Help us make a difference in classrooms around the country by funding food and health related classroom projects. It's as easy as brown bagging it and donating your lunch money to a classroom project!
Please excuse my delay in getting this letter written. My students have thoroughly enjoyed using the magnetic communication boards. These boards have enabled them to better state their feelings as well as make requests.
I have one student who uses the board to communicate the day of the week during our calendar activity. She also use the puzzle magnets to match colors of various items. Another student uses the communication food magnets to choose what he would like to eat for lunch and he uses the feeling icon magnets to let people know how he is feeling. Some other students play matching games with the words and pictures.
The magnets have also been used to categorize items, such as fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy. At other times the magnets have been used to decide if a food would be best used as a breakfast, lunch, snack or dinner food.
Thanks for your support in getting these items into my classroom. The quality of the items is great and they will be in use for years to come. Without your support my students would not have a great new way to communicate.
I hope all of you can continue to support classroom projects such as this one and enjoy your summer.”
Thank you for your generous donation that has helped make learning English and reading more enjoyable.
An ESL student's primary years are crucial to strengthening their English language skills while fostering a love of reading. However, without adequate resources, such as audio players and audio books, it's difficult to maintain their interest in reading while learning a new language.
Within weeks of receiving the audio players and audio books purchased with your donation, I have noticed improvements in my students' reading and language skills. Furthermore, my students who have attention problems are able to read alone and sustain their stamina for a longer period of time. Your donation has made an impact with all the students in my classroom.
Once again, thank you for your generosity and I hope you will continue to make an impact on the lives of many students from Donor's Choose. ”
Recently, students in my Advanced Algebra classes have been using the TI-Nspire graphing handhelds in their study of trigonometry. Using these handhelds, students have been able to "discover" many of the trigonometric relationships which in the past I often have merely provided for them. Among their analysis was the creation of the sine and cosine curves using the unit circle. As they dragged a point around the unit circle on their handheld they were able to watch the graphs form instantaneously. Later they were able to analyze how the coordinates on the unit circle related to the points they watched form the graphs. This dynamic approach to viewing the sine and cosine curve allowed my students to gain a more vivid understanding of how the graphs are formed.
As my students continue to use these TI-Nspire handhelds they will have additional opportunities to work interactively with our course concepts, to manipulate parameters, and to witness dynamically the effects of those manipulations. Your generosity of spirit has made all this possible. Once again, I thank you for your donation toward my project.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Steines
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and 8 other donors.
Thank you so much for your kind contribution to my classroom and students. This projector is amazing. My students have been struggling with reading and current events, and the projector that we had didn't work and when we tried to use it, it would shut off partway through a presentation frustrating the students. But now those problems are fixed.
I've been incorporating a weekly PowerPoint that coincides with our weekly theme. The students have been taking notes from each slide of the important information on the page. We have also been able to watch educational videos though the Internet and project it onto the screen so that the students who are visual learners can understand concepts better. Their retention of weekly themes and knowledge of content has increased greatly, and using the projector definitely makes learning fun! Giving them this aid will help them in their future as well.
I appreciate all of your assistance and ultimately this translates into better learning by my students!”
Thank you so much for your generous donation! It has created great opportunities for the students in my classes. They have had many opportunities to practice valuable life skills. The cookware and utensils have proved very useful. We have practiced meal planning, table setting, and writing invitations, as well as, food safety and sanitation, recipe selection and preparation. We have practiced math skills buy doing recipe conversions, shopping plans and budgeting. Every Family and Consumer Sciences class from the seventh through the twelfth grade have had the opportunity to use the wonderful equipment.
Our school is expecting to experience extreme financial difficulty in the 2010-11 school year so your help has arrived at a key time. Our students need these life skills to help them survive in these difficult times as they begin their adult lives.
Again, thank you for your donation and continued support of education!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Franks
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and 4 other donors.
I don't even know where to begin. To start, thank you so much for what you contributed to my classroom. So many kids today are unaware of where their food comes from, let alone, how it gets to their table. This project allowed them to see some of these things from start to finish. We successfully grew some carrots, and a few green onions. The carrots were small, if they grew, and the onions looked more like chives. But it worked enough to get a point across. We spent time talking about what happened during the 8 weeks it took them to grow, and why they didn't look like what we buy at the store. Ultimately, the lighting was bad, and it took twice as long to grow what little they did. I now know that grow lights need to be an important part of the project.
Knowing this would be more of an experiment this year than a great project, I have already begun to think about next year, and what to do with it. I have big plans to take this project to other levels. Knowing what how lighting effected the carrots, I want to play around with how different elements change a crop. I plan on setting up different stations that get too much water, fertilizer, light, and various other potential things that could effect growth. I also want to take a garden or two home his summer and play with time frames so we can grow more in 1 semester. I am going to attach research projects next year on different aspects of agricultural life, and the impact of farming on communities. I have also spoken to the Ag teacher at the high school these students go to to help give them knowledge that can be re0inforced about agriculture as they further their studies into higher education.
I questioned whether or not the students would get into this, and it was neat to see them take ownership and an active part in the project (though ultimately, I think it was the stir fry they were interested in). With more development, these gardens will begin to make a greater and greater impact on my classes as time goes on. I, as well as my students are grateful for the opportunity you gave us this year to learn and grow not only vegetables, but as individuals.”
I am writing this letter to express my extreme gratitude for your generous donation, providing a class set of the Ruth Reichl memoir, Tender at the Bone, for my Culinary Academy English class. Without your support, there is no way my students would be exposed to this book. My students are all motivated by food, cooking, and culinary culture, but few are of the economic background to buy books of their own. After reading this book, students will get the chance to write their own "food memoir", telling stories of their childhood that revolve around favorite recipes. They will also get the chance to demonstrate their cooking and presentation skills with this project. Again, without you, none of this would be possible! In these tough economic times, it is hard to implement creative projects into classes, but because of you, this project has gotten off the ground.
My Culinary English class and I thank you dearly!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Hughes
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and 9 other donors.
I want to express my sincere thanks for your donation to my "Investigating Fast Food" unit. Students have just completed their research papers over the topics addressed in Schlosser's books Chew on This and Fast Food Nation. Several students conducted primary research, interviewing the school nurse and surveying students in the lunchroom. It was exciting to see them get so involved in the research process. I can honestly say that many of my students had never considered these topics before. The unit was especially timely this year, as it coincided with Michelle Obama's initiative on healthier schools. We were able to connect our reading to the news items about her campaign.
The text you helped purchase, Chew on This, is the youth version of Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation. In a class of twenty students, reading levels can range from second grade through college. I have students on IEPs with various learning disabilities, and I also have many English Language Learners. Having this text enabled me to differentiate the instruction so that all students were challenged. I began this unit with the whole class reading a few chapters from Chew on This. The version of the text includes more photos, meant to capture the attention of a younger audience. As we moved into the heart of the unit, some students switched to Fast Food Nation, while others continued reading Chew on This.
Overall, about a hundred eleventh grade students benefited from your generous donation. However, I would not say the impact of your donation stopped there. These students then went home to their families and talked about what they were learning. I had more than one student say that his or her family was making changes based on what the student had learned from this unit.
I hope you will continue to support urban teachers and our students. We need you. ”
With gratitude,
Ms. Wilkey
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and 10 other donors.
Thank you for donating aprons to my foods classroom. They have arrived and students have been using them as they prepare culinary creations. It is a great benefit to have aprons to help students understand and put into practice sanitary procedures to prepare food. During class the importance of food safety was stressed and this helps emphasize the point. The aprons were especially appreciated while making yeast breads and pastry. Rolling out the pastries and kneading the dough sometimes gets messy. But the aprons prevented getting the mess on their clothes. Thanks again for your generosity and helping my classroom.”
Thank you for your generous donation of the Kitchen Aid stand mixer to my classroom. My students and I greatly appreciate it. Since the arrival of the Kitchen Aid, my students have been able to take such advantage of it. They have prepared a variety of baked goods for their kitchen groups and other classmates to sample. While learning about kitchen appliances, my students were able to experience how a mixer works first hand. This is such a valuable to skill for them to have as they develop their cooking and baking skills. Many of my students would like to pursue a foods related career and this will help them gain the needed job skills as they go into the job market.
With the ever increasing budget cuts your donation has made it possible for all my kitchen groups to work at the same time and gain the same experiences. Again, thank you for generous donation. If not for donors like you many students would loose out on valuable experiences. ”
With gratitude,
Ms. Hossa
This classroom project was brought to life by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and one other donor.
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