Supporting Newtown Teachers

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I am a literacy teacher working with fifth and sixth grade students who are experiencing difficulty with the reading process. The teachers in our department are always seeking ways to motivate reluctant readers. We thought that kindles would not only inspire students to read, but would help to add some experience with a piece of technology that is so prevalent in education today.

I have witnessed many students using kindles, and the device has seemed to motivate children to read. This funding should provide the opportunity to those students who cannot afford to buy their own. Thank you very much for funding this project. I cannot wait to see the delighted looks on our students' faces!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Kohn

Thank you so much for supporting this project. My students will benefit from these materials as they become better writers.

I have come across so many useful apps on the ipad, yet I have not been able to show my students on the big screen. With the purchase of the special cord, I can now use this technology to engage and teach my young writers. The other materials will support these writers in building their vocabulary. I can't wait to share the good news with them.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Strait

I can't thank you enough for your support for my classroom project.

Numerous times throughout this school year, my students were required to perform calculations which required the use of a calculator in order to complete the lesson. So much valuable classroom time was lost because we were forced to share one calculator amongst four or five students, and you can imagine how difficult it is too keep the other students focused on the lesson while they are waiting for one student to complete the task.

Next fall I will be able to provide each student with their own calculator thanks to your benevolence. Your generosity in donating the new calculators for my classroom will be appreciated by me and my students for many years to come.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Stevens

I want to thank you for the generous donation towards non-fiction books for our classroom. The students eagerly shop for books in the classroom each week and their eyes light up when they find a new text that sparks an interest. I see the students flip through the pages to prepare to read and get a glimpse into the text.

As our school continues to transition and follow reader's workshop, our classroom library will continue to contain engaging and quality texts for the students to select from and read each year.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Silveira

Thanks so much for supporting my classroom. These supplies will be useful in preparing students for the Department of Energy's Science Bowl that is held yearly. There are two parts to the competition. The first is academic where the students will be asked questions and answer them for points. This covers a wide variety of scientific concepts and many of the materials will be used to enhance this learning.

The second part of the competition is to design and build cars that run on lithium batteries. Then the students race to see which is the fastest car. Some of the materials will support this component as well.”

With gratitude,

Mr. A

Thank you so much for your wonderful and most generous donations. I cannot express how truly touched I was to receive these gifts. My students were excited too and keep asking if they can read the books.

Here at our school we have been promoting acts of kindness, big and small. While it is easy to show kindness towards a friend, putting yourself out there to a stranger is much more difficult. So I thank you also for this life lesson you have taught my students. The lesson of being kind and thoughtful towards others and what it is like to spread that across the town , state, and nation.

I look forward to using these books to teach reading and writing skills. I feel better equipped and eager to start planning great lessons.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. DeSisto

Thank you so much for your generous donation to my "Poetry: Making Sense of the World" project. The workshop has begun. We have thirty students participating from four different schools in our district and eighteen parents; parent participation was optional but many decided to join their child which we were pleased about. It is very exciting to be able to come together as a district in this unprecedented fashion to work together in this poetry study; it has helped build community and has offered students the opportunity to share their thinking and learning across schools.

The Connecticut Writing Project through Fairfield University has come forward to help support this workshop as well. Two professors from the University are co-teaching the workshop with me and six undergraduate students have come forward to act as assistants. Because the group is so large (almost fifty people in all), it is wonderful to have this level of support.

We studied and wrote sensory poems during our first session and false-apology ones at our second meeting. Students/parents continue to read and write poems between sessions. Their favorites will be compiled and used to publish a collection of poems in a book. A designer from Tupelo Press has offered to do the design and page layout for this book. We are thrilled to be able to provide this for the participants and look forward to sending you a copy as well. Based on the success already of this program we hope (and expect) to run it again and for a number of years to come.

Thank you so much for you contribution which has helped make this workshop possible.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Attanasio

Thank you for supporting our project. I am looking forward to sharing with my students the many apps that they can use to review and practice their learning both here at school and at home. The students have been excited about using technology to grow academically and I am confident that this will give them the motivation to be more independent.

Your generosity has been very thoughtful. I not only look forward to sharing what I learn using these tools with my students, but with parents and co-workers as well.”

With gratitude,

Mr. Neeb

Thanks so much for donating to my project! There are two classrooms full of young scientists who will be very excited - actually 18 classrooms, as I intend to share these materials with all of the classes at my grade level!

The generosity that you've shown will go a long way toward developing a depth of understanding and a love of Science that would be more of a challenge without concrete demonstrations. All of the explaining and reading in the world cannot compare to students seeing five parallel rays of light refracted by a lens to focus at a single point, or actually measuring the change in the direction of light when it passes through water.

Thank you for helping "bring Science to life!"”

With gratitude,

Mr. Bernson

Thank you so much for supporting this worth while project. These books will definitely aide in the instruction of non-fiction writing. My struggling writers are in need of model texts to help them craft expository essays. These types of essays are done at least four times a year. In addition, this specific instruction of these skills with hopefully be transferred to other academic class such as science and social studies where much of what they read and write is non fiction.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Strait