Our Blog

We asked you to welcome students back-to-school, by giving to classrooms and cheering them on with your favorite back-to-school memories. We were blown away by your funny, adorable and inspiring memories, and we posted one each day throughout September on our homepage. Our staff’s top ten pick for back-to-school memories…

• Kathleen from Missouri remembers: A special 2nd grade teacher who smiled and told us we were going to have a wonderful year together. She was right…
• Amy from Arizona remembers: Standing in front of the school bus with my sister with big name tags pinned to our chests and smiling for the camera!
• Linda from Maryland remembers: The excitement of a new teacher. This always caused ‘flutter-bys’ in my stomach…
• Tracy from New York remembers: The smell of new crayons and freshly sharpened pencils… and the possibilities for fun and friendship.
• Cheryl remembers: The 1971, purple ‘Hot Pants’ outfit my Mom let me wear on the first day of High School!
• An anonymous donor remembers: Heading into the school library to reconnect with all my favorite books from the past years.
• Ellen remembers: My grandfather would always take me for new shoes before school started in September.
• Beth remembers: A field trip with my 4th grade class, that sparked my interest in marine ecology… and now I teach environmental law.
• Kristin remembers: In high school, I discovered running. My mom bought me shoes and it changed me forever.
• Alison from Illinois remembers: I loved walking to and from school, when the weather was crisp, and the colorful leaves had fallen from their trees.

All of your memories will also live on forever on the project pages of the classrooms you funded. We hope you’ll keep sharing with the students you choose to help - it’s a really personal way to show your support for their education.

If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe to receive new posts via email or RSS!

Colbert Bump: “the curious phenomenon whereby anyone who appears on The Colbert Report gets a huge boost in popularity….” 19,469 students have already benefited from the Colbert Bump, following Stephen Colbert’s call to help public schools in Pennsylvania through his DonorsChoose.org challenge. This installment of great stories features ten classroom ideas that came to life as a result of the challenge – just a small sample of how donors across the country are helping thousands of students in low-income communities throughout Pennsylvania. (Want to know more about Colbert’s challenge? Find out here.)

Peace Rally
This teacher requested battery-powered candles for a school rally to end violence: each candle will be a visual representation of a person who was killed last year in her city. In her thank-you email to the project’s donors, she wrote: “Our elementary school is located in an urban area filled with violence. Some of our students only respond with violence and rage, because it is what they see at home and on the streets. With these candles, our yearly Peace Rally is going to be awesome! Each candle lit during a ceremony will represent a life lost to violence in our city. We are hoping that the students will see how many people really lose their lives, and just how serious it is… Our Peace Rally is at the end of April. I can’t wait to send pictures of our students taking part in this great event!”

Science Exploration Kits
This school district recently adopted a new science curriculum, but did not have the funds to buy the accompanying manipulatives. Mr. B requested the manipulatives on DonorsChoose.org so that his first graders get excited about science and are well prepared for their standardized tests. We love picturing first graders getting serious about science: going on rock scavenger hunts, keeping weather journals, and testing the pull of gravity!

As Basic As You Can Get – Paper and Pencils
It’s hard to imagine a classroom functioning without paper and pencils. More than half way through the school year, this classroom has run out of these most basic supplies. The donation of copy paper and pencils will ensure that these students complete the rest of the year with success.

Partners in Service
Mrs. F’s fourth graders are partnering with a second grade class from another school to complete a community service project. With the support of DonorsChoose.org donors, the students will be making colorful and uplifting “heart pillows” for patients who have undergone heart surgery at a local hospital. The program is highly valued by the hospital, and the students learn the act of giving without expecting anything in return. This great story entails many layers of giving!

Everyone Deserves a Chance
“My children deserve a fighting chance… one of the biggest interventions that a teacher can use to strengthen reading skills is guided reading. I am committed to doing small guided reading group instruction everyday, but my school does not really have any materials.” The teacher who submitted this project idea will be receiving a class set of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to help her students gain a love of reading.

Geometry in Motion
This high school teacher is committed to getting innovative math resources into her classroom: through DonorsChoose.org, she will provide her students with the Geometers Sketchpad program. The interactive computer program will help her struggling students get interested in difficult topics such as geometry and algebra.

Artistic Awareness
Mrs. R’s sixth grade students constantly ask her to do art, but due to a lack of supplies, she has not been able to set aside any art period. Mrs. R writes, “Every child should have the chance to participate in art lessons.” The art materials (drawing books, sketch pads, pastels, watercolors, pencils) funded through DonorsChoose.org mean that the 30 students in Mrs. R’s classroom will get that chance!

Share Learning with an Overhead Projector
The overhead projector being shipped to this classroom will help fourth graders become more involved in their lessons. The teacher has been using chalkboard original to a nearly century old building. We’re very excited that she’ll be getting a great new teaching tool!

Get These Students Communicating Effectively
The tenth grade students at this school are enrolled in a new, mandatory course on Effective Communication. The school is located in a very rural community suffering unemployment and underemployment. The students see a clear link between effective communication skills and their future career success, and are energized by the course. The materials requested in this proposal will allow the students to record speeches on video, and watch the footage of themselves so that they will be able to quickly and easily perceive areas for improvement.

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining
Ms. H’s fifth grade students adored the poems she read to them by Shel Silverstein during her read-alouds. Ms. H requested a class set of texts by Silverstein to do an entire unit on his work, with accompanying journals for her students to develop their writing skills throughout the unit.

If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe to receive new posts via email or RSS!

In case you didn’t catch the first installment of great stories on the blog last month, here’s the deal. We send out ten great stories from the previous month to the entire DonorsChoose.org team. Since these always make us gleeful, we wanted to share them with everyone!

Kansas, Eye Catching Kindness
DonorsChoose.org gets a lot of requests for digital cameras; this one is particularly heart warming. The school recently implemented a “Class of the Month” program rewarding the class with the highest punctual attendance, and will start a program acknowledging random acts of kindness. The counselor wants to display a picture of the winning “Class of the Month”, and capture some of the students’ great moments. This project will prepare students for a successful year and a lifetime of kindness.

Michigan, White Boards
Many students in this classroom need glasses that their families cannot afford. The classroom blackboards are old, which makes it even more difficult for students to see. A white board is perfect because the background is light; with bright markers, students can easily see math problems develop step by step.

Nevada, What Makes Us Part of the Community?
This teacher wants to help her little ones make a strong connection from the classroom to the community – by identifying occupations and describing their importance in the community. Her students will get to dress-up as different career professionals, and read “community and career” theme books. This proposal is going to have adorable feedback – imagine all those cute Kindergarten kids as they dress-up for their important work day!

New Jersey, Paint a… Write a… Story!
This teacher’s school is in a predominately Hispanic urban district. The teacher is requesting a listening center so that her students can enjoy English language books. After listening to a story a few times, her students will paint a picture of what they see when they hear the story, and write a summary of the story. The projects will be displayed on the classroom bulletin board.

Virginia, Students Need to See Images to Grasp German Culture
This sixth through eighth grade German teacher writes, “Learning a language and about culture means so much more to students if they connect to real places and real people.” She has requested a projector so that her students can see images of the land, geography, food, clothes, people and cities of the German-speaking countries they study. She even wants to show her students music videos of artists who are popular with teenagers abroad!

Connecticut, Guitar Craze (Funded!)
This school started a guitar program, but their seven guitars did not meet the overwhelming student interest. After requesting one guitar on DonorsChoose.org, this teacher got a surprise phone call from the founder of a guitar company, who wanted to donate two additional guitars! The guitar-crazed students at this school will have three brand new guitars.

Florida, Make “Our Own Math Puzzles” Book (Funded!)
Teachers often find ways to use the most basic of materials to bring their lessons to life. This teacher requested blank notebooks, so that her math class can write their own math puzzles. When the teacher tried this project in the past, her students got excited about solving each others’ puzzles and realized there is nothing to fear about math problems.

Hawaii, Calculators for My Kids! (Funded!)
This high school chemistry teacher encourages her students to buy calculators for themselves. However, many believe they are destined to work in the local resorts after they graduate - education is not high on their priority list. Basic calculators will help her classes spend more time performing experiments and solving problems, rather than doing calculations.

Ohio, Teach Me Something Cool!!! (Funded!)
This classroom’s library consists only of fiction stories. The third grade teacher believes non-fiction material will give a boost to those students who have trouble picking up a book. One donor stepped up to the teacher’s compelling call to action, “You can be that change that just one child needs to look at reading in a whole new light,” and funded this proposal for non-fiction material, covering topics from great artists, to current events, to volcanoes.

Oregon, Centrifuge for Science Class (Funded!)
This science teacher will soon be taking his students rafting on the McKenzie River, to build awareness of clean water as a valuable and vulnerable public resource - the trip will launch a year long course on environment issues. The centrifuge that he received through DonorsChoose.org is an important tool for water-related experiments. What an amazing way to engage students in learning and inspire them to care about the environment!

If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe to receive new posts via email or RSS!

….is eventful, to say the least.

Becky was awarded the Koret Award for Innovation in Education for her leadership as DonorsChoose.org Executive Director of the Northwest Region. (The Koret Award is presented annually to a Teach For America alumnus in the Bay Area who best exemplifies innovative, inspired, results-driven, and effective educational entrepreneurship.)

She’s also out there saving the world as an UberBabe. On the off chance you don’t know about this remarkable achievement, an UberBabe is “a woman who likes being totally feminine, but is also smart as hell, brave, a rule breaker, speaks her mind, finds her own way…”

GO BECKY!!!

If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe to receive new posts via email or RSS!

Every month, we send out ten great stories from the previous month to the entire DonorsChoose.org staff. Since these always make our day (okay, our week), we figured we would let our donors and teachers in on the joy. So, here they are, the GREAT STORIES for August! Click on the proposals to bring these great classroom ideas to life. Check back in a month for more!

Texas, “Through a Third Grader’s Eyes”
The third graders at this school are plagued by low expectations for their futures. Their teacher wants each student to use the camera she requested for a day at a time, and present his or her photographs to the class. The students’ newfound creativity and responsibility will inspire them to have confidence in their abilities.

Indiana, “Walk Across America!”
This proposal gives new meaning to the term “healthy competition”! These second and fourth grade classes will pick interesting cities across the United States that they would like to visit, and see which class can walk to the destinations faster. To track steps and distance, their teacher is requesting a pedometer for each competitor.

South Carolina, “Look, Mom, I’m on TV!”
A huge obstacle for these alternative school students is getting and keeping a job. Their teacher’s brilliant solution is to video tape mock job interviews, so that the students can practice their interviewing skills.

Northern California, “Beats for Brilliance”
The majority of these first graders are children of immigrants from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Participating in drum and cultural lessons from the students’ native countries will provide a unique opportunity to reinforce self-esteem and involve the students’ families in learning.

Alabama, “Needed: Colorful Carpet for Classroom”
DonorsChoose.org often gets requests for classroom carpets, and it’s easy to see why in this proposal. These six-year old students are naturally active learners: they perform best when allowed to leave their desks to gather comfortably and discuss freely. The carpet they have now is small and worn-out - they need a new one!

New York State, “Reaching Across the Generations” (FUNDED!)
Most of these fourth graders live at or below the poverty level - but this does not mean they cannot give back to others. During an hour long, monthly visit to a nearby nursing home, each nine year-old will help his or her “elderly buddy” complete craft projects that will decorate the resident’s room.

Chicago, “Solar Energy is the Way To Go!” (FUNDED!)
The inspired teacher who submitted this proposal writes, “…finding alternative sources of energy…may be the most urgent problem that my students will face as our society’s future leaders.” His sixth through eighth graders will work in small groups to conduct experiments with Photon Solar Racer Cars. They will then dismantle the car kits and use the photo-voltaic cells and motors to construct, test, and showcase their own solar-powered inventions.

Louisiana, “Future Physicians We Will Need!” (FUNDED!)
These students will learn about the human body, and then take medical boards! Their teacher will equip them with lab coats, to experience the transition from medical student to “official” doctor. Each doctor will take on a specialty and work in “clinics” to solve medical mysteries.

North Carolina, “Miss Manners in North Carolina” (FUNDED!)
Students with autism eat lunch in their classroom at this school, because the noise in the cafeteria can be overwhelming. Their teacher will create a restaurant setting for her class - the project will give the students a real world simulation, encourage them to self monitor their behavior, and promote peer interaction.

Southern California, “Rewarding and Developing Independent Reading Habits” (FUNDED!)
This creative teacher knows how to motivate her second through fifth graders to read. She provides a packet of books to each student, at his or her independent reading level, and a reading log. When the reading log is complete, she lets her students choose a book to keep from the Book Box. Our donors helped her replenish the Book Box!

If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe to receive new posts via email or RSS!