Past projects 10
Class Set of a Guide to Mental Health
Funded Sep 12, 2024After some challenges getting the book actually in our hands - it's so popular it was back-ordered for a several weeks - we cracked it open this month and dove in.
To date we have just scratched the surface, reading about the parts of the brain and how the chemicals in our body affect our mental health and overall wellbeing. Students have already made some good connections regarding addiction and dopamine and habits like video gaming and social media.
We will explore the book further with them when we get back to school in January. It is a topic that is especially relevant to the lives of young teens, and I look forward to the conversations and learning that lie ahead.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Parodi
Break Time Activity for Our JJ
Funded Apr 25, 2024Thank you again for contributing to this project - I was both delighted and surprised to see it funded so quickly!
Our middle school program at Encinal serves about 300 students in grades 6-8, on a campus that also has about 1,000 high school students. As such, the campus feels more like a high school than a middle school. We are always looking for little ways to bring a bit more play and joy to the campus, and this project is a good example.
The students that have started using the disks and the baskets range from those who are on competitive Ultimate teams to those who just don't know what to do with themselves at lunch and during breaks; some are showing off their skills and some are trying something entirely new. It's already made our outdoor space a little bit more exciting and welcoming.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Parodi
This classroom project was brought to life by Mission Tiger and 2 other donors.19th Century Science & Technology Fair
Funded Jul 31, 2020It's been a strange year for teaching, and one in which it is easy for kids to get Zoom and screen time fatigue. So I was thrilled to stand at the front of the school during textbook distribution in January and hand my students poster paper, markers, and other materials to actually create something real. I was disappointed to just find that Donors Choose has temporarily suspended the photo upload option, because the posters my class created are great!
I hope that through this project I have demonstrated how science runs through various disciplines, including history. This project was something of an experiment for me this year, but it's something I intend to do every year going forward!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Parodi
Literacy Circle / Book Club Novels
Funded Jul 11, 2019Five years ago I started looking for lunch time activities for my sixth grade students. It was their first year at a 6-12 school dominated by high school students, so most of the sixth graders were gravitating to their classrooms at lunch. The trouble was, from my perspective, that their default activity was to sit and stare at their phones. So I began seeking activities that would get them to look up.
Some lunch events have occurred naturally; three years ago I had a group that loved watching Cupcake Wars reruns, so we staged our own cupcake bake-offs, with kids bringing baked good from home and judges chosen at random to taste and declare a winner. I used another Donor's Choose project to buy board games, which gets them interacting with each other instead of their devices.
But my longest-running lunch activity proved to be a middle school book club, with monthly meetings to discuss our book and choose a new title. The challenge has been coming up with fresh sets of novels; my sources for free literature are great for individual titles, but finding eight to ten of the same book is a challenge. This project makes that happen, and your donation has helped sustain the book club for years to come.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Parodi
Give the (Young) People What They Want
Funded Aug 21, 2017The graphic novels I requested through this Donor's Choose project started coming in last week. Books were barely out of the boxes before I was being hit up with requests to check them out. They're clearly a hit.
One of the things I most enjoy about 6th graders is that they simultaneously want to be little kids and grown ups. They want to be taken seriously by the older kids at school, and they also want to play tag with every free moment. They want to test out the idea of having boyfriends and girlfriends, but they don't want to ever have to actually have a conversation about having boyfriends or girlfriends.
When it comes to the books they read, they want to read kids books that don't look like kids books. "Young adult" fiction is too adult for them, but traditional picture books are too elementary school. My ever-growing library of graphic novels nicely addresses the needs of 6th graders; the books can be about serious topics, while still being fun to read. Judging by the interest that has already been shown (and the fact that I lent out 15 books on the first day they were available), I am certain that these books will be well-loved.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Parodi
This classroom project was brought to life by Sergey Brin Family Foundation and 4 other donors.Get My Kids Off Their Phones!
Funded Feb 14, 2017A few weeks ago, my classroom received your generous gift of card games and board games for our middle schoolers to play during lunchtime. I am pleased to say that there are already some favorites that are seeing daily use, including Apples to Apples (Jr. Edition), the giant checker board, and my personal favorite, Exploding Kittens. Don't worry, no animals are harmed in the playing of Exploding Kittens; in fact, it has taught us that TACOCAT is a palindrome!
Given the rain that continues to fall in California as we enter Spring, I have no doubt that I'll have a room full of students at lunch time for weeks to come. It is my hope that at least some of them will continue to put their phones away and engage with each other over a game.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Parodi
Drought-resistant Gardening at Encinal
Funded Nov 12, 2016My sincerest thanks for helping to fund this gardening project. We have a lovely garden space at our school, but construction work at our school over the past few years has left the garden without access to water. My class is excited to put the ollas to use and creating a sustainable, 'waterless' garden.
While it's a bit early yet to start planting, this week the rain let up enough to allow to go out and begin clearing the garden beds, and inspecting them for damage. Over the next few weeks we'll bring in some fresh soil, bury the ollas, and start planting. Until then, we are studying how ollas have been used in the southwest for irrigation.
Thanks again for helping bring our school's garden back to life!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Parodi
Coming Together Around Literature
Funded Oct 7, 2016While Encinal High has been serving Alameda since the 1950s, the Encinal Junior Jets is in only its fourth year. As such, we our still in the process of creating a library of middle grade reading materials.
This project allowed us to add two contemporary novels to our 6th grade curriculum - When You Reach Me, by Sharon Creech, and A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park. Both authors are Newbery Award winners, and both novels tie in with our studies in 6th grade. For example, A Long Walk to Water tells the true story of one the Lost Boys of Sudan, and of the importance of water as a life-giving force; our 6th grade history curriculum includes the ancient history of Egypt and Sudan, and water is a theme throughout our studies of ancient civilizations.
All four of our 6th grade classes are reading both novels this year; in fact, many have already declared When You Reach Me as their favorite book ever!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Parodi
Middle School Book Club
Funded Oct 6, 2015My students and I send our sincere thanks for your generous donation that helped get this little project started. I invited sixth and seventh graders to our first book club meeting in December, at which they chose to read "The One and Only Ivan." We lost a few members and picked up a few others to keep our numbers at about ten for our second selection, "When You Reach Me," which we met to discuss in January. The book was such a hit with the group that they chose to read "A Wrinkle In Time," which is referenced heavily in "When You Reach Me," and our group is growing - I've had to call in favors from other teachers to get additional copies!
What's been most successful is that students who were not readers to begin the school year are really into the idea of reading something for fun with their peers. It's such a rare gift to have sets of novels that are purely for fun in the classroom, beyond than the core set of expected reading material. I'm already getting requests from students for other books they'd like to add to the collection, so I may be coming back to Donor's Choose for a second round of books for this group. I'd call that a success!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Parodi
I Am Malala Reading Project
Funded Jul 17, 2015This month the incoming sixth grade class at Encinal Jr. & Sr. High School in Alameda read as their first book "I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World," by Malala Yousafzai and Patricia McCormick. The class set of books that was purchased through this project allowed our students to read about somebody who, at the age they are right now, took a stand to defend her right to be educated, and how her bravery nearly cost her her life.
I can say with all sincerity that the class absolutely loved this read. We would read ten to fifteen pages a day together in class, and when we got to the end of a chapter they always asked to keep going. Our work after we completed the book centered around a quote from Malala Yousafzai's speech to the United Nations: "One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world." Students dove back into the book to find passages that better explained and supported this statement, and wrote about the impact that Malala and her father have had on the world.
Finally, I want to note the value that this book has for its positive image of Muslims. Many of our students are recent immigrants from the Middle East and Pakistan, whose families have fled in the wake of the Arab Spring and the ensuing unrest in the region. It is rare that these students can feel truly included in a conversation around something we are reading - let alone be experts! They have been able to share their experiences in their home countries, some of which sound eerily similar to the experiences of Malala Yousafzai.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Parodi