Past projects 103
Cleaning and Sanitizing for Healthy Learning
Funded Sep 24, 2024I am beyond grateful for your generous support! These cleaning and sanitizing supplies will help to keep us healthy throughout the year.
The resources in my tech class are handled by about 100 students each trimester, grades 6-8. Hand sanitizing and cleaning our shared laptops and work stations will go a long way keeping germs under control!
Students love how these wipes are easy to access and to use! They even use the hand wipes after blowing their nose and sneezing! We are so blessed that you decided to support our project!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McCarthy
This classroom project was brought to life by Quill.com and 5 other donors.Charged & Ready!
Funded Aug 15, 2024Our new Pearington - Device Mobile Open Charging Cart is even better than I expected! We can charge iPads, Chromebooks, & our HP Laptops with it! We can now easily place our 16 devices in a designated slot and plug in the relevant charging cord knowing that next class, they will be ready to boot up again.
Because students do not have to transport devices class to class, our damage incident is low, which means that my students can continue:
Collaborating, learning and creating
Coding our LEGO robot projects, and our Tello drones
Creating 3D designs
Improving typing and accuracy
The challenges assigned are progressively more complex, and we are no longer worried about low laptop batteries!
Donors, we cannot thank you enough. You have powered up our Tech class!
Thank you for supporting our project!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McCarthy
This classroom project was brought to life by The Gates Foundation and 14 other donors.Heat & Humidity Relief For Learning
Funded Aug 14, 2024I am writing to express our heartfelt thanks for your generous contribution to our quest to beat the heat during Spring and Fall classes. Your support has allowed us to transform an often hot and stickly and sometimes sweaty classroom into a pleasant environment for maximizing our learning experiences.
My students created digital thank you notes to express why they are so grateful for the Air Conditioner. I have added some into pictures. They love coming to my class especially on hot days as they know they will be comfortable and able to focus on their projects.
It is such a joy to watch my students enter my room and literally see them feel the immediate relief from the heat. They are transformed into happy, re-energized humans determined to focus on our tech challenges. This AC unit has transformed our environment. We are beyond grateful for this timely addition to our room; it has been a hot and humid fall!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McCarthy
This classroom project was brought to life by The Gates Foundation and 6 other donors.Mega Board for Mega Chess Sets
Funded May 7, 2024This year, we discovered that our middle school students love playing chess! Thank you for making our new MEGA Chess sets a fun outdoor option on our brand new patio blocks! Chess has been a huge hit, and now, because you believed in our project, they are able to play this strategic game outdoors!
We live in the northeast, so students have been playing this memory-building game of strategy in our library during our after school Game and Chess Club, or in the cafeteria, and in classrooms. Spring has finally arrived, the cold weather season is over and our MEGA Chess sets have moved outdoors. The included mats in the MEGAChess sets are great for indoor play, but because of your generous help, we have created two designated outdoor MEGAChess spaces. Giant chess pieces outdoors keeps our human players moving, and with our new and more permanent patio blocks, we do not have to worry about windy days blowing mats away.
Playing chess outdoors during lunchtime, earned recess, and after school, is a perfect addition for our dynamic middle school population which is also creating interest for new learners as they watch the games in play! This project for 12 x 12 concrete patio blocks in two colors created a beautiful, designated, and permanent chess outdoor playing area.
This summer, a better base will be added under the blocks and a wood frame will keep everything in place. Meanwhile, our students are developing new techniques and we are noticing new friendships developing with MEGA Chess games as a common bond. STEM PLAY at its best! We are looking forward to seeing more joy, laughter, and strategies blossom as more students get involved in learning chess.
We are beyond grateful for your support in bringing this project to life! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McCarthy
This classroom project was brought to life by General Motors and 10 other donors.Mega Screen For Mega Fun & Learning
Funded May 6, 2024Inspired by the comfort dogs that visited our schools last fall after the experience of pain and tragedy due to an active shooter in our community, our students committed to helping others: a fundraiser for breast awareness and creating pet beds and toys for our local animal shelters. The strength and resiliency of our students is really amazing to us, and you, dear generous donors, have shown them that, in fact, they really do matter.
You are our DonorsChoose heroes, role models, and we cannot say thank you enough for believing in US, and our MEGA Screen project! Your donation made this dream come true! YOU have made this amazing resource possible for 300 middle school students and their teachers! We are staggered at the ways this screen will transform learning and fun. Presentations, movies, documentaries, and videos shared are easily seen, making it more interesting and easier for students to focus. We are gearing up to super size our end of the year celebrations. We just MEGA-sized our final dance May 31st, and our congratulations message is ready to broadcast to our outgoing 8th graders on June 5th. See pictures for a visual!
Thank you from the bottom of OUR hearts for supporting our dream and bringing this fun and flexible resource to our school.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McCarthy
This classroom project was brought to life by General Motors and 3 other donors.STEM For SPED
Funded Apr 4, 2024My students are so excited to use these LEGO Creator sets to decode instructions and to build. That they have 3 build options per kit makes them so much more flexible. My students love having choices.
They are so focused while interpreting the directions and using critical thinking to apply the directions to build the object. The successful build is helping them gain confidence and have positive in-school experiences. Working on the kits has actually diffused a student from escalating from frustration over a different issue. He chose to use the LEGO kit to refocus himself! The impact the kits are having is beyond my expectations.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McCarthy
Undergarment & Hygiene Essentials for Confidence
Funded Jan 28, 2024What an amazing feeling you have given our students! The launch of the "Dog House" supply closet, only 1 year old, has made a huge impact on our students! Because of your generosity, our students no longer hesitate to ask for undergarments, socks, pants, and hygiene supplies needed; accidents at school really do happen. It is such a relief to know that we can take care of our students' personal care needs.
Because of you, our generous donors, our students attend the middle school with confidence. They are happy! They no longer have to worry about surprises or accidents at school. We feel blessed to have your support making sure that our students are attending school without worries of wearing dirty clothes or having odors.
Our students are very grateful for your generosity and are amazed that you care about them enough to support their needs.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McCarthy
Flash Drive Cache & Carry - Part 4
Funded Feb 19, 2024My 6th grade students worked hard to learn how to code drones for autonomous flight. Most earned the TRUST certificate, which by law, you now need in order to fly outdoors even for recreational purposes. I do print a hard copy for each student, but this certificate is good for life.....unless you lose the paper. So, I decided that they need a digital backup copy as well.
By the way, having a flashdrive is a great reason to learn how to use it in order to save other important documents on it as well. With your generosity, I am able to gift a flashdrive to each 6th grader and to teach them how to save, move, and organize files to it and to safely remove/eject it from the USB port. They are quite excited to select their colored drive and lanyard!
They also use this flashdrive to:
-Save photos and files from various projects
-Move their Tinkercad design in stl file format, from their Chromebook to the slicer program on an HP laptop to convert that file to gx mode and to find out how long the object will take to 3D print
-Then take the gx file to the 3D printer for production
The excitement on their faces when they pick their flashdrive from the pile, is priceless. The realization that it is theirs to keep for life brings a huge smile on their face. One student declared that hers even survived a wash with her laundry! This gift would not be possible without your generosity which funded this project in a "just in time" manner.
I am sincerely thankful for your support.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McCarthy
Warm Weather Wear!
Funded Jan 20, 2024We are so grateful to have received the sweatpants and leggings for our supply closet! Multiple students have needed to grab a pair to make it through the rest of the day at school. Our winter has been very wet and cold; we are now in MUD season! One trip during fresh air time, and it's over! We are quite lucky to now have the needed clothing for our students to be able to fill their needs regardless of sizes. It is such a relief for them... and staff! They are now confident and happy because they know that we have a plan if something happens and they need a change of clothes....and it has! That stress has been removed off their plate.
We feel extremely blessed to have your support to make sure our students are able to focus on just being kids and becoming their best selves during the school day without feeling uncomfortable in wet or soiled pants. Cold days are now warmer because you cared to support our students. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McCarthy
School Community Garden-Go for Launch
Funded Jan 9, 2024We are so excited to begin our journey with our new school community garden space, which would have NEVER happened without your generous support. We are integrating science, social studies, and computer skills into our spring garden launch. While patiently waiting for winter to end, science teachers have "grown" their curriculum and have students planting various seeds indoors and are observing and recording the growth progress. My students are currently researching topics like companion planting and natural controls for invasive insects; we are excited to grow marigolds as a garden protector. Teams are curating this valuable information on a shared Slide deck. They will then design/sketch a possible planting plan. We will create a Google survey form to discover which vegetables, herbs, and fruit are student and staff favorites. My students will also design, create, and 3D print garden markers to keep track of seeds and seedlings planted. I anticipate we will also need a log which can be created and shared using Google Sheets. The log will track garden duties, schedules, observations, and plant growth so that all teams will remain abreast of the work done, timelines, and what is still needed.
All of our middle school students are actively participating in recycling in the lunchroom so we can compost to add richness to our garden soil and save money in trash pick up and even bigger, save our Earth. Snow is almost gone, so we will soon be erecting our two new greenhouses.
Our students are at an impactful and critical phase in their development. If we metaphorically prepare their garden beds (minds) planting the seeds of nature (idea)...of nurture, we will see:
-Individuals developing responsibility, teamwork, and commitment skills;
-The epitome of hands on learning in a calm, "cultivating" atmosphere;
-Extended "growing" season beyond 4 walls in a live setting;
-Increased awareness and ultimately, adoption, of healthy habits for life.
We are forever grateful for your believing in, and, supporting our project which will bring education of our middle schoolers into a dimension which we could never do without your generosity!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. McCarthy
This classroom project was brought to life by LOFT and 3 other donors.