Bet Red: Tomato Nation Contest '09

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This is a small letter giving you a big thank you for your kind book donations. Our students read A Tale of Two Cities with a sense of discovery and intrigue. Without your donations, we would have only read excerpts of this poignant Dickens tale, which robs my students of the literary journey from beginning to the end.

Not only is there a recession crunching education budgets in South Carolina, but being a Charter High School, we get even less. However, with donations like yours, our students get to experience full novels and use that experience to grow academically and emotionally. Our students feel appreciated when mere strangers are willing to give them a precious gift that changes their lives. This is priceless to them and to us as a faculty.

Thank you again for your overwhelming kindness!”

With gratitude,

Teacher

Words cannot sufficiently express our gratitude for your heartfelt donation of the journals, pens and pencils to our classroom. Your generosity of spirit has enabled our class to be able to enjoy the freedom of expression in a safe, supportive environment.

With all the turmoil in the world, it is encouraging to know that we can write our thoughts and experiences in a non-judgmental way. Although we have never met, it gives us such a warm and loving feeling to know that you care about us and our future. We won't let you down. Each day that we write is one day closer to learning more about ourselves and our classmates. We have been surprised to know that we all have more in common than we ever dreamed and we plan to "pay it forward." Someday we hope to be able to do what you have done for us for future generations.

Thank you again. Your gift of generosity will enable us to become "pros with prose!" ”

With gratitude,

Teacher

Thank you so much for your help in funding our project, "Wait! I Can Read This In School?!?!?!" Thanks to your generosity, each of my sixth grade Language Arts Literacy students has his/her own subscription to Weekly Reader Magazine. The high-interest articles in this magazine prove to get my students excited about reading, while reviewing skills in comprehension and vocabulary development.

My students use Weekly Reader Magazine in Work Stations each week. Students work in small groups to read the magazine and answer questions, while discussing current events. There was a recent article on Haiti and the devastation that they still face. My students were so touched that they worked towards putting together a fundraiser to send money to Haiti. Such a learning experience is truly priceless.

Once again, thank you for your generosity and help it getting these subscriptions for my class. My students and I are truly grateful. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Yurchak

Thank you so much for helping to provide new books for my 6th grade students! They were in awe as I organized and cataloged the books during lunch; students were clamoring to be the first to borrow (and read!) one of our brand new books.

Students who had previously balked at the idea of silent, independent reading were suddenly eager to read; common classroom "misbehavior" is attempting to sneak in extra reading time during class.

The nonfiction resources have also been a great resource. My students especially enjoy the "Who was __?" series of biographies. They're at a great reading level for my struggling readers, and they love telling me all about the historic figures they're reading about.

Again, thank you for helping to provide such a valuable resource to my students and the students at my school for years to come! ”

With gratitude,

Ms. Jenkins

Thank you so much for your support of my classroom! Your contributions have made such a huge impact.

If I were to buy a composition notebook for each of my students- an absolute necessity in the classroom- it would make a huge dent in my salary. For the first time ever, my students have their own notebooks and are learning the value of note-taking rather than dictation, observation making, and the value of personal property for academics. As for me, I'm simply happy to stop handing out paper at the beginning of each class. They are looking forward to taking their notebooks on with them through their academic career, and eagerly fill them with ideas and lessons they find relevant.

Sister Souljah's books are an asset to my classroom as well. So few books that I read growing up seem relevant to my students, who come from an entirely different and much less privileged background. It's usually impossible to get my students to read. Donors Choose contributed several novels of urban literature that my students love, because they can relate, and I love, because they are on a higher reading level. It's been a great addition to my classroom.

A collection of Tupac's work has been a tremendous aid for getting my reluctant male students to read. While books by Roald Dahl, JD Salinger, S.E Hinton, J. K Rowling, etc, failed to pique their interest, nothing spoke to my students or even interested them until Tupac was introduced into the classroom. Now several previously uninterested students have shown themselves to be promising writers as a result of this inspiring urban literature.

As my students' test scores grow and their interest in the classroom continues to climb, your donations are especially appreciated. Thank you for your continued support of my classroom. I'm grateful, and my students are as well.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Leonard

Thank you so much for donating to our classroom. The ELMO projector is used everyday in every subject. They say that a picture says a thousand words....look at the pictures that I included with my letter. You can see that we used the ELMO in science to observe our crayfish and bess beetles. The ELMO is perfect in math because I can do the work on the same page that the students are doing their work on. They can see how to do the algorithms for multiplication and division easily. We play games such a jeopardy as a review in science and social studies. We have also been able to study each others writing easily when we can put it up on the ELMO. When we are studying paragraphs, we can look at books, worksheets and each others writing! We have also used the ELMO during an assembly when we were discussing our Famous Person Tea. It was easy to put up the instructions and examples for everyone to see and understand.

The ELMO projector, along with the LCD projector that I also received from Donor's Choose, has made the educational experience in my classroom come alive. The students love that they can see everything in color and right away. They also love how big it all is when it is projected on the wall of the classroom. Thank you so much for helping to make my teaching easier and also have more impact on the students. This ELMO projector will be used this year and for many years to come!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Bailey