History & Civics: Reddit Gifts for the Teachers 2016

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Your generous donations have supplied my classroom with invaluable resources that we have been able to use and enjoy this school year. Your generosity allowed each student in each of my classes to use their own copy of "King George: What Was His Problem" and "Two Miserable Presidents". In the past, I have only had access to one copy of each book and read each aloud to my students. However, this year was a new experience for both me and my students.

During our school year so far, my students have had the opportunity to learn about many historical events. Unfortunately, due to lack of resources, many of our lessons came from traditional textbooks and lectures. Your gifts have allowed us to evaluate the Revolutionary War and the American Civil War through the literature and non-traditional means. The author, Steve Sheinkin, truly has a gift. He was able to explain these events in a humorous, yet fact-filled way that my students found to be entertaining and educational.

Your gifts allowed my students to explore two historical events using various learning techniques. We had our moments in which we shared our reading aloud as a group, moments in which we curled up with a pillow or blanket, and moments in which we read silently. We shared ideas, thoughts, opinions, but more importantly - WE SHARED. With all of the political chaos that our nation faced this school year, my students were able to apply things they learned from the books and apply to current events and the new face of our political system.

From the bottom of my heart - thank you, thank you, thank you. Your help and willingness to support education has certainly impacted my students for the better.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Cheek

My students absolutely love the games that were donated to the classroom. Each week, during small groups, I rotate a new game to play. This week, we have been playing the multiple meaning words game. The students love it! They laugh and play each other and don't even realize that they are reinforcing skills they have been taught in the classroom. The students, eagerly await small groups daily, as they ask daily "Are we playing games today?", when I reply with a "Yes!", they will cheer!

Additionally, the headphones have been a wonderful addition. Again, during small groups the students are able to login to my assigned game website and play games without others being distracted by the noise of the websites.

These few items have helped my students enjoy small groups much more, which helps my classroom run much more smoothly.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Brooks

I want to thank you for making this project possible. Reading Ta-nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me was a foundation for our senior capstone project and for helping these young people prepare for the social inequities they are facing and will face in the future.

We introduced Mr. Coates' memoir as part of the class' senior capstone project in the Academy of Arts Media and Entertainment. This year-long project, in which they explore social justice issues and eventually propose and launch a social media marketing campaign about one cause of their choosing, is an opportunity for them to not only develop media arts and communications skills, but it is an invitation for them to use these tools to make a direct impact on a social cause. We read Between the World and Me to provide a context to many of the social justice issues as the memoir articulates how the construct of race has led to historical and social consequences of racism.

Since the class that read this book was in an Media Arts Academy in which students would routinely be working with cameras and recording equipment or finding information and interacting online, introducing Between the World and Me took a change of mindsets for teacher and students. Over the course of six weeks, we would dedicate one day of the week of class to preview a section of the text, using a current news event or an excerpt from the audiobook to initiate a discussion and prepare them for the reading. Throughout the week, students were tasked with responding to different prompts inspired from the text by writing stories on the publication hosted on Medium.com where they could share and read each others' posts.

There has been a generally positive response to this text, especially because it is a personal memoir and that it connects with race and racism and the educational inequalities that they have already perceived in their own school. One of my students read this book as her independent reading text, and she created a poster and presented about it for her book talk. The most powerful responses were from students who reflected deeply about their own educational paths. At the conclusion of reading the book, students wrote their own letters to a younger person, some writing to a younger version of themselves, providing wisdom about the dangers and joys of being a young person coming of age.”

With gratitude,

Mr. Chow

Thank you so much for your donation to my classroom. We are using the resources you provided by working on our current curriculum using Breakout Boxes. These are fun way to review a subject using a series of puzzles and clues that lead to breaking out of a box. My class loves the moment when they get the final lock unlocked and get into the box.

When my class walks in and sees a box in the room with all the locks on it, they get very excited. Although there was only one set of materials purchased, they can be used again and again for different puzzles so we use it throughout the year. Even the students who sometimes aren't so excited to be in class get involved. We work on collaboration and problem solving.

I usually present the breakout box to the class. The next steps will be to have students write their own breakout boxes using the materials your donation allowed us to purchase. This will let my students be a real part of the creating and learning that the breakout box provides.

I am so thankful for your donation. I love the puzzle/problem solving/team work aspect of this project and without you - I wouldn't have been able to provide that for my class. Thank you again for your generosity.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Rance

I can not begin to tell you how thankful I am for your generous donation to my project, Veterans History Project Audio Equipment. My students are so excited to record the oral histories of veterans in our area. We hope to record as many of their stories as possible to send in to the Veterans History Project with the Library of Congress. We have been able to record an interview with a World War II veteran, and we're so thankful for our new microphone to help us achieve much better sound quality. We have several interviews lined up in the new few weeks to continue our goal. I'm very appreciative to donors like yourself for taking the time to make an investment in our project.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Sanders

We are so grateful for our new technology! Our students have interviewed their local peacemakers and have composed their narratives to feature their peacemakers in our annual "Peacemakers of Syracuse" book. The Chrome books have helped us by allowing us additional technology and access to Google Docs so that our students can collaborate and I can help them by live editing their work.

Our next steps will be to compile the book with all their work from every class and edit it. These Chromebooks will be invaluable as the other technology in our building is very unreliable and we will need to have something to count on.

We've also used them for independent station learning and research for our 8th grade expedition to research and install an alternative energy resource for our school. Our 8th graders presented their research to the Syracuse City School District Board of Education!

Our Day of Peace will be June 1st at ELMS. We would love for you to attend and receive a signed copy of our book! Please reach out for more information, or I can mail a copy of the book to you. My e-mail is eneeves@scsd.us

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!!!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Neeves

This book set is fantastic! You have provided our students with an opportunity to learn in depth about a topic that is not adequately covered in our text books: The Dust Bowl and The Great Depression. Perhaps, we had relatives who could tell us about The Great Depression when we wanted to throw away our vegetables or did not appreciate what was provided for us. Today's students, however, seem to have no idea what people of past generations went through and a traditional textbook usually fails to get their attention in a way that makes a meaningful impression.

This unit includes not only high-interest stories about people their same age, it includes videos and music, too. One of the students' favorite books in this project is the graphic novel about Woody Guthrie. "Out of the Dust" is an amazing novel that is written more like a complex poem, than a traditional story. "Bud Not Buddy" is a warm, funny, sad, and informative book that everyone likes.

To make sure that this Reading and Social Studies unit is accessible for learners at all levels, the PBS documentary about this era provides the visuals and oral narrative that helps students who struggle in reading or with who are learning to speak and read in English.

This is simply one of the best units I've had access to because it is so complete. We could have never gotten access to such quality materials without your support. Thank you.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Frankowiak