Laptops For Students With Special Needs
Funded Jan 28, 2009As inner city special education students, my class has grown accustomed, sadly, to a shortage of supplies, a lack of textbooks, and the absence of cutting-edge materials. As you might imagine, then, when your generous gift arrived, they were incredulous: "You mean someone sent us these computers just to be nice!?"
Your generosity has without a doubt resulted in an exciting educational experience for these students. Our final unit this year included a research documentary on immigration waves to New York City; the laptops allowed each student to conduct research independently, save and edit his or her work over time, and organize and present ideas using such innovative online programs as MyWebspiration.com, and Audacity, and Windows Moviemaker.
Perhaps, however, even more important than the academic gains your generosity has brought to us, are the emotional ones; for students so often overlooked by the educational establishment, the knowledge that someone cared enough to send a set of individual computers to them will resonate long after their final project is turned in, and, I hope, inspire each to commit his or her own acts of generosity in the future.
I sincerely apologize for the delay in getting this letter to you (your package was initially sent to our school's computer lab, where the computers were configured by our technology director prior to being forwarded to us). Please know that your gift was very much appreciated by all of us!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Paletti