Hart Edmonson's Mustache

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Your donation to our project, Weekly Readers, at our Elementary School has been apart of the most productive school year that I've had to date. I am a beginner teacher of two years and choose the field of education so I could help the children in an environment that I considered had the most need, our inner city urban schools.

It has been a grave struggle for the students as well as myself. It is a costly job in areas the extend far beyond financially, as you are probably very aware. It is because of donors the entire kindergarten class and pre-kindergarten class have been able to use the Weekly Reader. Last year it was funded by our school and I knew that this upcoming year it would not. I couldn't imagine teaching without them. I reached out to this organization and you made it a reality.

The magazine allows the children to explore more about interesting subjects the way a child mind needs to explore. Every issue has been so relevant to my entire teaching experience. The magazine covers my entire curriculum, Reading, Math, Language and the Social Sciences. The children are excited each issue and were even more excited to write you thank you notes, because they are aware that it was others' generosity that affords us to be a part of the learning and fun we experience while using our magazines. We refer to them often, and use the old magazines as well as the new.

I appreciate your graciousness and generosity. It is because of this I say thank you from me, the educator and those who benefited most, my children.

Thank you,

Flora

Kindergarten Teacher”

With gratitude,

Mrs. H.

Since receiving the LCD projector for my classroom, I have brought 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students on a visual trip to six of the seven continents. The 8th grade students have seen and learned about masks from the past and present created by different cultures all around the world. They are currently creating their own masks. The students are each making two masks. Each mask will show a different emotion. The 6th and 7th grade students have taken a journey through time, experiencing early to contemporary abstract art and portraiture from around the world. The art spans all the way from Native American art to Dutch, to contemporary art from Taiwan. Every project from now on will be able to be explored more deeply. The social, cultural, and aesthetic qualities will be investigated. Student work is already showing greater depth and meaning after viewing the way other people have created similar pieces of art. This is a very exciting time in my classroom. The students look forward to the topic of art history and have wonderful insights into the art of the past.

Thank you so much for your donation to help fund this project. You have truly helped a dream come alive. The students are excited every time they see the projector set up because they know that they will get to see something and experience artwork that they have never seen before. Visual learning is important in every subject. Art is certainly no exception. The visual process is critical to art and the information that I can present now leads to more enriching discussions as well as student artwork. I really can't thank all of you enough for helping to fund this project.

Thank you again for your help and donations in funding this project. You have truly made a big difference in the education of many students for years to come.

”

With gratitude,

Teacher

Let me start by expressing my profound appreciation for your generosity. I find it both encouraging and inspiring that you share a vision for my students' success. I believe that your actions communicate a very strong message to my students that goes beyond your charity. The message is that there is an entire community of people who recognize the importance of strengthening one's literacy through regular reading.

All of my students have taken assessments that show them their reading level. Each student is aware of the grade level that they are reading on and has set a goal for where they would like to be by the end of the year. On average, my tenth graders are reading on about a sixth or seventh grade level. Naturally, learning this is very frustrating for students. For many of them, their initial reaction is to give up or to lower their expectations. However, through strategic conferencing and team building, I am able to help invest my students into creating ambitious and feasible goals for growth. In the conferences, we identify the importance of reading books that are just above their reading level. Habitual reading is not a part of many of my students' lives, so, as you can imagine, reading on a regular basis becomes an overwhelming and often a scary experience. The amazing variety of subjects and difficulty levels in the books you have provided for my students is exactly what they need to get invested and feel successful in their goals.

As I mentioned in my project proposal, my school is amongst the last of a dying bread of schools that attempts to bring a substantive education to all students in its community without any entrance requirements. We welcome all students. The result is that many students who come to our school have not had great deals of success in middle school or simply were not provided with the quality of education that they deserve. As a staff, we looked at all of the obstacles standing in the way of our students and agreed that literacy needed to be our number one focus. Through literacy we can help students catch up to where they need to be on graduation day. Your contribution puts my class at the forefront of this initiative. Indeed, the success of the literacy push in my class will, in many ways, help us determine how the movement will look in the rest of the school. I cannot wait to see how the focus on literacy benefits my students and eventually my school as a whole. Thank you so much for being a part of this great enterprise. ”

With gratitude,

Mr. Swanson