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The Inoculation Project 7/2/2023: Book Projects Plus Ohio Gardening [1]
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Date: 2023-07-02
This week, we’re still helping the Texas and Alabama book projects we worked on last week, and we’ve added a school gardening project in Ohio. 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.
Once a project gets under $100 needed, I drag my feet putting it into the diary because someone could come along and finish it at any moment! However, if you’re reading this, it means this project is still here at publication time, so we’ll likely see it finished this morning.
This San Antonio teacher wants her first-grade students to read exciting non-fiction books!
PROJECT #1 Project: Nonfiction Books Resources: Help me give my students nonfiction books with informative text and vibrant photographs. Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households. Location: Five Palms Elementary School, San Antonio, Texas Total: $158.49 Still Needed: $ 98.49 $23.49 Project description by Ms. Valdez: While it's easy to have students read and reread fun books like "No David!" and "Pete the Cat", it's important to expose them to nonfiction as well. Furthermore, the nonfiction books need to be as exciting and engaging as the fictional books in the class library. Our classroom is in need of nonfiction books that have vibrant photographs and easy to understand information. The "National Geographic Readers" will offer amazing photos and information about animals, while "I Want to Be a Veterinarian" will give students an idea of how some animals are cared for. With these books in our library, students will be enthusiastic about fiction and nonfiction. DONATE HERE Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference! National Geographic is well known for their vivid animal photography! x YouTube Video This clip is from their “Extraordinary Birder” series, hosted by Christian Cooper. (You may remember him from the time that white woman in Central Park tried to get the police to come shoot him.) x x YouTube Video
I’m adding Project 1½ here so that we can get a jump on it if #1 is completed as soon as I expect. I don’t usually preface the project description with the “about” material on the teacher’s page — it’s usually not that informative. I think the one from this Youngstown, Ohio second-grade teacher says a lot, however:
I work in an amazing school district in a low-income community, filled with passionate teachers and diligent administrators. Together, we all want the same thing- the best education for the students in our community. Our school system has just come out of financial emergency so our funds for anything "extra" are on hold. With that said, I have 17 of the most amazing second grade students this year. Housing the full inclusion class, my students ability levels vary from identifying sounds and letters all the way to reading books at the fifth grade level. Because of this wide range of learning capabilities, I need a variety of resources to make sure I am differentiating instruction in all subject areas to make sure all students learn and grow at their own levels. Having resources like technology, books, flexible seating, and hands-on materials make learning achievable for all in my class.
PROJECT #1½ Project: Make Our Grow Lab Come to Life! Resources: Help me give my students materials to make our classroom Grow Lab come to life! Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households. Location: Guy PreK-6 Elementary School, Youngstown, Ohio Total: $190.36 Still Needed: $ 190.36 $115.36 Project description by Mrs. Collins: I have had a Grow Lab for about five years now. Each year, the kids have learned so much about life cycles, the environment, and how to take care of living things through the use of this Grow Lab. However, these materials are all consumable so each year I have to buy more materials to make the magic of the Grow Lab happen for the new set of students. This project would fund all of the essentials to get the Grow Lab up and running at the beginning of next year's school year- including seeds, tools, pots, trays, and even a Life Cycle of a Plant book. Specifically, this project will fund both marigolds and grass seeds. I like to have students plant both as they can compare and contrast the seeds and how they grow. I also like them to observe what happens to them when the lights aren't on and how they move to the window to get as much light as they can They love this! It will also fund for trays to put them on while we take them outside to plant so it doesn't make a mess in our room prior to transferring them into the Grow Lab. It will also fund dirt, popsicle sticks to be used as plant markers, as well as little tools to dig holes to place the seed in. The Grow Lab creates so many opportunities for learning beyond just science- they measure the plants, learn about what climates or environments certain plants can live in, as well as they write about their noticings. DONATE HERE Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference! (Searching YouTube for the term “Grow Lab” does NOT immediately return anything relevant for here!) This is about school gardens. x x YouTube Video
We’re still working on this important Alabama project, to overhaul the school library in a Huntsville elementary school. We’ve come a long way with it, and I think it’ll be completed in a couple of weeks, well before its deadline.
PROJECT #2 Project: New, Exciting Books! Resources: Help me give my students new, exciting books that foster a love of reading! Economic need: An Equity Focus School; more than three‑quarters of students from low‑income households. Location: James I. Dawson Elementary School, Huntsville, Alabama Total: $1,189.56 Still Needed: $ 233.56 $183.56 Project description by Mrs. Rodgers: Help me provide new, exciting books for my students. Studies show that the best way to foster a love of reading is offering kids a vast array of different types of books. Every kid deserves great books to read that help them love reading. New books with colorful covers call to young readers in a way that old books simply cannot. Our school library is very old, outdated, and in great need of an overhaul. You can help put thrilling books into the hands of deserving young readers! Thank you! DONATE HERE Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference! I thought we could use some new videos of children’s libraries! There are some very fun ones around these days. This one is in Toledo. x YouTube Video And this one is in Ipswich, in Queensland, Australia! x x YouTube Video
As you’ve seen, our projects from last week are still in progress. However, we have one from a couple of weeks ago that was completed too late in the week to get the teacher’s note into the diary, so here it is today. Green Energy, Clean Energy: Mr. Azeem teaches high school in rural Mississippi. He’d been hoping to give his physics students some interesting green energy projects. He writes: I highly appreciate your generous donation. Educational resources on Green Energy provided by you will be a great contribution towards students' learning and understanding the renewable resources of energy to protect our planet. I am very confident that this generation will enhance their knowledge, skills and concept about the pollution free energy to contribute to the human kind.
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 1041! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.
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