Welcome to the official home of Team Emily 2009. Your support will not only help motivate NY public school teacher Emily Mason as she runs her first-ever marathon, but most importantly will fund music projects in public schools across the country!
The instruments in my classroom have opened doors for my students that they have never had before. My students faces brighten so much when they enter the room and see the instruments laid out on the carpet. I hear whispers "YES!! We are going to drum today", "Boomtubes are out". It makes me happy to know they are excited about learning music. Some of my kindergarten students are beginning to read simple notation.
This has also effected me as teacher, I am excited to come and teach on an instrument day. It brings me such joy to know my students are enjoying music while learning. It also has helped many students who have some motor skills difficulties. The instruments have changed things more than I ever expected to do so.
I want to thank you again for all your support and generous donation to my music classroom and more important to my students, who I know truly appreciate and have learned a true life lesson of giving to others.”
I truly appreciate your generous donations to "Rockin in the Mornin". The equipment you donated has made it possible for my students to perform their original songs with professional quality. We no longer have the problem of the instruments drowning out the vocals. The messages are coming through loud and clear.
Our school system has suffered tremendous budget cuts this year. We know more cuts are on the way for next year. It is because of you that we have such incredible resources.
Without people like you, children all over the country would miss out on many amazing opportunities. We send our heartfelt thanks to you.
”
With gratitude,
Teacher
This classroom project was brought to life by Quincy Jones Musiq Consortium and 7 other donors.
Thank you so much for our new instruments! The kids are unbelievably excited. We've used the shakers and maracas along with every genre from traditional Spanish guitar music to Sweet Honey in the Rock to the Beach Boys. Not only does it make them feel incredibly grown up to play an instrument but also shocks them at how easily they can sound like "one of the band." The drums have been played with such enthusiasm that they've been limited to hand drumming only (at the request of the fourth grade class in the next room.)
The kids are especially boggled by the idea that someone they don't know wanted them to have instruments to play. You'll see this reflected in some of the thank you notes, I wish I had pictures of the perplexed first grade faces as I tried to describe this grant and explain (over and over) that these weren't my instruments but theirs. You have truly touched the hearts of these students as well as their hunger for musical experiences.
Many, many thanks for inspiring an ecstatic group of young musicians!”
Thank you all once again for your donation towards our digital camera. I used to take for granted my digital camera. I remember a time without them. Remember film? Photos have always been at the center of so many great memories in my life and yet so many of our school memories here were going undocumented. As recently as last year I watched as so many of my students brought a disposable film camera with us on our overnight trip. 24 exposures which may or may not have ever been developed. With these cameras I am able to put the latest technology in my student's hands. They can take their own photos, hundreds of them! We can teach them how to place them on our server and they will be here forever!
Already the cameras have been used by the Debate Team, the Girls Basketball Team and our Art Class Tile Mural project. All these are instances where the students took complete control of the photos, from start to finish. Many of these photos will end up on our school's website next to stories written by the kids themselves.
Thank you very much for the donation. We appreciate it!”
With gratitude,
Teacher
This classroom project was brought to life by The Pumpkin Foundation/Joe and Carol Reich and 4 other donors.
Your projector arrived in my classroom today. I hooked it up and it worked right away. I can't tell you what a relief it is to have a working projector in both of my teaching sites. I will no longer have to run from the middle school to the lower school to get the projector. I will have a projector always stored in my rooms so I don't have to compete with other teachers for it's use.
I use a projector every day. For example today I used it for every lesson. I use it to show power points, video clips, images as well as to work my Mimio interactive system. I have not been able to use the Mimio at the middle school due to my lack of a projector. Now I feel inspired to get the system up and running. The projector is also great because it has built in speakers. It is impossible to find a working pair of laptop speakers in either building. Through Donors Choose I was able to get speakers for the lower school and, with your projector, I have speakers for the middle school as well. Now, I can show videos with out worrying about how the students will hear it. Another nice feature is that the projector has a remote control with allows me to turn it on and off and control it from the front of the classroom.
Your gift to my students has lifted my spirits during a difficult year and reassured me that what I am doing is important to the world. I want to thank you on behalf of myself and my students.
”
With gratitude,
Ms. Dorn
This classroom project was brought to life by The Pumpkin Foundation/Joe and Carol Reich and 6 other donors.
Thank you so much for your gift towards Drumming by the Dozen! My students were so excited to see the large gathering drum. We are able to fit almost 10 kids around the drum at a time.This helped the students to be engaged and participating all at the same time. We've been practicing our beat keeping skills as well as rhythm echoing. They were also excited to have a new instrument in the classroom that was of high quality.
The guiros have been great too! I have been able to use them with students from PreK all the way through eighth grade. Many of my students are of Hispanic decent and have seen these instruments in their homes or family gatherings. They were so excited to be able make music using the guiro.
Thank you once again for your gift. It means so much to my students and me!!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Wills
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