This week, we’re helping two literacy projects: Spanish novels for a St. Louis high school, and storytelling aids for a preschool class in a small Louisiana town. 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 and math 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.
This was our #4 project last week! It was quite substantial but had matching funds at the time, and we took advantage of those as much as we could. Now, as is so often the story, the matching funds are gone, but what’s still needed is manageable without them.
PROJECT #1
Resources: Help me give my students an opportunity to learn Spanish while also learning about themes important in Latin America.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households. A “Black History Month” project.
Location: Vashon High School, Saint Louis, Missouri
Total: $603.69
Still Needed: $273.69 Completed- thank you! Please consider project #2.
Teacher’s Comments from Mr. Ruegg:
My Students: My students are amazingly resilient in spite of the challenges they face on a daily basis. They want to learn and are working to overcome the adverse effects of systemic racism and low socioeconomic status. They have tremendous potential and are met with many obstacles, which are exacerbated by the current Covid-19 Pandemic.
My Project: These book sets will help my students acquire Spanish language, improve literacy and expose them to Hispanic culture as well as learn about biology in the Rainforest. The books "El Capibara con botas" and "El escape cubano" (The Capybara with Boots, and The Cuban Escape) integrate high repetitions of key vocabulary structures in stories that also teach students about the flora and fauna of the rainforest, as well as a gripping story centered around Cuba and the theme of immigration. These books will give my students an authentic venue to learn and use Spanish while also learning about other themes.
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Apparently, El Capibara con botas is a popular Spanish text in high schools. It has spawned quite a few student projects on YouTube, some of which are pretty funny.
Not the best accent, but you have to admire the creativity. ;)
The tiny village of Tickfaw is about 20-ish miles north of Lake Pontchartrain.
PROJECT #2
Resources: Help me give my students learning materials to develop language and social skills through story telling.
Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households. A “Black History Month” project.
Location: Midway Elementary School, Tickfaw, Louisiana
Total: $412.60
Still Needed: $387.60 $167.60
Teacher’s Comments from Mrs. Simoneaux:
My Students: At our school we strive for excellence every day with the motto “Every Child, Every Day, The Right Way!” The mission of our Elementary School is to empower our Eaglets to S.O.A.R. by being Seekers of knowledge who are always Optimistic, striving for Achievement and Respectful at all times. Our students come from various demographic backgrounds with our school population consisting primarily of minority children, students learning English as a second language, and those with challenges of low socio-economic status. Our school also serves a number of children with special needs in self-contained and inclusive learning environments.
My goal is to provide my young learners with opportunities that promote growth in academic, language, motor and social areas of development.
The PreK children in my class are excited about starting their first formal school experience and are eager to participate, engage and learn. A couple of quotes from them so far have been "Can I stay at school today?" when they came for Pre-Kindergarten Assessment and "I wanna stay and learn." when it's time for dismissal. Their smiling faces, excitement, and desire to grow and learn is what motivates me to be the best teacher I can be for them!
My Project: Children develop language and reading skills best through a variety of activities involving listening, speaking, experimenting and play. These learning materials will be used in whole group learning time and child-initiated learning centers to help my children grow towards their journey of becoming independent readers.
Having materials to retell stories with others not only builds language and reading concepts, it will provide a meaningful path to build social skills by giving children opportunities to engage in conversation and build relationships with their peers.
I can envision my children actively enjoying these materials as they retell favorite stories that we've read during whole group time as well as being creative by making up their own endings to stories and sharing a new story with the same characters.
There's no doubt in my mind that these learning materials will be valued and enjoyed by all my children on their reading journey. Please help me make this vision a reality for my little Midway Eaglets as they continue to learn by our mission statement of S.O.A.R......Seekers of knowledge, who are always Optimistic, striving for Achievement and Respectful at all times!
Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference!
Puppets are among the storytelling aids being requested.
Last week, I had the silly idea that three medium-sized projects would be the same as one medium and one large. As a result, we saw three projects completed, and I was scrambling to keep an open one in the diary! Lesson learned, but it was fun!
Project #1, I Love My New Books!: Mrs. Krochalk’s Milwaukee first grade loves to read, and needed more books at different levels so they can read on their own. This was designated a “Black History Month” project by DonorsChoose, one that primarily supports Black students.
She writes: I can't wait to get these books to share with my first-grade students. The children will love reading them each day. Having this high quality book collection will motivate them to read more and increase their reading fluency. The children will also learn about science and the natural world.
Project #2, Greenhouse Greatness: Mrs. Scherer teaches fifth-grade science in South Carolina, and she wanted a small portable greenhouse that would allow her class to realize their dream of growing vegetables. Another “Black History Month” project.
She writes: Thank you so much for your donation. My students will greatly appreciate this and it will be such a memorable memory for them. All students in 5th grade will benefit from this project as well as the future students 5th grade will have in the upcoming years. Thank you so much!
Project #3, Building Our Cell Cities: Ms. Ard teaches an honors biology class in a South Carolina high school. Her request was for craft supplies to allow her students to top off learning about cells by building cell models. Yet another “Black History Month” project.
She writes: I squealed when I opened up the email and saw that this project was fully funded. Thank you so so much for this exciting gift. I can't wait to tell my students!! We have not been able to do a hands on activity on cell structures that helps them grasp the organelles job like this one will!
DonorsChoose has developed a new designation for schools that submit projects. Equity Focus Schools 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. |
And there’s also this, just for February:
Celebrate Black History Month
This project supports a Black teacher or a school where most students are Black. See more projects.
Founded in 2009, The Inoculation Project combats the anti-science push in conservative America by funding science and math projects in red-state 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 science or math projects, preferably 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 957! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.