Michael Grischstache's 2009 Giving Page

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Thank you so much for the amazing writing journals you supplied my students with! They absolutely love having developmentally appropriate journals and writing time has become such a joy in my classroom! My students' writing has improved dramatically and they have become extremely proud of their work. As a result of all of the journal writing we have done, we have even published a class book. Thank you for believing in education and for supporting my students. You have made a difference!”

With gratitude,

Teacher

Please allow me to express my deepest gratitude for your donations. It made possible my tradition

of ending the school year with a memorable learning experience for our young scientists. As you

read in their letters, the students look forward to being in the only class to

dissect a frog! The have all heard about it from siblings or relatives who have had my class and

rumor it to be an accelerated class because of such special activities.

Having this distinction 'raises the bar" for the goals they set for themselves and expectations for their science class in the coming year. Having special activities make students feel special. This feeling carries over into the way they feel about school and their ability to succeed in school. Having hands on materials just makes learning fun.

I hope the students letters incite your enthusiasm to continue making contributions to donorschoose.org! Please know that you have made a difference in the lives of 150 people.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Smith

Thank you so much for your donations. My students love the science centers. They are fun and engaging. Like I said in my proposal, these centers really helped my students review facts learned in previous years.

There is a very popular center called the Science Quiz Show. Most of the students love to play that game. I have three classes, and it became very popular around our school. Other teachers have come to see the famous science centers.

I just want to let you know that we appreciate you donations very much. My students review and learned new science facts. Can you believe that some of the questions from the centers were in the science standardized test?

Once again, thank you for taking the time and effort to help teachers and students like us. We are very thankful.

”

With gratitude,

Teacher

I wish to thank you for your generous donation toward my much needed classroom library books. As part of the daily reading workshop, my students self-select and independently read texts from our classroom library. It is important that I expose my students to a variety of genres and have available a variety of reading levels. Many of my students are prodigious readers and before long many of these readers feel as though the choices are thin. I need to continue to build this library with high-interest text and your contribution to this request has put many books into the hands of my students. Most importantly, your donation has funded books by a well-known author (and former English teacher) whose content and characters reflect those of the students I teach. To maintain an interest in reading, I want to provide my students with books that represent various cultures and themes but too it is important that my students read about the lives of characters who look like them and have similar life experiences to them.

Thank you so very much for making this goal possible. Your kindness is greatly appreciated.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Belanski

Well, our chart stand and its accessories have been in our classroom for a couple of months now and, I want to let you know what an impact it has made on the daily learning activities for my special needs students. It's hard to imagine how we worked without it before!

The chart stand has made a great impact on our small group lessons by making materials easier for everyone to see. We are able to attach learning charts to the stand to work on so many different concepts. One of the students' favorites is to use the 100's chart. They all love taking a turn to "be teacher". And you should hear them...they are counting by 1's, 2's, 5's, and 10's! I believe that the visual presentation the chart stand allows has made a difference in their interest in this activity and has promoted mastery of these skills.

On a daily basis, a morning story is developed by my students and I and is written on the chart stand paper. The students' next job is to copy the story onto primary paper, practicing a skill that is common in the general education classroom environment. With inclusion into the general education program a primary educational goal for my students, this is a vital skill for them to develop. Without blackboard space, we had been unable to practice this skill. What a difference I have seen in the attention of the students as they focus on copying our story! They have become more aware of writing within the lined parameters of the primary paper. They have become more aware of how to write a daily story. And, it doesn't stop there...my students who are not yet able to copy and write practice matching letters and spelling words with magnetic letters on the chart stand. And who knew??? The chart stand even has a big book rack that makes storytime easier!

I truly appreciate you commitment to making an impact on learning through your generous donation. I thank you for recognizing the need for the materials that I requested for my students. You certainly have made a difference!!”

With gratitude,

Ms. Matthew-Kuehn

Thank you so much for your contribution. Your generous donation has helped to improve my classroom library and increase the amount of resources available for my students to use. Working in an urban public school is full of challenges but also full of rewards, and I am fortunate to work at a great school with great students who are eager to read.

I believe it is vital to have a variety of reading materials available for students to read in order to create life long readers. The books you donated to our classroom are kept in our classroom library for students to enjoy. Students may check out these books and take them home or read them during our silent reading time. Choice is very important to middle school students. Having a wide variety of books in our classroom library allows them to exercise some independence over their own learning and makes them more eager and willing to read. Research shows that nonfiction is more appealing to boys. Thank you for choosing to support the reading of nonfiction.

Thank you for making a difference in my students' lives and for making an impact on literacy education!”

With gratitude,

Ms. Basurto

As our bus pulled back outside of our school last Tuesday, half of our students were waking up from their post-field trip naps and the other half were still yammering away about the day. It isn't surprising that students fell asleep given how much FUN we have.

Our day started with arriving at the Legoland Discover Center. We were greeted by a Legoman who if you pressed just the right button would emit funny sounds--much to the delight of our seven year old boys! When we got upstairs we found a room full of three different size legos, where we were able to build anything and everything we wanted. We could test our cars on a racing track and there was even a special room where we could build Lego castles!!

During the Tall Towers workshop we built towers as tall as possible and hoped that they would survive the earthquake towers. All four of our towers survived thanks to the interlocking of our legos!!

We saw two 4D movies, went on a Dragon ride, walked through a jungle, saw the entire Chicago skyline and even got to go on a ride where the faster you peddled the bike, the higher you went!

For lunch, we got to eat in the Jungle room, which for many of our students was their first experience in a party room.

At the end of the day we all went home with Lego crowns and a Lego that we "made" in the Lego Factory.

Our second graders proclaimed this to be "the best field trip ever," "my favorite day of school," and "the most awesome day of my life."

This trip was an incredible experience for each and everyone of us. Thinking about the good time we all had and reflecting that I was able to provide my students with such a unique and amazing opportunity leaves me with goosebumps. I cannot thank each of you enough for the generous gifts you gave that made it possible for us to go to Legoland.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Keenan

The students have been enjoying the books they received. I have a constant stream of checkouts from the library. The students were besides themselves to learn that people they did not even know wanted to help them and provide for them. This alone made them more hopeful for the future. This helped them to feel supported and encouraged. Now, the culture of reading has been firmly established. We used the books you all provided to set that tone in the first few critical months. Students are reading, writing about, and exchanging books.

Students often talk about a lack of interest and connection to school. The books they received has allowed them to connect and feel invested in school. This investment in learning is more important than any content knowledge they will be asked to recall in school. It is through this investment that they will truly transform. We thank you all for everything you have done. ”

With gratitude,

Mr. Khan

It is with deep gratitude I write this letter to thank you for your generous support through Donors Choose. The things we do in life often have measurable results but the extent of their impact is often difficult to quantify. The Donors Choose Books and subscriptions, which you have so generously donated to our class, have had an impact upon my scholars beyond the obvious and measurable financial help. Above all, you have put great books into the hands of deserving young adults who otherwise may not have had the opportunity to receive such reading material.

Without your generosity this would not have been possible. My scholars are very happy that you provided them with so many new books to add to our classroom library and they were especially excited about The Lovely Bones, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and City of Bones. It is so important for students to have reading material that they are interested in and that is at their reading level, and you made that possible.

This is the first time this year that we have also been able to add nonfiction magazines into our library and the students are very excited about it! Because of your donation my students are able to keep up with current events in our country and around the world.

Thank you so much for your support. It means everything to me and to my scholars to know that there are other people out there who really care about the education of our children!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. C.