Giving Back

Hey all, sorry it has been so long. Coming back from break has been quite a shock for me and hard to deal with in the classroom for lots of reasons.

Many of my students had rough breaks and it has taken them a long time to get back into school shape. They are also very excited about the holidays and thus all over the place most of the time.

We have been doing a lot of talking about the holidays and ways we can do good things for the holidays.

We recently did a can drive for Thanksgiving and raised more than 50 cans in just 2 days! So this week I decided to talk to them about ways to give back without money and brainstorm some people who need their help. Some of the kids were very sweet and thought of homeless people or those without food, while others used incredibly somber examples from their own families.

It is times like this that remind me of how little these kids have. Every day they come to school so full of energy and life, it is hard to remember that they are really struggling and do not have a lot at all.

Thus I want to do something special for them for the holidays. As a gift from my I bought them all a copy of “Where The Wild Things Are” which is a book they really love. But I want to get them books for our classroom. We have many great books, but I really want to expand our collection and expose them to even more high quality literature.

I put together an account on DonnorsChoose.com where I have listed 14 of the books I would like to add to my class. This is the top priority books out of a list of about 40 that I have so I want to see what kind of support I can get before putting up the remaining books. But in order to get these books I need YOUR help!

DonorsChoose is a great site that hosts teacher grants and gives people the opportunity to donate money to teacher projects. Generally teachers put up projects and hope for people to come by and recognize the students need and donate.

I have decided that I will reach out to all of my loyal readers and ask for help. My students are in desperate need of more books and you can help. It does not have to be a major donation. Anything that you can give would be incredible!

All of the donations can be deducted from your taxes and all of the money goes directly to DonorsChoose and as soon as they have all the money for my project they will purchase the books and send them to me!

Here is the letter I wrote about my students for the grant:

“I am a second grade teacher at a Title 1 school in Texas. I am part of the Teach For America program and this is my first year teaching. I teach everything from reading and writing to math and science and my kids are in desperate need of more books for our classroom.

The main focus of our classroom is on reading and balanced literacy. All of my kids come from Spanish-speaking households so the only time they speak English is when they are at school. Thus, it is of the utmost importance that I have good resources (especially high quality books) for my kids to learn with.

This is why I am asking for a diverse collection of texts for my classroom. I am looking to expose my kids to as many different books and authors as possible. I want them to love literature and the only way for them to do this is to have books to read.

But, in order to make this possible I need your help. With your support, my kids can have the books they need to really learn to love reading. Thank you for your generosity”

Help us grow our brains and become better readers!!!

Thank you all for your help and support!

I am going to post more pictures of my kids so please send me an email asking for the password if you would like to see them and see all the faces that your donation could be supporting!

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