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This teacher needs your help!

Mr. Pasternak from La Place, LA is requesting books through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

See what Mr. Pasternak is requesting

Teaching Katrina to Katrina Survivors | Stories to Empower

My students need a diverse collection of literature that tells stories about Hurricane Katrina and surviving in the aftermath of the disaster.

  • $549 goal

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Hooray! This project is fully funded

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Help Mr. Pasternak

I teach English Language Arts to a group of scraggly, rag-tag teenagers ranging from 6th through 12th grade in a rural parish in southern Louisiana. My students have all been expelled from a regular education setting and have been sent to the alternative expulsion school where I work to effectively be quarantined and ostracized from the opportunity to be educated. These students are humans who are so insightful, so mature, so complex, intelligent, and alive yet they are being continually deprived time and time again of the materials, opportunities, and relationships that they so deeply need to resolve a number of other issues that sprout up in their lives. They are expelled for any number of reasons--battery, assault, profanity, insubordination, or simply too many dress code violations, or tardies--that can simply be distilled down to the issue of having difficulty making good choices for themselves in so many situations. Many of these complex problems come from trauma that many of my students suffered as survivors of Hurricane Katrina. It is still so obviously a factor in their psyches and minds that affects their everyday decisions. Yet it is a side of themselves that they rarely get to talk about or work through anymore. As an English teacher I have the uncanny opportunity to use my classroom and curriculum to build a space that is safe and conductive to meaningful types of learning, conversation, and even healing. My job is to teach my students to think, feel, and communicate...and I want them to be able to apply that to the most significant event in their young lives. I am asking for your help to build a classroom set of beautiful, challenging, and ultimately liberating literature and resources that are all relevant to an English classroom about Hurricane Katrina. Helping us acquire these materials will help us continue to build an environment where my students are empowering themselves through reading, writing, speaking, and listening. You could not possibly have a more profound impact with a few simple materials on a group of tremendous human beings. Thank you for your time!

Mr. Pasternak St John Alternative School Grades 9-12

Celebrate Black teachers and kids! This project supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of students are Black.

More about Mr. Pasternak

La Place, LA View local requests

More than a third of students from low‑income households Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more

90 students impacted 8donors

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Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes
Materials Cost Quantity Total
1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina Chris Rose • Barnes and Noble $12.00 1 $12.00
Hurricane Song Paul Volponi • Barnes and Noble $6.29 1 $6.29
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Naomi Klein • Barnes and Noble $12.80 1 $12.80
Why New Orleans Matters Tom Piazza • Barnes and Noble $9.85 1 $9.85
Zeitoun Dave Eggers • Barnes and Noble $15.60 1 $15.60
City of Refuge Tom Piazza • Barnes and Noble $11.99 1 $11.99
A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge Josh Neufeld • Barnes and Noble $19.96 15 $299.40
Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival Kirby Larson, Mary Nethery, Jean Cassels (Illustrator) • Barnes and Noble $13.59 1 $13.59

Materials cost

$381.52

Vendor shipping charges

 $38.15

Sales tax

 $15.26

3rd party payment processing fee

$5.72

Fulfillment labor & materials

$9.00

Total project cost

$449.65

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$98.70

Total project goal

$548.35

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

 $548.35

8 Donors

-$526.40

Donations toward project cost

-$449.65

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$76.75

Excluded support for DonorsChoose

-$21.95

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

 $0.00

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Pasternak and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.

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