Past projects 10
Afterschool Art Room SNACKS!
Funded Jan 28, 2025I'm thankful for all your help in getting students to be engaged during our art class! With a room full of snacks, treats, and engaging activities, I'm able to help kids find new ways to connect with themselves and with their peers. Phones, online games, and easy distraction are just a few of the challenges teens face so I'm doing my best to expose them to hands on activities that can be meditative and therapeutic. Some of them LOVE all he extra art supplies and snacks we have on hand during lunch and afterschool. I do it all for them. Thankyou for your support!!”
With gratitude,
Ms. G Pasapera
This classroom project was brought to life by A New York City Parent and 4 other donors.Art Room is Art Therapy
Funded Jan 7, 2025I'm thankful for all your help in getting students to be engaged during our art class! With a room full of snacks, treats, and engaging activities, I'm able to help kids find new ways to connect with themselves and with their peers. Phones, online games, and easy distraction are just a few of the challenges teens face so I'm doing my best to expose them to hands on activities that can be meditative and therapeutic. Some of them LOVE all he extra art supplies and snacks we have on hand during lunch and afterschool. I do it all for them. Thankyou for your support!!”
With gratitude,
Ms. G Pasapera
Snacks, Slime, and Good Vibes!
Funded Apr 25, 2025I’m so surprised that the project was fully funded with your collaborative effort!! With 7 weeks left, I can support and encourage my big kiddos to finish strong! The weather is getting warmer and being hungry and hot all day isn’t fun. These treats and incentives will definitely help!”
With gratitude,
Ms. G Pasapera
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 11 other donors.Wellness Mindfulness Creativity Space Afterschool
Funded Oct 30, 2024Our beanbag chairs, plants, and other wellness goods have helped increase the flow of students wanting to stay in the art room. I'm thankful for your support in making my job a tiny bit more pleasant. The students and I are enjoying the little things. They take turns watering our plants and remind me when they notice we have let too much time pass between watering. There are times when students run into the room for the beanbag seats and my rule is that only if they are all finished with their projects. So it's a good compromise.”
With gratitude,
Ms. G Pasapera
Bringing Art To NYC Teen Homes!
Funded Dec 20, 2020A few years ago, I was able to purchase supplies for students to have at home during the pandemic. Those freshmen back then graduated in June 2024 and they still talked about how engaging and lively our art classes were over ZOOM thanks to the art kits and creative activities they did during their classes every day. Some of them still kept their sketchbooks 4 years later. What a sweet group of students! Thank you for allowing them to have this experience that they genuinely cherished throughout their high school years.”
With gratitude,
Ms. G Pasapera
Taking Art Class to the Next Level!
Funded Nov 13, 2019We are grateful for the addition of tripods and phone mounts to our Visual Arts classroom. Since all of our students have cell phones, we were able to collaborate and explore a variety of photography techniques and angles (which was possible with tripods and phone mounts). Most of us are accustomed to taking a quick snapshot of something we like with our phones. This project allowed us to slow down, observe, plan, and experiment.
With 10 tripods, I was able to break students up into groups of 2 and 3 to work together and produce visually engaging photographs of regular everyday objects around the room. Some of the students surprised their phones could take nice pictures that look professional. It wasn't the phone, it's the students and the steps they took to think before snapping. Teaching the importance of process is so important because it affects the end result tremendously.
This project was done the very last week before schools closed in NYC so I know it had an impact as it was the last hands on lesson we could do (who knows when we can return to hands on collaborative learning. As I plan my fall semester, I hope I can instill this high level of engagement in our virtual and blended classroom.”
With gratitude,
Ms. G Pasapera
This classroom project was brought to life by Verizon and 7 other donors.Prototypes and Plaster: Fostering a Maker Mindset Through Art
Funded Jan 1, 2019Thank you for your donations for us to bring plaster gauze into our art room. Our freshmen final project of designing prototypes turned out beautifully! Students brainstormed, idealized, sketched, and physically constructed prototype sculptures of an invented or redesigned product that would solve current problems. Some students designed shoes of the future, while others designed glasses.
When we received the plaster boxes, they were excited because we had been focusing on 2-D work throughout most of the year and they were anxious to get their hands messy and cast some objects in plaster. Some students even took it to the next step by giving me ideas on how to use plaster for next year! A few students wanted to plaster cast their own faces for extra credit (and some fun) so we carefully did that as well.
I hope you can see the joy in their faces as they collaborated and worked together to create these pieces. They learned team building skills as well as effectively went through some messy process steps before getting incredible product results.”
With gratitude,
Ms. G Pasapera
This classroom project was brought to life by Con Edison and 2 other donors.Messy Art on a Cart!
Funded Dec 20, 2018Our tiny art program has slowly but surely been growing with little touches here and there. The addition of an art cart has made transporting buckets of dirty paint water and cups of brushes to the utility sink down the hall. Not having a sink in the art room hasn't stoped me from designing painting projects for students to express themselves without limitations. We have a shared room with the music teacher so immediately after my classes, I transport the art cart with student work to another room for grading and organizing.
When we received the package, 2 freshmen gladly volunteered to assemble the cart with some post lunch energy and giggles - their favorite part was using a rubber mallet to attach the legs to the base!
Our new cart has also made it easier to start an Art Club after school in the science lab around the corner hallway since our talented musicians use the instruments in the Art Room after school. With great lighting and large tables, the science lab is the perfect room for our visual artists to create their own projects and receive one-on-one guidance from me and their peers. The cart facilitates the movement of art supplies from room 341 to room 327.
Our students thrive in the arts and I love showing them how creative thinking and problem solving can allow for them to develop their own ideas and not let anything stop them. Sharing classroom spaces is only possible in a tight knit community where students and teachers are willing to work together at all times. Our school is definitely the place where this happens every day!”
With gratitude,
Ms. G Pasapera
This classroom project was brought to life by Con Edison and 2 other donors.Clay Artifacts for our Ancient Civilizations Museum Exhibition
Funded Dec 17, 2016A sincere THANK YOU from me to you is the least I could do for what you have helped give to my students. My classroom has turned into a time machine! There are pyramids, pottery, ancient maps, artifacts, coins, ancient language tablets and more all around. The students are using clay more than I've ever seen. They LOVE everything about it especially the messiness! For 9th and 10th graders, any excuse to get messy is appreciated by them. I've never taught clay before so the students have ben figuring out steps along the way, ALL ON THEIR OWN! A lot of problem solving skills are happening. Hope the pictures give you a glimpse of what I see daily. Our museum will have an accurate and successful exhibition very soon.
Thank you for your generosity!!!”
With gratitude,
Ms. G Pasapera
Exploring NYC: STOMP! Off-Broaway
Funded Mar 17, 2015From the email sent to SIDLEE:
I wanted to reach out with a big THANK YOU to your agency once again for your generosity and dedication to my students. We went to Stomp in May and we all enjoyed ourselves! They were so bummed when the show was over, they honestly could've sat there for another 2 hours in amazement!
You gave them a really cool opportunity that they are not accustomed to receiving.
My classroom door is always open to you lovely people!
Present - 2016: How did this impact my students over time?
Some of these 9th and 10th graders are now seniors or have just graduated in June. They still talk to me about this show and mention how their world of stage performance has been widened because they had no idea banging on objects and calling it music was a thing. I think that's one of the best parts, hearing about it years later! Especially because they can pursue their interest and art appreciation in life after high school, and they can share their new passions with their family and friends. For those students who didn't get to graduate and were not able to complete their high school education, this memory sparked something and it will be with them forever.”
With gratitude,
Ms. G Pasapera