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The Inoculation Project 12/3/2023: Fiction and Non-fiction! [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-12-03

This week, we’re helping two book projects with matching-funds offers: a biology book for a Texas high school, and a novel about a girl in Mumbai battling water thieves, for an Oklahoma middle school. 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 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.

Here is some very good news! We’ve been working on this biology-book project for several weeks. Now, to bring it home, it has matching funds this week, bringing it into a range that’s very likely to be completed today. The match is from Townsend Press, which I will note is NOT the publisher of the requested book, so that’s an extra niceness point for them: Townsend Press believes that access to great books is the key to a great education, especially for students at schools that have been historically underfunded. That's why we're doubling every donation to book projects from Equity Focus Schools on DonorsChoose. A child's access to incredible stories and crucial information shouldn't depend on their zip code.

PROJECT #1 Project: Biology Broken Down for Reluctant Readers Resources: Help me give my students a resource that they will enjoy to read. Economic need: An Equity Focus School; nearly all students from low‑income households. Location: Robstown High School, Robstown, Texas Total: $464.82 (2x matching funds from Townsend Press) Still Needed: $ 233.48 $183.48 ($92 from us) Project description by Mrs. Gueller: “Everything You Need to Ace Biology In One Big Fat Notebook” is a book that breaks down hard to understand Biology concepts into easy to read concepts. The visuals in this book assist the kids in learning hard to understand concepts. I used this book in tutoring with Special Needs tutoring and it worked! I would love to have more access to these books. I would like to put a book under each student's desk so they can use it whenever they are not on their Chromebook or when they need to research more stuff on the topic we are covering. Please consider helping me with a reading resource. DONATE HERE Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference! x x YouTube Video

So, as long as this company is matching book project funding this week, let’s take on another eligible project! This never-before-funded middle-school reading teacher wants her Oklahoma students to have a chance to read some recent fiction that will broaden their perspective a bit.

PROJECT #2 Project: Knowledge Thirsty Students Need Books! Resources: Help me give my students class copies of Thirst by Varsha Bajaj to help boost their interest in reading and build confidence in their amazing skills! Economic need: An Equity Focus School; more than half of students from low‑income households. Location: Central Junior High School, Moore, Oklahoma Total: $763.58 (2x matching funds from Townsend Press) Still Needed: $ 388.58 $338.58 ($170 from us) Project description by Mrs. Bevill: I teach 7th-grade Reading to an amazingly brilliant and vibrant group of students at a Title I school in Moore, Oklahoma. My students are incredibly smart and capable, but lack confidence in their skills and find reading laborious, leading to disinterest in books altogether. I would like to introduce my students to a more recently published novel, which I believe will not only capture the interest of my struggling readers but also effectively develop critical ELA skills through analyzing and evaluating cultural perspectives. My ultimate goal by the end of the year is to introduce my students to a wide range of stories from different perspectives and genres in hopes that I can turn non-readers into book lovers while effectively growing their confidence and skill! DONATE HERE Donations of ANY size can make a BIG difference! Author Varsha Bajaj answers some questions about her book and herself. (You can see a short description of the story here, at Goodreads.) x x YouTube Video

Our main project from last week was completed, with the help of our readers and a matching grant! Project #1, Learning to Code!!: Mrs. Holley teaches Montgomery, Alabama elementary school students. She knows they will love to learn how to program robots! She writes: Awesome!!! This so great!! Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your thoughts and donations. These robots are going to allow more of my students to be able to participate during STEM class. I cannot thank you all enough for helping my students and I. Again, bless each of you. We also have a project from the week before last, whose note wasn’t posted yet when we last looked. Having Fun Growing Reading Skills in the Library!: As an elementary-school librarian, Ms. Fischer works with pre-K - second grade students each week, and needs some hands-on activities to go along with their story times. She writes: I am profoundly grateful for your assistance in getting these supplies. I have so many fun projects for my students to do with them that will support their literacy goals and curriculum. Manipulatives engage students and let them interact with their learning. They look forward to the lessons I have with the very limited manipulatives we have. They are going to be super excited to have a new variety of materials and activities. Thank you for caring about my students!

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 seeks to fund science, math, and literacy projects in 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 1065! The success-list diary also contains links and additional information about DonorsChoose.

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