DonorsChoose.org grew out of a Bronx high school where teachers experienced first-hand the scarcity of learning materials in our public schools.
Charles Best, then a social studies teacher, sensed that many people would like to help distressed public schools, but were frustrated by a lack of influence over their donations. He created DonorsChoose.org in 2000 so that individuals could connect directly with classrooms in need.
The charity is nationally recognized. DonorsChoose.org engages the public in public schools by giving people a simple, accountable and personal way to address educational inequity.
We have three Escambia County teachers asking for help. The amount of money they need to buy the materials they seek is so small that we can fulfill all three of them. Join me and make donations to help our teachers teach.
Sherwood Elementary: needs $190
My Students: Books are desperately needed in my classroom. My students need captivating reading materials. The few class sets we have are very outdated and are not interesting to my students. They are also old, yellowed and have missing pages and are bandaged with tons of tape!
The students in my school are economically disadvantaged as is my school district. In order to become better readers, they need something to read! The vast majority of my students are classified as free or reduced lunch. They have a great spirit and a desire to learn.
My Project: The book Touching Spirit Bear is about a young, troubled boy that makes poor decisions and changes his perspective on life after a court proceeding forces him to live alone on an island. It is written at a level that all students can relate to. The book selection in my classroom is no where near as good as these students deserve. After taking a huge legislatively created pay cut this year, I am no longer able to donate to my class library the way I have in the past. I often search yard sales to purchase reading materials, and it is impossible to find class sets this way.
My children need books that they can relate to so that they will want to continue reading. Many of them do not know the joy of reading because they have not been exposed to the right book. This book is perfect for their age group and will help foster their ability to read. hide»
My students need 25 copies of “Touching Spirit Bear”, with an audio copy and more.
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Ferry Pass Elementary: $371
My Students: Do you remember what it was like to have conquered your first chapter book? My students are timid when approaching chapter books, but they have not yet met the fearless Jack and Annie from the Magic Tree House series!
I work at a Title I school, which means more than 75% of our students receive free lunch. My students are eager to read, but have few reading materials at home. Many families cannot afford to purchase beginning chapter books to help their children become lifelong readers. My students exposure to children’s literature is often limited to my classroom and the weekly trip to the school library.
My Project: I am requesting six copies of Books 1-24 in the Magic Tree House series. Six copies of each book will allow me to share the Magic Tree House series with my reading small groups. With these books, my second graders will join the brother and sister duo, Jack and Annie, as they travel by a mysterious magical tree house back in time on wild, crazy adventures!
These books will help my students continue to grow as readers. Each book has short, age appropriate length chapters with engaging black and white illustrations. The beginning-chapter book format The Magic Tree House series provides will allow my students to conquer their fear of reading chapter books. Once my students have conquered reading their first chapter book, they will become fearless readers! hide»
My students need 6 copies each of 24 high-energy beginning-chapter books from the Magic Tree House series to read during reading small group time.
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Another Sherwood teacher: needs $435
My Students: Some of the most engaging learning centers for first graders are computers and listening centers, but it is frustrating for both the teacher and students when they are unable to be used properly due to something as simple as headphones!
My students are sweet 6- and 7-year-old children that have few resources available to them. They attend a Title I school in Florida, where the great majority of the students are on free or reduced lunch and ALL of the students receive free breakfast. The school has been wonderful in providing a few computers in each classroom, but they seem unable to keep up with the upkeep and headphones for these computers. The majority of these students do not have computers or Internet access at home, and the only opportunity they have to experience the technology so many of us take for granted is in our classroom.
My Project: We have some computers in our classroom but we have constant issues with the headphones for these computers. Currently the computers that have headphones either only have sound in one ear or the sound in the earphones goes in and out. The other computers do not have headphones at all. This makes for a very noisy and frustrating classroom environment. The students at the computers, and listening centers, cannot hear the program or story they are working with, and the students that are working at their seats or in a small group with me cannot concentrate because we have extra classroom noise from computers and listening centers without headphones. These resources will make my classroom a better learning environment for everyone.
The reason I have decided to ask for headphones now is that I have recently gotten a new student with severe hearing loss. He is going to be fitted for a hearing aid soon, and I am concerned that the extra noise is going to be very overwhelming for him. This student is already going to be hearing sounds he hasn’t heard before and I want our classroom to be the best learning environment for him and all of the other students. Please help my students have the best possible learning environment! hide»
My students need these headphones in order to use computers, listening centers and other devices in my classroom.
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