Donors Choose

I recently discovered an amazing resource for me and my classroom: donorschoose.org. On this site, teachers post requests for their classroom, and people just... donate. That's it! All the teachers must do in return is fulfill a promise to thank their donors - which is made easy by the organization. With the materials requested, they send a disposable camera (to take pictures of the students using the products) and a thank you letter form. Of course, the more genuine and creative the thank you's are, the more "points" you earn on your account.

Teacher's can choose from a myriad of supplies - from furniture to technology to guest speakers. The site claims that most projects under $300 dollars are funded. Another teacher at my school asked for bean bag chairs for her reading corner, and received them with no problems.

Which brings me to MY proposal. Now, I know what a lot of you are probably thinking. I know that my school comes with a certain... reputation. The school is in a "nice" part of town, and many affluent families have children who attend there. Frankly, it's one of the "richest" schools in the district - if you were to look at the FAMILIES who come to my school. But... it's not the families who fund the schools - it's the state and federal government. And you all know how well I think THAT is going. 

I pay for several things out of pocket, and I don't mind. I buy little trinkets for the "prize box," snacks for our "share days" (when the kids finish a special Writer's Workshop book), and other little things (not to mention furniture, books, and supplies for the room). One of the things that I could spend scads of money on is photographs. I love to document the special projects and fun activities that we do in our class. I make several books with my students that would be enhanced by pictures of the kids and of our school.

HOWEVER, it gets VERY expensive (and time consuming) to load the photos onto my computer, burn them to a CD, go to a kiosk and print them out. Soooo... I asked for a photo printer! We would share it with all the first grade classes, and I'm already imagining the possibilities!

Check out my proposal by going to the link above, clicking on "Montana" and finding the project titled, "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words - Now Let's Write Them!". Tell me what you think!

I'm not asking you to give, just to spread the word. If you know of anyone who is looking for a unique way to share some holiday cheer, mention donors choose. You never know what you'll find.