Donor's Choose

I have three $25 gift certificates to Donor's Choose to give away to the first three people who comment on this post with your e-mail address!  Wow - the gift cards were gone in less than 30 minutes! Sorry if you missed it and I hope to do another giveaway soon! In the meantime, please check out Donor's Choose - it is such a great non-profit and is a way for your small donations to have a really large impact.

What is Donor's Choose? 

Donor's Choose is an awesome online charity.  Teachers from all over the U.S. post online a need for their classroom.  You can sort for various criteria (such as high poverty schools in D.C.) and donate online any amount.

Everyone's small donations come together to help fund what the teacher requested and Donor's Choose will buy it and deliver it to the school.  You will receive a thank you note and pictures from the teacher, and additionally if you give more than $100 you will receive handwritten thank you notes from the students!

Please check out www.donorschoose.org.  There are thousands and thousands of projects posted by teachers across American and right now there are 155 projects in Washington D.C. I highlighted just a few below and pulled out a short synopsis to give you an idea of the different types of projects that you could help fund, but I definitely recommend spending some time on the site for much more information.  

Enjoy helping a child's education!

- Digging, Planting, and Growing - "We are 3, 4 and 5 year olds preparing for kindergarten in the Nation's Capitol. Neighbors to the First Lady and going hard for the "Let's Move" campaign, we need to learn that we can plant our own vegetables and get digging!"

- Applying Geometric Concepts through Art - "I serve a student population that consistently performs poorly on standardized math tests. In order to excel in higher level math classes, my students need to be able to visualize mathematical information in graphical terms. The rulers and compasses that we found in the storage room were in very poor condition and did not produce very professional results. We need six different art supplies, including paper, compasses, pencils, erasers, and rulers for our geometry exploration. I would like to maintain the level of excitement the students have for geometric art by motivating them with the necessary tools."

- Preserving Oral History in Anacostia - "My students cannot even fathom the history that is found right in their own community. I teach 10th grade D.C. History in a public charter high school in Washington, D.C. Every one of my students is African American, and 95% of my students live in Wards 7 and 8. My school is so close to the home of the great Frederick Douglass, and most of my students' parents and grandparents remember in great detail the civil rights riots that destroyed many parts of the city. Many even listened to Martin Luther King, Jr. deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. This history needs to be preserved. Unfortunately, my school does not have the resources to buy camcorders to record these interviews. My classes last year created an oral history project about some aspect of their city or family's history they wanted to preserve. They were incredibly invested in this project. My students enjoyed learning about the history in their community so much that many wanted to continue the research. I did, however, discover that it could be much more valuable to my students if I could loan a camcorder to every one of them while they conducted their interviews."