Ms. Keown's Classroom Edit display name

Current requests

Past projects 6

• Manga in the Middle

  Funded Oct 31, 2024

  Thank you again for your donation that helped us to secure our titles for the Manga in the Middle project.

  Our students were SO excited to see the new copies on the shelves when they arrived-- they were very impatient to see us get them processed and ready for checkout, with many of the students stopping in daily to ask if they were ready yet.

  Our manga circulation has been able to maintain a steady number throughout the school year, and the new titles have brought new readers through the doors of our library on several occasions so far. Veteran manga readers who noticed the new titles brought in their friends to show them what they were missing, and there are many mornings when we find them laid out on the floor in front of the manga section comparing scenes from different volumes in their favorite series.

  We are so thankful for your contribution because it helps us maintain reading momentum for so many middle school readers at an age when, statistically speaking, we are often instead seeing a decline in their love of reading. Thank you!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Keown

  This classroom project was brought to life by SONIC Foundation and 5 other donors.

• With Love from Our Crochet Club

  Funded Nov 15, 2023

  Thank you for funding our Donors Choose grant for yarn for our crochet club students. They were SO excited when we opened up the boxes, showed them their color choices, and told them they got to keep the whole skein to create projects of their choice-- there were lots of squeals and several students out of chairs jumping up and down. :)

  They've grown so much in their skills with the crochet hook since we started the club this year, and they are just so adorable sitting around on our library couches crocheting and laughing together.

  Thank you for helping us keep this community well-stocked and excited about their new needlecraft hobby.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Keown

• Graphic Novel Book Clubs!

  Funded Dec 28, 2023

  Thank you so much for funding our graphic novel book club grant through Donors Choose. When I received notice that this grant would go through, I immediately ran to the office of our bilingual coordinator and English Language Learning (ELL) paraprofessionals to give them the news, and we were all so excited to know we'd be able to push through with our idea for graphic novel book clubs with our newcomer and ELL population in our school.

  Many of our students have had quite a path to follow before arriving at our school's doors, and they often come in with very little knowledge of the language, culture, and expectations of schools and communities in the U.S. For this reason, we are passionate about providing them with experiences to connect with others, both peers and adults, in genuine, caring, and nurturing ways. These graphic novels will be exciting options for them because they're new titles and new copies, and they provide us with meaningful, engaging prompts to gather together and get to each other in small groups while growing the speaking, listening, and overall literacy skills of our newly-arrived ELL students, skills that-- in any language or location-- will open up so many more opportunities for them in their futures.

  Thank you again; with the compassion and giving of others, we can accomplish so much more than we could alone. You've made that possible, and we are incredibly grateful for you!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Keown

• Reading Bowl Books

  Funded Aug 23, 2023

  Thank you so much for helping us provide enough copies for our Reading Bowl kids to be competitive and reread their competition books multiple times in preparation for the district competition. Our students have shown so much progress year after year in this competition, and they've set big goals for themselves this year. It's fun to see them tearing through their books, stopping to write notes, and quizzing each other on the story's details.

  Thank you again for being part of our "team" this year-- you've joined a group of winners!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Keown

• More Manga, More Readers!

  Funded Aug 22, 2023

  Thank you so much for helping us build our manga collection in our school library. The kids love this genre so much, and it genuinely motivates many of our self-proclaimed "non-readers" to stop in for daily visits to the library to check out the next volume of their favorite manga. They're asking me for series after series and getting excited about the prospects of having more options for their reading progress-- a huge success moment for a middle school library!

  Reading is the gateway to many life opportunities, so thank you again for paving the way for our kids. I appreciate it!”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Keown

• An Exciting and Relevant Whole Classroom Read!

  Funded Aug 12, 2021

  Thank you so much for creating the opportunity for my students to read a high-interest and more recently published novel together as a class!

  Normally, kids in my classroom are choosing their own texts for their independent reading or reading in smaller book clubs, and these options do generate a lot of motivation and interest for our readers. However, there is also just a lot of magic that can occur when a large group of readers gets to experience a novel-length text together.

  Thanks to your donations, we're headed in that direction this year, and as a class, we can't thank you enough for helping us grow and learn and discover together as a community of readers.”

  With gratitude,

  Ms. Keown

  This classroom project was brought to life by Bill Gates and 5 other donors.