Past projects 4
Our Queer/Ally Alliance Club Would Love Copies of Chandler Legacies
Funded Feb 3, 2024Thank you so much for your speedy and generous donation of copies of Abdi Nazemian's "The Chandler Legacies" for our Queen Ally Alliance Club at Abraham Lincoln High School.
I reached out to the QAA's sponsor teacher some time back suggesting we collaborate on a book the club could read as a group that I would procure for them through Donor's Choose. As our school's teacher librarian, I had done this with a previous club sponsor and we had a lot of success with it.
She decided to take me up on it and picked "The Chandler Legacies" from my list. I have worked with the author previously, and read all his books so I was particularly happy to bring one of his amazing novels to the students.
The students, in turn, are really enjoying the book. They are reading a couple of chapters a week and discussing it on Thursdays when the club meets.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Moayeri
Student Requested Books For Our Library
Funded Mar 9, 2016When I received the e-mail letting me know that I was anonymously given a $500 gift card from Donor's Choose, the first thought that came into my head was: books! The second thought was: I should let our students tell me what they would like to see in our library collection. I made a suggestion box which I positioned at the circulation desk and every time a student asked me for something we didn't carry, I pointed them in that direction. Those little slips of pink paper I had ready for their suggestions soon stuffed the tissue box-turned suggestion box and I had some solid choices to put in a spreadsheet.
My library practice students helped me put together a categorized spreadsheet so we could acquire the maximum number of books from the suggestions made. We also kept in mind that if we were going to take the suggestions for items such as manga comics, that we needed to buy a chunk in a series, or a continuing chunk from a series we already carry that is well-loved and in-demand by our students.
We put the order in, with some additional funds approved by our awesome principal, and the materials started arriving in many shipments. All the students who had made suggestions were making regular stops in the library asking, "Miss, did it/they come yet?" Over and over, and I was happy to be able to say, "They're here! We're processing them! Check back by the end of today!"
We received everything and added it to the collection the last month of the school year last year. There is still a regular stream of students awaiting to read those items, which are in regular, constant circulation.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Moayeri
Will You Help Us Prepare For Author Aaron Hartzler's Visit
Funded Dec 5, 2015I cannot begin to describe the deep and lasting impact your generous donation which allowed us to purchase copies of Aaron Hartzler's "Rapture Practice" has had on the students to whom we distributed that book. Our initial intention was to have members of our library and GSA clubs read the book and have Mr. Hartzler join us for an intimate visit with just the club members.
"Rapture Practice" is such a powerful memoir and Mr. Hartzler's voice is such strong one that myself and our ELA teacher who sponsors the GSA club felt that even if some students had not read it, they would still benefit from his visit. Mr. Hartzler generously suggested that he come during school hours so classes could partake of his visit, and stay after school so we could still have our personal visit with him.
The emotional effect of "Rapture Practice" was reverberating among our club members as soon as they read the book. But actually being able to hear Mr. Hartzler speak, and ask him questions went a long way in helping our students in their own self-discovery. This profound positive and emotional effect extended beyond the students who had read "Rapture Practice" to all students in the classes who joined us in the library for his visit.
I myself am still reeling from both the book and Mr. Hartzler's visit.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Moayeri
Bookends For Our Library
Funded Oct 21, 2015Thank you again for your generous donations toward bookends in the library at Lincoln High School.
Accessibility is essential in this space and when I arrived at Lincoln at the start of the 2014-2015 school year, I felt choked at how choked our wonderful collection was. Books were so packed in on the shelves that it was impossible to retrieve them without harming them. What's the point of having a collection when you are attacking it every time you want to utilize it?
My students and I spent weeks and weeks reorganizing and weeding the library. In the process we re-did every single section making our collection easier to understand for our students and staff and much easier to access physically--except that we had so much breathing room on each shelf that were there was no need for bookends because the books were jammed all the way to the end of the shelf, now we needed them to keep our library tidy.
Enter you and your thoughtfulness. The library looks super-organized and very inviting to all visitors. The streamlined environment encourages our students to spend time here. No one even thinks about whether or not they should start to tackle pulling a book off a shelf, and that was a huge part of our objective. Time at the shelves should be spent browsing, not wrestling. The bookends are doing a lot in helping preserve our collection for repeated use.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Moayeri