for Justice." I was thrilled to receive the news from DonorsChoose that the project had been funded, and when I told my students that we had a new batch of books on the way to our classroom, their interest was definitely piqued.
Unpacking materials from DonorsChoose is always an exciting event. As we opened the box, the students were eager to get their hands on a copy of Neal Bascomb's book about the capture and subsequent trial of Adolf Eichmann. They initially spent time examining the cover art, reading the blurb and endorsements on the back cover, and viewing the many photos and accompanying captions embedded throughout the chapters of the book. The students were unfamiliar with the name Adolf Eichmann, but they were curious to learn more about him.
After completing a pre-reading assignment about Eichmann's formative years and reviewing our prior knowledge of the Holocaust, we delved into the book. The students were immediately hooked by the espionage angle and were anxious to learn the details of Eichmann's eventual capture. The anticipation of persuading Eichmann to agree to travel to Israel for a trial and the risk of getting him there via a series of furtive flights only added to their keen consumption of the book.
As an educator, I enjoyed the pleasure of introducing my students to Neal Bascomb's engaging and important book. Many asked why they hadn't heard of Eichmann before--especially since World War II and the Holocaust are oft-covered topics in history and social studies curricula--and we discussed possible explanations for why this war criminal is not more of a household name (fortunately, books like Bascomb's serve to address this oversight). We also speculated about what Adolf Hitler's trial might have been like had he lived to see a day of judgment and justice, and students expressed interest in exploring the topic of World War II further by watching The Judgment at Nuremberg and reading Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.
Working with my students to read The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb was a captivating and successful instructional experience, and I want to thank you again for enabling us to embark on such a meaningful unit of study. Now that we have a set of the books in my classroom, I look forward to exposing future students to the turning-point saga that is the capture and trial of Adolf Eichmann.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Clendenny
Behold the Bronx: Borough Biographies!
Funded Feb 14, 2018Thank you for funding Behold the Bronx: Borough Biographies! My colleagues and I have used the books from this project to facilitate our staff book club. Participating in a staff book club is a form of professional enrichment that builds camaraderie among the teachers; helps teachers develop additional empathy for their students; and allows teachers to deepen their own literacy skills.
The theme for the staff book club changes each year, and this year's theme of reading biographies written by and about people who grew up in the borough of New York City where our school is located and where our students reside has given the book club members a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the Bronx. Whether it's learning how Dion incorporated his observations of the people he saw in his neighborhood into his song lyrics, recognizing that Mary Higgins Clark's personal circumstances fueled the launch of her writing career, or understanding that Sonia Sotomayor's path to the Supreme Court can be traced back to her childhood as the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants, the books in this project provided the material my colleagues and I needed to prove to our students that the Bronx is the breeding ground of people of talent, creativity, and service.
Thank you again for funding this project! Your generosity has reached not only the members of the staff book club, but also the students we worked with in the classroom this year--and the students we will meet in the years to come.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Clendenny
This classroom project was brought to life by The First Million Fund and 3 other donors.I, Too, Sing America: Books about Immigration
Funded Feb 15, 2017Thank you for funding "I, Too, Sing America: Books about Immigration!" As I write this message, the days are getting longer (and hotter), students are taking end-of-year exams, and the countdown to summer break is in the single digits.
In my Tenth Grade English classes, we ended the school year with a study of immigration that began with reading and annotating non-fiction texts about the history of immigration in the United States (students were intrigued to learn that the genesis of the phrase "melting pot" can be attributed to a British playwright!) and ended with students presenting their work at a semi-annual project fair held at our school.
In between, students wrote thematic essays about two responses to immigration--assimilation and multiculturalism being oft-discussed--and created original poems and Mandalas about their heritage and identity. Students' personal experiences with immigration--either first-hand or via their parents, grandparents, siblings, and cousins--infused their work and garnered recognition and appreciation from teachers and fellow students at the school's project fair.
As the unit unfolded, students complemented their academic study of immigration by reading the books featured in this project. Reading personal histories and narratives of the immigration experiences of others offered a literary layer to the students' project work while increasing the students' tolerance of and respect for the process of leaving one's country of birth in order to live permanently in another country.
As the school year began to wind down, students--some of whom were fasting in observance of Ramadan while others were anticipating trips to the Dominican Republic to visit relatives--asked to borrow the books featured in this project to read over the summer. Some students were attracted to the idea of empathetic reading and selected books whose titles and blurbs contained reflections of their own experiences, and others chose books whose premise might be unfamiliar to them, but will allow them to understand better the experience of a friend or classmate.
Thank you again for your generous donation that provided the addition of books about immigration to our classroom library. The books have been enjoyed by my current students and will be enjoyed by students in years to come, and I look forward to seeing the positive and important impact this donation continues to have on the students who enter my classroom.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Clendenny