Sacramento City Educational Foundation's Giving Page

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Thank you so much for the incredible Canon Camcorder& Crayola Modeling Clay. Both have made a great difference in student writing and editing.

We are using the camera for several different projects: an instructional video, a personal exposition of life in another culture, public speaking, and technology that transfers to the outside world.

The Crayola Modeling Clay was part of teaching the STAR editing strategy: Substitute, Take Out, Add, and Rearrange. By doing the kinesthetic and visual activity of molding the clay, students seemed to understand the concept of moving their writing around to produce a clearer, more concise piece of writing.

We will reuse the camcorder year after year. The modeling clay has been consumed, but the results will last!

Thank you again for your generosity.

Sincerely,

Ms. T”

With gratitude,

Ms. Tigert

My students were all excited when I announced to the class that we are receiving four electronic balances from donorschoose.org. They love my chemistry class because they do more hands-on laboratory activities where they use lab equipment and work with chemicals. Your donation allowed them to weigh chemicals and other stuff in their experiments faster because they have an electronic balance in their respective stations. They do not have to wait in line to use the two available balances that I previously have for the whole class.

Your generous assistance and commitment to help teachers like me offer the best learning to our students are greatly appreciated. With the present budget shortfall our school is facing, your assistance means so much to me but even more to my students who are benefiting in this project. Thank you from all of us.”

With gratitude,

Teacher

First I would like to somewhat describe my classroom and teaching philosophy to you, just so you can see the importance of having hands-on materials for my students' learning. At my school we implement brain compatible teaching techniques, as well as thematic instruction and vocabulary instruction through the use of pictures and realia (real-life materials). Our school garden is the perfect environment to incorporate all of these things, as well as accessing the multiple intelligences through nature experiences, song, and visually. Throughout the year, even if the weather isn't cooperating, we can still include our garden in everything we do by starting seedlings inside the classroom and later transplanting them, watching how butterflies grow, all at the same time reading, writing and drawing about our experiences. Since we tend to retain almost all of what we actually do ourselves, the garden is the perfect opportunity for my students to practice what we have been learning in the classroom, and experience it for themselves.

So this brings me to what a great and selfless act you all have done by making these learning experiences a possibility for my students not only this year, but for many years to come by providing us with the materials necessary to enhance their learning and hopefully give them the best possible chance to be successful in their school career. I could go on and on, but I hope one day the generosity shown by you will be repeated by myself and my students as a way of "paying it forward!"”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Zavala

I cannot express my gratitude for your generous donation, and how thankful my students are to have these resources at our school. Many of my students come from homes that cannot afford decent headphones to bring to school, which limits the curriculum and also leads to distractions. Students can now listen to any written components to the curriculum, as well as access video and audio segments of the classes. Also, with the provided headphones, students can listen to music while they work, allowing them to maintain good focus on their work.

Your generosity has made it possible for my students to be able to access the audio components of their curriculum easily and without the stress of having to borrow headphones, or do without. My classroom is filled with quiet students who come in everyday, stick their headphones, and go about getting their classes done for graduation. The learning environment is fantastic, and students feel motivated to achieve their goals. Again, I cannot tell you how appreciative my students and I are for this donation to allow our classroom and curriculum, ”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Taylor

You have all contributed to an instrument that I have wanted to implement so many new ideas with. With your help, I can now try many end of the year activities with my current classes, to help wind down the year, but more importantly, I will be able to prepare over the summer to have the ELMO fully functional and provide next year's incoming students with the best prepared activities.

I know that not only will students enjoy the new technology, but the ELMO will foster a more hands-on approach, and allow us to display different media and project it for all to see. The more variety in offering up the material, the more students I'm sure to reach!

I am extremely thankful for your contributions and am overwhelmed to know that there are people who still really care to make a difference in the upbringing of our future.”

With gratitude,

Mr. Lam

I can't thank you enough for donating towards our classroom ELMO document projector. I work everyday to try and get my classes participating in a meaningful way. For each child this is different. In many cases my students cannot picture what I am trying to explain to them. The projector allows me to access the part of their brain that will connect them to history. They can also make meaningful personal connections with the use of the projector.

The students use the projector to show their drawings and their assignments. When I assign a drawing to the class that shows history in some way I give them the opportunity to bring their drawing to the projector and they can display their picture for the whole class. If the class has completed a section of notes that they are sharing with the class they can also display their answers so others may check their work rather than just verbally giving their answers.

I use the projector to put up notes for the class to copy. I also project me completing examples of parts of the assignments so that it is modeled for them. I can also project the text itself and be able to show the class where they can find an answer. All of these options allow me to better my class' understanding of the history curriculum.

Thank you again for giving my classes one more way to learn history and giving me one more strategy to teach them.

”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Leas

I want to start by saying thank you, not for the materials exactly, but for letting my students feel that someone cares about them and their learning. We talked about this project and the possible materials from the first day we signed up. I did warn them that it was likely that we would not get these material because it takes a person who is willing to donate their hard-earned money to children they have never met; therefore, not realizing how amazing these children are. I am grateful for this feeling you gave them.

We wished for two main items: water paints and electricity explore kit. The water paints allowed me to assess my students' comprehension of their weekly reading without having them fill in bubbles. For my language learners, about half of my class, were able to express their learning without using language. This was very important to me. My language learners had more enthusiasm while reading than before because they knew they could paint their favorite part of the story and get an appropriate grade, thank you for this. The big project that we used the water paints for was our topographic maps of California. My class made clay and created the state, then painted the four regions. While this is a California State Standard for 4th grade, the text book photographs do not create the meaningful experience that the project did. They now want to create the United States the same way. Thank you.

The electricity explore kit was incredibly fun. I handed over the materials, with no text book instruction, and had their groups explore different concepts of electricity. I cannot describe the feelings I had when I heard that "ahh" moment multiple times. My students spent an entire afternoon exploring and teaching each other about electricity. Thank you. Other teachers and our principal were intrigued by this kit and the way my students were motivated, and have since, borrowed the kit. We also used for our community Family Game Night. Parents in the community learned just as much as the students because they were able to experience the information, not simply read it.

Thank you from me, my class, and our community especially in this tough economic time. ”

With gratitude,

Mrs. lawson-perez

Thank you all so much for donating to my project! We have received our computers and not only are they sleek and stylish, but they are so small! This makes it easy to hand off to a student for some quiet independent work. The computers are being used to increase student learning and amplify their technology skills. The students visit standards-based websites and our technology-based portion of the math curriculum. The students are also excited to draft their writing assignments on the computers.

Before your generous contribution, our classroom didn't have any computers, and the computer lab is so old and slow that it was difficult to prioritize. We now have two incredible computers, and a class full of happy students.

Thank you, again! ”

With gratitude,

Ms. Cole

On behalf of my students, school, community and myself, I would like to thank you all for your amazing contributions to my classroom. Your support just funded a new LCD projector to my classroom, which will allow my classes to learn from and use modern technology. I believe this resource will improve the quality of instruction and dailiy class activities.

Your support to classes like mine is invaluable to educators. We continously strive to give our students the best education possible. With your support this goal can and will become our reality. I again would like to thank you all for your kindness and generosity. You just touched many lives, and yes, made a difference!

muchas gracias!”

With gratitude,

Teacher

In behalf of my students, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for your generosity in providing a class set of scientific calculators for my classroom. The students were delighted when the package arrived, much more so when I explained to them that the calculators are donated and are intended for them to use in our chemistry class.

A class set of scientific calculators will provide the help my students need whenever they are solving chemistry problems involving math. It will make learning easier and faster for them and, at the same time, teach them how to use the technology to prepare them for college. Your contribution made it possible for me to provide my classes with such technology that most of my students cannot afford to buy. All my five classes this year are already using these calculators, and my students handle them with care so that they could also be used by my future classes.

Again, thank you for all you do to help teachers like me provide the best education for all our kids.”

With gratitude,

Teacher