Past projects 26
Tasty Treats To Get Seniors In Their Seats
Funded Mar 24, 2025Thank you for helping me to feed my kiddos this spring. It was so fun to create this project with my seniors. I look forward to being able to share more laughter and snacks with them as we wind up our time together in high school. Thank you for your generous support.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Towne
This classroom project was brought to life by LOFT and 2 other donors.Challenging The Coming of Age Narrative
Funded Aug 10, 2024Thank you for helping bring Punching The Air to our 10th grade ELA students this spring. It has been wonderful to learn about the life and experiences of Yusef Salaam and make connections to his main character Amal. It has also opened up conversations about justice and injustice, gentrification, faith, and family.
It has also been incredible to see so many of our kids bloom through reading this novel out loud. It has lived up to what I hoped it would - demystifying poetry, looking at it in a new way and challenging them to think about how prose poetry can be used to convey narrative.
Thank you again for helping us bring this project based learning unit to life.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Towne
That's Sew Cool!
Funded Oct 25, 2024Thank you so much for your generous donation to our class. It has been exciting to see my 12th graders learn to sew this winter. From beginning with hand sewing and creating small keepsakes like ornaments or little pillows to learning to use the sewing machines - it is clear that sewing is a life skill and one that I tell them, "once knowledge is yours it can not be taken away." They have embraced every moment.
I can't wait to continue this journey with them into the spring as we begin our totebag project and hopefully sewing from a commercial pattern!
Thank you for all you have done to support our class.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Towne
Support ELA 10 Success as Readers & Writers!
Funded Sep 8, 2024Thank you for your generous contributions to ELA and Theater Arts classes. The Materials you help to provide have made it possible for students to have daily journaling experiences, writing tools at hand, and an assortment of snacks - a replacement we selected when a few of the items were not available.
The fall has been busy with lots of writing, creating, and challenging students to think about how they want to convey their thinking about an assortment of topics including the fall election, poetry comics, and microfiction.
One of my favorite outcomes of this project is that students have space to doodle as needed in their journals. It is their book to do with as the choose and I have more for when a student fils it up and is ready for a new book. This would not have happened with out your help.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Towne
Snacks to Help Quell Senioritis
Funded May 7, 2024Thank you for your generous donation to our seniors! As we begin the push to the end of the school year, this promise and availability of snacks - both sweet and savory - make being in class and pushing through SENIORITIS a little easier.
The assortment of cookies, pop-tarts, pringles, crackers, granola bars, and other snacks light up our kiddos when they get to dive into the snack box and pick out something to enjoy in class that day.
We can not thank you enough for being a part of celebrating our students as they finish high school in a small way like this.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Towne
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and one other donor.See our Seniors Shine!
Funded Aug 31, 2023In the age of digital media, most of our students have never seen a hard copy photo of themselves. On the first day we took out the camera and took photos of our seniors it was brilliant to see them smile as the portraits developed and revealed their smiling face. While we are not done with this project, your donation has made it possible to build community in our classroom and connection between students. We posted all the photos in the hallway and had the best-looking boards in the school!
Thank you for seeing the value in helping us to capture moments like this for our 12th graders.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Towne
What Makes A House A Home?
Funded Aug 5, 2023Thank you for your generous donation to ELA 12 this year. We had an amazing time reading Raisin In the Sun and Clybourne Park this year. For many of my students, reading like this pushed them out of their comfort zone but they were willing to take the risk. There is something about reading a play that feels different than reading a short story or novel out loud. The conversations that were opened up in the days and weeks that followed about segregation and redlining challenged us to think more about where we live and even the role that these two elements still play in our communities today.
Thank you again for helping bring these important plays to our students. We could not have done it without people like you.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Towne
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 13 other donors.The Power of Place
Funded Mar 31, 2023Tremendous thanks for your donation to our class. As we continued to explore the power of place my AP Literature students gained a deeper understanding of the role of gentrification in literature and in their own communities. Our conversations after reading the play were both rich with personal connection and spirited as my students were challenged to examine the impact of change in both the short and long term.
One of the things I hoped for as we read came to fruition- making the natural connection between Hansberry's "A Raisin In the Sun" (1959) and Norris' "Clybourne Park" (2010). Both dramas served as strong anchors as my students prepared for the AP Exam in May.
Thank you for helping to make this project possible. It was so successful that we plan to pair the texts together for next year in ELA 12.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Towne
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 11 other donors.Help Us Get Creative and Organized!
Funded Sep 2, 2022Thank you for your generous donation to my students. The materials, especially the journals, have been integral to my students' learning. Many days throughout the week, we begin with a 5-minute write, and students enter, grab their journals, and begin to write, finding an "in" to the lesson we are exploring that day.
In addition to the journals, I created a self-guided writing help center (idea from TpT) that now hangs in the back of the room, and students can use the resources to help them improve their writing.
Often, the little things like the materials in this project are overlooked but make all the difference in a classroom. Thank you again for your generosity and vision in supporting my students.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Towne
From Page-To-Stage
Funded Aug 30, 2022What an incredible experience it was to get to read A Raisin In the Sun with my students. After the first day, students claimed the right to continue reading the same character in the next lesson. Their enthusiasm, coupled with the complex concepts in Hansberry's play have made it a text that I will return to in years to come.
One of my favorite lessons was the character sketches students created (check out the attached photos!). Their criticality and insight opened up conversations and even debates about everything from family loyalty to generational trauma and redlining.
Thank you again for your support with this project! It is because of the generosity of friends like you who make our learning experiences rich.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Towne