Past projects 16
Take the Weight Off Small Shoulders With Weighted Lap Blankets
Funded Aug 24, 2021In my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined what a positive impact the weighted lap blankets you donated could have had for our students.
During the long testing phase for new English Learners, every single child I tested accepted the offer of a blanket. It offered them warmth and comfort as they moved through a sometimes confusing evaluation process. And now, during class, if a student has had a difficult day or feels in any way uncomfortable, they know they can get up and take a blanket. All five of them are in use daily, by not only my youngest students, but even the fourth graders. The blankets sooth and help them focus. The students love them (and so do I).
As the winter months approach and more (unfortunately) tests await them, my students know how to manage their own stress, both through these blankets and also mindfulness techniques. Because of you, school is a friendlier place where they can be calm and grounded enough to learn.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Roberts
Smashing Racism with Superman!
Funded Apr 2, 2021Although the gift you provided my beautiful students, "Superman Smashes the Klan," was about a fictional superhero, there are no greater heroes to my students than you.
Last year was an incredibly difficult year for our kids. By springtime, when your gift arrived, some were learning at home and some in special centers for students whose parents had to work. In many cases, poor internet connections, internalized stress and lack of in-person connection interfered substantially with student engagement. Some students, it seemed, were on the verge of giving up. Then you came along, supplying my students with 15 copies of a graphic novel that engaged students learning online and in person in our hybrid model. Some students whose attention I struggled to keep all year was suddenly riveted as we read together about the empowered youngsters who fought racism along with Superman. They saw that they could read internalized and externalized dialog. That characters were complex, rather than always good guys or bad guys. They experienced self-realization along with the protagonists and developed an understanding of what real courage is. They used predictions to think critically about outcomes. And learned that creating community, while complex sometimes, creates strength, whether that community is a reading group or a group of kids standing up to fascists. They also learned that it is important to be proud of who you are and where you come from and to never allow yourself to be diminished or cowed by those who attempt to belittle you.
Graphic novels are also a well-researched vehicle for learning new vocabulary. My students walked away with new words in their communications arsenal, a bit of historical context and enough unanswered questions to make them continue to explore these areas.
For this voyage into anti-racism and pro literacy, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You have done well, heroes. Thank you.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Roberts
This classroom project was brought to life by William Penn Foundation and 4 other donors.BrainPop ELL Makes English Pop
Funded Aug 17, 2020With all my heart, I thank you for your kind donation of a classroom edition of BrainPop ELL. BrainpopELL offers animated exercises across all four skill sets (speaking, reading, writing, listening) students need to master to become proficient English learners.
Students can watch videos, take quizzes, record themselves practicing phrases and then assess their own proficiency in speaking by playing back the recordings. BrainPopELL is so much fun that my students don't even realize they are learning! It is particularly helpful in engaging our newest English learners, who come from places as diverse as Afghanistan, Brazil, Egypt, Honduras and Senegal.
It has been a difficult year for my students and so any joy they find in learning is priceless. And your kindness is priceless. You have truly made a difference in young lives during a very trying time. Thank you so much.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Roberts
Mindful and Kindful
Funded Aug 12, 2019Our Kindness Club started a few weeks ago and the students have responded to the materials you so generously donated with more enthusiasm than I could imagine. Our Mindfulness-based club is structured so that we sit for an initial meditation, check in with each other, describe acts of kindness we've done throughout the week and then read one of the books you so generously donated. After that, we do some yoga and then the students write in the three-minute gratitude journals your donations provided. Their enthusiastic response to these journals has been the biggest happy surprise: Many of our students are less than excited about writing, but our kids love their journals. As you can see by the photos, they are absorbed in their writing - and they feel good putting in word the sense of gratitude they feel for friends and family and other people in their lives.
I will also be using the books and journal pages with students throughout the school who participate in our Magnificently Mindful classroom program. I visit two classrooms each day to share another aspect of mindfulness with our students in grades 1 - 4. Your generously donated materials will enhance their lives as they have the lives of our Kindness Club crew! Thanks so much for your generosity and kindness.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Roberts
Leveled Books Level The Playing Field
Funded Jan 28, 2019I can't begin to describe how the subscription to Reading A-Z has transformed our classroom. Reading A-Z offers short fiction and non-fiction leveled reading books so that students can read independently and, at a higher level, with teacher support. Two dozen of my English language learners are absolute beginners when it comes to English. They needed to start at the very beginning when it came to reading and it can be hard to find appropriate material that works across multiple grade levels. Reading A-Z has such a large bank of books that we could always find the subject matter we needed. Our students loved the books and therefore were eager to read them. As a result, most of them has progressed two reading levels since we started using the subscription. I also have about 20 intermediate English Language learners who are improving their reading skills, particularly vocabulary acquisition and context clues, by reading more advanced offerings.
Additionally, Reading A-Z allows me to send copies of books home with each student so they can read at home with a family member. This is crucial for reading development, but many of our students don't have any books and often can't access a library because their parents are working (although we are working on getting them library cards).
We generally start the week with a read-aloud with a leveled book that we project on our smart board. As the week progresses, students read in a group with teacher support, then read with a buddy. Sometimes they tell me what they'd like to read about and I try to find a book about that subject in the vast Reading A-Z library. I've been pretty lucky in finding something on the subjects that interest them. This week, for instance, some of the students were reading about a character that happened to be an octopus. Halfway through the week, a student asked if we could read about sharks next. Happily, we were able to find appropriate books about sharks at levels that will support our students' interests and reading development, so next week is shark week!
Thanks so much for your generosity and kindness. It is already changing lives.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Roberts
All Ears for Reading!
Funded Feb 14, 2018Reading skill is crucial to success in life; this much is certain. I am equally sure that a love of reading enhances our lives, whether it's communing with a favorite fictional character or digging into some solid non-fiction that relates to your passions and overall interests. Because reading came easy for me and for my children, I once thought it came easy for everyone. When I became a teacher, I learned how wrong I was! Reading can be such a struggle for some youngsters. And it is a double struggle for English Language Learners, who are learning to read and write English as they learn to understand and speak it. The listening center you provided them has made what had been a daunting task a joy.
All of them beg to use the center. One of my second grade boys, an adorable child from Brazil, wolfs down his lunch so he can spend the rest of the period voluntarily listening and reading along with every book we have. And we have seen his reading skills grow stronger in the few weeks he's done this. Truthfully, he has really had a hard time with reading and used to moan unhappily every time the class was instructed to take out their books. That has changed. I believe he'd sit and read along with listening center books all day if he could. He actually took it upon himself to put together the sentences he needed to tell me to make sure I was in my classroom during his lunchtime so he could use the center. In September, he knew zero words of English, so this is pretty impressive.
Your generous hearts have brought the gift of reading alive for children from Brazil, Haiti, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Syria and Angola. Because of you, reading time is now fun time instead of something their teacher makes them do. For this I thank you with all my heart - and they thank you just as heartily.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Roberts
Making Room for Mindfulness
Funded Dec 12, 2016Trauma, stress and fear are an everyday feature of my students' lives. Nearly all of them have had loved ones meet premature, violent ends. Several have struggled to avoid the gangs and drugs of their neighborhoods. Three of the girls in my homeroom are young mothers. So many of our students have lost one or more parent.
Life is filled with stress for these good-hearted young people. One of the ways my high school has tried to address it is through the practice of mindfulness. In addition to teaching mindfulness to our students, we have opened up a Mindfulness Room. Students who are in need of a break, some clarity or a few minutes to collect their attention may come to the Mindfulness Room, choose an MP3 player loaded with mindfulness and heartfulness meditations (some guided by their fellow students), find a quiet spot to sit and spend 10-15 minutes practicing a guided meditation. There are also yoga mats out, along with instructional cards, so that students can engage in moving mindfulness.
Most of the students who make use of the room leave feeling significantly less anxious than they arrived. They really appreciate the privacy and sense of safety afforded by the MP3 players. While the players came through a separate Donor's Choose grant, we were in need of headphones (earbuds not being particularly sanitary when it comes to sharing), yoga mat cleaner and art supplies for the mindfulness jars the students make and use as tools to help them sit in stillness. Your generous donations provided these items; they have made an enormous difference. Mindfulness has offered our students a chance to find a peace that sometimes eludes them. Research shows its benefits in alleviating stress, depression, anxiety, chronic pain and other challenges life presents. It's not an exaggeration to state that this practice changes, and sometimes saves, lives.
Our school hopes to expand the hours we can offer the mindfulness room and, when we move to another building next year, dedicate a room to mindfulness-based activities. Until then, students will continue to practice in my classroom. Their teachers are already noticing a difference - thanks to you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Roberts
Mindfulness Makes a Difference
Funded Dec 3, 2016Within days our our mindfulness materials being delivered in January, one of our students suddenly found himself barely able to breathe. He had to be taken away in an ambulance. He later said it was as if his chest couldn't move. At 16, he thought he was having a heart attack.
It was actually panic attack.
When he returned to school, he because one of the first students (at the principal's suggestion) to use our newly created Mindfulness Room. We used your generous donations to buy MP3 players which we loaded with mindfulness and heartfulness meditations, guided by our very own students and also by professionals in the local mindfulness communities. This young man has returned to the Mindfulness Room every school day, donned headphones, chosen a meditation and sat in stillness for about 10 minutes a day. He happens to have English during this period and his teacher has relayed that he seems so much more at ease when he returns to her room than when he left.
He is not the only student to have found peace in the quiet of our Mindfulness Room. Students come every day to alleviate stress, strengthen concentration or to remove themselves from a situation that might otherwise become explosive. The Mindfulness Room is a place of empowerment and peace, where students learn to settle their minds and see clearly. They have been particularly receptive to meditating with a selection of guided practices by people they know. They have also appreciated the variety of the practices available to them. And it really helps their sense of stillness to sit quietly, in their own space, undisturbed by sounds around them because of they are listening to recordings.
The students were pleased to see the new MP3 players because prior to receiving them, I was playing a guided recording on a boom box, so that students had less choice and less privacy. Students report to feeling better after meditating or doing yoga in our mindfulness room and the school is interested in expanding its hours next year so as to accommodate more students.
Your donation has made a tremendous difference in the lives of our highly stressed, vulnerable teens. Thank you with all of my heart for your generosity.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Roberts
Growing Healthy!
Funded Oct 13, 2010You can't imagine how this little project has grown since you so generously donated our new greenhouse. Two volunteers who know a lot about such things have volunteered to build huge garden boxes in the yard we use for a playground so that the seedlings started in the greenhouse will be able to grow to fruition (literally!). Children will tend to this garden, even in the summertime, then enjoy something they rarely taste: Fresh vegetables. In addition, I am trying to get together enough organic vegetable seed packets in order to send one home with each youngster in our school. I have 55 so far, donated by local farms. This way, the children can start their own vegetable gardens and truly enjoy all the benefits - including the fun and pride of accomplishment that goes with watching your plant become something that will nourish you. None of this would have been possible without your providing the kids this greenhouse. We are really on a roll because of your generosity.
I never expected the donation to come through so fast. We're actually going to start the seedlings in late February so we'll be able to transplant them into gardens. The photos you see are some of the kids reading directions and working as a team to build the greenhouse, with the help of our Food Trust nutritionist. She comes to the school every week to encourage healthy eating. Unfortunately, the program is funded by the federal government, so she's not allowed to say things that would directly discourage them from eating chips and drinking soda for breakfast. I'm under no such constraints, however. But no words of warning can substitute for engaging in learning through doing - and this year the kids will be doing a lot to improve their chances of living happy, healthy lives - thanks to each of you. This is no exaggeration - you may literally have saved lives by planting the seeds of healthy eating in these children's lives. You will note that these kids are undernourished, in most cases very small for fourth graders. Because of you, they have a better chance of becoming stronger and healthier. This will help them not only in their physical health, but also their ability to focus.
We haven't grown a thing yet, but this project is all the kids can talk about. We're planning on having a big seed-planting assembly in late February to kick things off. You will definitely be with us in spirit at that time and when our students start eating the healthy vegetables they have grown themselves.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Roberts
An Ear for Excellence!
Funded Mar 20, 2010Thanks with all my heart for the amazing listening books you have provided my fourth grade ESOL students. They are enjoying the stories so much - and picking up fluency skills at an amazing rate. Your generous gift has truly impacted the lives of my students for the better.
What's particularly unique about the collection is that it highlights multicultural stories, some of which the students can identify with personally. The stories are also varied in genre - one is funny ("Dr. DeSoto"), another is historical fiction ("Baseball Saved Us"), while "Saving Sweetness" is more of a fantasy-adventure-western. They're all wonderfully written and have truly enriched the lives of our students. They will continue to help children through the years learn to read with fluency and understanding. This gift may well be the one that creates a lifelong love of reading that will help these lovely children build a better future for themselves.
We will always look upon our listening library with an appreciation for you, our generous benefactors. TThank you so much!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Roberts
This classroom project was brought to life by Prudential Annuities and 3 other donors.