Past projects 15
Supplies for the Supplier
Funded Sep 30, 2019I am sure you have heard it a thousand time, but being a teacher is hard. Yes, it is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done, but it also drains me emotionally, physically, and financially. Well, it did before I found Donors Choose. This project was a big necessity for me at the start of the new school year. I am always looking for ways to better myself as a teacher and to make my classroom more enjoyable and engaging for my students and a lot of times, that costs money. The new color printer I got from this project has amped up my worksheets just by allowing me to add some color back to the pages. You wouldn't think that matters to the students, but trust me, I am noticing a difference. The Eggspert Game is a real hit in my homeroom. We have begun Family Feud Fridays and the Eggspert is our way of "buzzing in" to answer a question. The other supplies like the scissors, binder clips, and educational workbooks have also come in handy for me. Thank you!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Drake
This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Drive-In.A Series of Book Series’
Funded May 6, 2019I work in a school system that unfortunately has a high concentration of students reading below grade level, and some are as many as five grades below. When students struggle to do something well, whether that is playing a sport, instrument, and anything academic, they often times get frustrated and start to associate whatever that thing is as a negative. I have many students that feel that way about reading. They have never been very good at it, and since it frustrates them, they hate having to practice in order to improve. Because I have so many students at varying reading levels, I have to offer many books at different levels in my classroom. That is why I am so appreciative of donors like you. You give me the ability to offer my students resources like graphic novels and other new books that I could never afford to do on my own.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Drake
This classroom project was brought to life by Google.org and 8 other donors.Expanding Our Cultural Horizons
Funded Oct 25, 2018For this donors choose project, I really wanted to grow my classroom library with books that features minorities as the main characters. I put a mix of chapter books, graphic novels, and even children's books in my order because I think it is important to read to the kids as much as I can. I try and read a children's book to them once a week, because it is shocking to me how many of my students haven't heard of the most prevalent books, like The Giving Tree, or Velveteen Rabbit!
The track series I received in this project has by far been the most popular of one of my classes. One of my more avid readers picked it out when I first received the package and has been telling all of her classmates about it! I am so grateful to my donors for helping me excite my young students into reading.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Drake
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose.org Community and 5 other donors.Completing Our Incomplete Series
Funded Aug 30, 2018When I came into teaching over a year ago, I was lucky enough to receive hand-me-down books from retired teachers to help me build my classroom library. Because of this, I was introduced to a lot of books in a series that were incomplete. A Series of Unfortunate Events and Diary of a Wimpy Kid are just a few that I knew my students would love, but I only had a couple of the books in those series'! A lot of my students would get really interested in starting one of my incomplete series', and I just didn't have the means to purchase all of them on my own. Luckily donorschoose.org exists for teachers like me that are eager to give their students as many materials that we can, but on a budget.
My favorite part of teaching is seeing a lightbulb come on inside a kid. Every single time I have a student who is apathetic about reading, I make it my own goal to find him or her a book that will actually spark his or her interest. There is one in particular, who does anything he can to get out of reading time, which I give for 20 minutes daily. He has told me that he only reads Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and donorschoose helped me complete my series for him! He loved reading all of them so much, that when Jeff Kinney released his new book last month, a teacher on my team gifted it to me, because she knew I was trying to add to my library.
I am so thankful for all of the people that decided to help me and continue to help me in all of my projects on this site. I truly couldn't do it without you all, because, hello, I am a teacher. Thank you again!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Drake
Same Sun Here
Funded Mar 27, 2018One of the hardest things about teaching Middle School is trying to encourage teenagers to think about things outside of their own lives. Building empathy is something I try to encourage daily, and the novel, Same Sun Here, helped me do just that! I offer a book club assignment for my students each year. Letting them pick between a handful of books with a common theme to read as a group and complete an assignment on as a group. Empathy was the theme that each book had, and I gave them the option to read many books that focused on teaching it. Same Sun Here was one of the options for a novel, and I was surprised by how many of my students decided to pick that book to use for their assignment!
I gave each student a chapter assignment, saying they had to complete a certain number of chapters by a certain time-frame, and I never had any problems with students not meeting that timeline, which is unheard of in my classroom usually! I even had some students who read ahead, and couldn't wait for their peers to catch up so they could discuss what was going on in the book!
I am so grateful to donorschoose.org and all of my generous donors, for giving me the opportunity to supply a classroom set of novels to my students. You all make book clubs an easily accessible activity, without me having to purchase classroom sets of novels from my own pocket! Thank you for helping me change the lives of many students, and spread empathy among my classroom and beyond!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Drake
This classroom project was brought to life by Ripple and one other donor.Graphic Novel, Graphic Life
Funded Mar 15, 2018When I made the decision to pursue a career in education, I knew I wanted to help struggling students who don't have the easiest time academically. I purposefully wanted to be in a school setting with struggling students so that I may feel as though I am making the biggest impact. As my first year is coming to an end, I am realizing that there is not a way to get through and "reach" a student quite like there is by offering him or her a book.
My class time is set up to have 15 minutes of silent reading time every single day. I do this because literacy is a struggle in my rural school, with the majority of my students reading well below reading level, reading is a skill that needs to be practiced daily in my classroom. Once the year kicked off, I was noticing my lowest readers, the ones that need the reading practice time the most would lose their library books or always leave their book at home. Unfortunately, it is protocol at our school that if a student has an overdue library book, him or her is not permitted to checkout another until the overdue one is returned. My struggling readers learned of this rule and used it to their advantage, understanding that a way out of reading time would be to "lose" their library book automatically and be forced to pretend read one of the few from my classroom library. I say "pretend-read" because that is what they were doing, being that this is my first-year teaching, my classroom library consisted of a lot of chapter books that although were on grade-level, were too hard or long for my low-level students. I knew I needed a solution,so just like my students found a loop-hole, I found one too.
I made my project for a bunch of graphic novels to add to my classroom library and the results have far exceeded anything I could have ever expected! One particular student of mine struggles across the board academically. He is unmotivated to succeed. He hated reading time and for a long time would not turn in any of the required assignments that helped me to "check" that my students were actually reading. When my project got fully-funded and my materials arrived, my students were excited, we had discussed the project and they were anxiously awaiting the funds. The books were unloaded and put on display so that students could being checking them out. This one particular student came up to me and said, "Ms. Tripp, do you have any books about people like me?" I got this huge grin on my face, because I had put a couple on my list with him in mind, I directed him to "Monster," a graphic novel and he read it in two days. That started something in him, and now that school is over, he has torn through every single graphic novel I have gotten since.
That is just one of the many ways this project has helped me to reach some of my students and we are very thankful for this wonderful opportunity to continue to make a difference in young people's lives!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Drake