This week, we’re helping a Houston high school class understand Macbeth, and an Arkansas first grade get books they can take home and keep for their very own! We hope that readers who support quality public school education will help by sharing or supporting our featured projects.
The Inoculation Project is an ongoing, volunteer effort to crowdfund science, math, and literacy projects for red-state public schools in low-income neighborhoods. As always, our conduit is DonorsChoose, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation that facilitates tax-deductible donations to specific, vetted projects in public schools.
Hey, everyone, I need to leave shortly after this posts, and be out much of the day. I apologize for being a bad host! I promise to come back and reply to your comments, and update the diary, later in the day.
Ms. Jabak’s Houston high school class will be reading Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and they could use our help.
PROJECT #1
Resources: Help me give my students access to a class set of Shakespeares's Macbeth
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Alief Taylor High School, Houston, Texas
Total: $267.79
Still Needed: $267.79 Completed, thank you! Please consider Project #2 below.
Project description by Ms. Jabak: When reading Shakespearean literature, can often be quite challenging when not fully accustomed to Elizabethan/Shakespearean English. Aside from teaching the play, I want to empower my students to take on older forms of English and learn to decipher what is being presented to them.
Part of my curriculum is to teach Macbeth, however, I do not have any physical copies of the play, and I am trying to continue to grow strong and lifelong readers.
I want to avoid having students read off a PDF, and instead continue my mission of teaching students to enjoy reading.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
The edition Ms. Jabak is requesting, in the No Fear Shakespeare series, contains these features (per Amazon’s description):
- The complete text of the original play
- A line-by-line translation that puts the words into everyday language
- A complete list of characters, with descriptions
- Plenty of helpful commentary
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There are people on YouTube reading the “translated” text from the book, but even one act at a time is too long to put here. If you need a brief refresher, here’s some background.
Because I love Patrick Stewart, I went to see his rather surreal Macbeth at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2008. Luckily, it was filmed later, so you can see him do the famous “Out, out, brief candle” speech.
I’ve left this project down here this week, although it actually has a little less still needed than project #1. It’s really a roll of the dice which is completed first.
This Arkansas first grade teacher is thinking ahead to how to keep her students from losing ground over the summer, by giving them books of their own to keep.
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students math workbooks and books to read over the summer break. Thank you for your consideration.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households.
Location: Mabelvale Elementary School, Mabelvale, Arkansas
Total: $373.07
Still Needed: $233.07 $87.19
Project description by Mrs. Kersey: The majority of my students are from low income households. This means that many of them have never had books of their own. Reading is the most important subject, as it is used in every subject and circumstance.
Please help me give my students their own personal libraries at home, as well as a math practice book.
This will help us to overcome the typical summer learning loss.
My goal with this project is to allow students two books and a math workbook take home and keep. This would be one way to promote a love of reading for these students. Thank you for considering my project.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Scholastic is working with DonorsChoose to fulfill this project when it’s funded. They’ve been offering inexpensive paperbound books to children in classrooms since the 1940s — I remember them myself. This video brought back some memories of being a kid with a book.
The contents of the collections Mrs. Kersey’s class will get aren’t enumerated in the project, but I liked this book Scholastic offers, from a book series in which it turns out that dinosaurs who are for some reason the children of human parents 😁 know how to behave!
Our main project from last week was completed, after weeks of generosity from our readers!
Project #1, STEM Full Speed Ahead: Mrs. Scales teaches kindergarten in Dallas, and her big project hoped to get a wide assortment of fun building materials, so much more interesting than just blocks!
She writes: Thank you so much for partnering with my Kindergarten Crew! I am so grateful that your donation will impact the minds and hearts of my amazing students. STEM is an integral part of our future and because of you my students will keep innovating, building, creating and growing for years to come!
DonorsChoose has developed the designation Equity Focus Schools to describe some schools that submit projects. They meet two criteria: at least 50% of students are Black, Latinx, Native American, Pacific Islander, or multiracial, and at least 50% of students qualify for free or reduced price lunch, the standard measure for school economic need. You can read more at the link about their efforts to address the longstanding inequity in education. |
Founded in 2009, The Inoculation Project combats the anti-science, anti-education push in conservative America by funding science, math, and literacy projects in red-state public school classrooms and libraries. Our conduit is DonorsChoose, a crowdfunding charity founded in 2000 and highly rated by both Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau.
Every Sunday, we focus on helping to fund projects in neighborhood public schools where the overwhelming majority of students come from low-income households. We welcome everyone who supports public school education — no money is required!
Finally, here’s our list of successfully funded projects — our series total is 1018! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.