Like you, we are horrified and saddened by the recent shooting in Sparks, Nevada. That town, of course, holds a special place in our hearts, being the inspiration for the name of our space-western hero. This tragedy, like any perpetrated at a school and against children, leaves us outraged, gutted, and confused.
We take some small solace in knowing that there are ways to help the communities effected by violence. DonorsChoose.org is a brilliant organization that allows you to put necessary ... more
Like you, we are horrified and saddened by the recent shooting in Sparks, Nevada. That town, of course, holds a special place in our hearts, being the inspiration for the name of our space-western hero. This tragedy, like any perpetrated at a school and against children, leaves us outraged, gutted, and confused.
We take some small solace in knowing that there are ways to help the communities effected by violence. DonorsChoose.org is a brilliant organization that allows you to put necessary supplies directly into the hands of teachers who need them the most. Below is a list of the projects posted by teachers from Sparks, Nevada over the past year. hide
Thank you so very much for your generous donation. It's donors like you that help our community grow and learn. We are so lucky.
The Chromebooks are used in our library to help students look up materials for checking out, placing holds and reviewing. In some cases they are even used with homework. I have even used them to catalog and label books when I cannot get to my own computer!
The portability of the computers is nice for our tiny library. I don't have to have a specific computer station set up to accommodate the old desktops. The students can take them back to their tables and several of them can use it without a long line forming. They are also very quick so it doesn't take long to download information, which is helpful as the students only have 15 minutes to search for books and checkout.”
First and foremost, THANK YOU! My students were sooo excited when we received the carpet. It gave us a sense of community, a place to gather and come together as a class. Every student has their "special" spot where they sit every time we meet together. The colors are very bright and cheerful as well. On the carpet, we meet for read alouds, special presentations, instruction time, and exploration of classroom animals and other items we are investigating.
The carpet area allows students to gather in a central area and allows more focused instruction and eliminated behavior issues. Something as simple as a carpet, makes a huge impact on both my teaching and my students' learning. I cannot say thank you enough. You each make a huge difference in the lives of many!
I would like to thank all of you for your very generous donations. My class was desperately in need of an electric pencil sharpener. Last year, for some reason I will never understand, my hand crank pencil sharpener was removed from my room. That left us with NO way to sharpen our pencils. I had the children purchase mechanical pencils, but that just wasn't the answer to our problem. We needed to have a working pencil sharpener in our room. Now, if a pencil breaks my children happily walk up to our beautiful pencil sharpener and within in seconds are ready to get back to work. If I find cute pencils at the store for the holidays, I can give them to my students knowing they will be able to use them!
With budget cuts across the district we were also short on other supplies. Your donations allowed me to order erasers, whiteboard markers and art markers for our classroom as well. The children often bring in their own supplies, but there are always a few who just can't afford to purchase these types of supplies.
We use our whiteboards daily to show class answers to math and social studies questions. Our markers were getting dry and "erasers" were just pieces of tissue. The children now proudly display their answers on their whiteboards in all of the colors of the rainbow and their hands are no longer stained with dry erase marker dust.
My students were so excited when that great big box arrived! I had been telling them that people across the United States had pitched in to help us get the supplies we needed. They literally cheered when I took out the pencil sharpener and now we always have sharp pencils (and erasers), which although simple to some, makes a world of difference to my 6th graders”
Thank you so much for your generous donation to my classroom! When the books arrived the students were so excited! Each week the students take home book bags with 3 books to read at home with their families. Before we received the new nonfiction books, I had only enough books for a third of my students to take home books each week. Now ALL of my students take home books at their reading level to share with their families. Our new books are the most popular books going home each week.
The weekly book bags allow every student the opportunity to practice their reading skills with a book that also supports their confidence. I no longer get emails from parents about struggles at home to get their child to read. Now I get emails thanking me for sending home a book that everyone in the house enjoyed. My students are engaged in their learning and look forward to Mondays when they have the opportunity to choose a book and decide what they will be learning about this week, be it American Symbols, Animals or Community Helpers.
Thank you again for your generosity and willingness to share the love of reading with my first grade students!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Falk
This classroom project was brought to life by NEA Foundation and 4 other donors.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for donating to my project. The Calculators that I purchased have gotten a lot of use this year. I have students in class that cannot afford to purchase their own, and I never feel that I can loan out technology that was purchased with school district funds. As I, or you, purchased these calculators, I am able to loan them out to the kids to bring home if they need to borrow one. In addition to kids that can't afford one, these are teenagers and many time they forget their calculators at home. Your generous gift has saved a lot of grades.”
Thank you so much for donating the Hands-On Science activities. I have been coveting these activities for a few years now always thinking that I'll save the money to purchase them for my classroom which hasn't happened, but thanks to your generosity they are now apart of my supplemental curriculum.
In the 6th grade students are introduced to a "middle school" level text book. This means that the text book is written above a 6th grade reading level. Students struggle with the concepts, language, and format of the text. After students work hard reading the text book it was quite powerful to watch them perform the activities in the tub. Students began to make connections about what was read to what was being asked of them to perform on the task cards for each activity. The discussions, interactions, and learning that took place is all I could ever ask of from my students.
I believe because of you donating these tubs, these 6th grades and all those that follow will have a better understanding of our Earth and Space because of these hands-on activities.”
I am writing to thank you for your contributions to the Tinikling project. We received our Tinikling bamboo poles a few weeks ago and have been enjoying them ever since. I knew that teaching the Filipino folk dance and music of Tinikling would be valuable for my students, but it has been a more powerful experience than I could have imagined.
There are two reasons that these Tinikling poles have brought out truly engaged learning in my music classroom. One is timing; we received these poles just as the extreme weather was forecast in the Philippines. We had started to learn the basic steps of the traditional dance, but came back after the typhoon hit the next week truly involved in learning about the Filipino culture. I am impressed with the knowledge and care these young students expressed about the typhoon in the Philippines.
The second reason the Tinikling project became more than I expected is the physical demand. Students normally spend most of their time in my class standing and singing, occasionally doing simple folk dances like square dances. However, Tinikling is a real workout. Students would stop to take off their sweatshirts or pause to get a drink of water, always returning to their teams quickly.
We have divided the class into groups that each has a pair of Tinikling poles. Each group works together to create their own Filipino dance using the basic dance steps. We are slowly working to sing the Tagalog words of one song. We are having a blast as we immerse ourselves into this cultural project. Thank you for providing this opportunity!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Coghill
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