Read Berwyn C.A.R.E.S. Blog: December 2008

The money raised at the fall kids concert at Fitzgerald’s has been used to fund several projects for Berwyn teachers. Berwyn teachers were asked to submit proposals for mini-grants up to $500 via the web site DonorsChoose.org and BerwynCARES chose favorites to fund. We hope that we are able to provide a little relief to teachers who face budget struggles on a daily basis. There are currently 30 proposals worth $13,111 on The Berwyn Challenge and 14 have been fully funded! In part, because of BerwynCARES promotion and solicitation of private donors like you, the $4,292 raised so far will impact 727 Berwyn students.

In addition, we’d love to spread the word about DonorsChoose. We encourage teachers to continue to use the web site to promote future projects to their friends and families, as well as their students’ friends and families. Thank you again to our caring supporters who made this possible by generously giving us your precious time, incredible talents and, by sponsoring and attending the event.

The following 9 projects were fully or partially funded by BerwynCARES up to $500 per project totaling $3586.18

There are currently 16 proposals totaling $8,819 that have yet to be funded on the Berwyn Challenge. Please consider supporting our schools through the Berwyn Challenge. A button link to the challenge is located on the right side of this page.

Kids Doing Yoga – Fully Funded
Kids exercising before school? This is the norm at our K-5 building, where 79% of our 330 students are low-income and many eat breakfast at school. This year, students come in for 30 minutes of breathing and stretching exercises before having their nutritious school breakfast. What a healthy and energizing way to start our day! Although I am the K-5 ELL (English language learning) teacher, I know most of the students in our small, tight-knit school community by name. For that reason, Yoga Club is open to all students, ALL AGES (classroom teachers sometimes join in the fun, too.) Our students love doing yoga and learning to move their bodies in different ways. They're using muscles they didn't know they had! Unfortunately, they have to do it in bare feet on the cold gym floor, which can be a shock first thing in the morning! Some kids bring in towels or blankets for the end of class when they lie on their backs, but those blankets can be slippery to stand on. If each child had his or her own exercise mat for yoga, then they would not have to stand on the cold floor anymore. The mats will not slip and move when they stand on them, and they will cushion their backs when the students lay on them. You can help my students maximize their first yoga and fitness experience by helping us get these mats! In order to do our exercises properly and accurately, we need the right equipment. The mats will help cushion our backs and joints and they will help us keep our balance when we stand on them in our yoga poses. My students need 30 exercise mats.

Therapy for At-Risk Students Using BOOKS! – Fully Funded
My special needs and at-risk students need books to aid them in dealing with the "hands they've been dealt". I am a school social worker and I facilitate groups of students who are dealing with struggles that range from having a disability, living in poverty, having parent(s) who are in jail, living in single-parent households, to things such as drug and gang activity. My students are ages 6-12. They come to school with so much on their mind already that they often miss out on the academic content because they are worrying about whether dad will be home when they get there, or whether mom will be arrested again for a probation violation. I have started a few bibliotherapy groups at school that have really taken off with the students. We are using fictional stories to aid the students in understanding their own problems through a character that they can identify with. We read the book, discuss the obstacle and the characters' solutions, and the students get a chance to implement this into their own lives as a result. We have seen a lot of progress through this delivery, and my students are becoming more and more creative about how they can deal with their own everyday issues. The problem that we currently have is lack of reading materials. Students are showing up day after day with an interest in participating in these groups, students who have never cared about reading in their life, and we don't have the materials to take them on. More of these books will allow us to address these issues in a way that is not like the traditional "therapy" model, and in a way that the students have clung to and really taken off with. Your help will make it possible for my students to see that they can't change their situations, but they can control how it affects their life. My students need a collection of books, including 5 copies each of 10 titles, from "Bridge to Terabithia" to "Skin I'm In".

Creating a Completed Classroom – Fully Funded
If we equip the classrooms of America with the supplies they need, we are equipping the students with the tools they need for the future. I am a first-year 7th grade Language Arts teacher in an area of poverty in Illinois. Since many students cannot afford to bring in school supplies of their own, I would like to equip my room with the necessary supplies so they can succeed both in my classroom and in life. My students come from very hard-working families, yet sometimes that is not enough to provide everything they need for school. Since many of my parents cannot afford to get their kids the supplies they need, I want to equip my classroom with those necessary materials. Basically, I need a starter set of supplies (markers, scissors, rulers, glue, etc) in order to provide my student with the basic things they need in order to be successful in my classroom. By contributing to my classroom, you are making a commitment to these students by saying that you are willing to help them achieve what we know they are capable of. With the help of these supplies, my students will be able to embrace learning and ignite the spark that will light their lives with learning for many years to come. My students need 25 glue sticks, 48 mini erasers, 10 stackable bins, a classpack of crayons, colored pencils, a class pack of markers, 25 rulers, 25 scissors, construction paper, and large construction paper.

Show Me the Art – Less than 50% Funded
I teach art at a wonderful middle school, grades 6-8, we are a high poverty, Title I school. One of the most exciting aspects of my school is how everyone’s goal is to provide our students with new learning opportunities and experiences everyday to make their education exciting and meaningful. My students are enthusiastic, talented learners who are always eager to discover more about the world. Art is a class where they have the chance to see the world in so many unique and creative ways while at the same time being encouraged to develop their own artistic interpretation of the world to share with others. I am fortunate enough to teach very talented, creative students who are always ready for new artistic inspiration. My goal is to be able to provide my students with knowledge and inspiration about art and the world in order to fuel their desire for exploration. To do this I need to incorporate art history images into my lessons. Studying art history provides glimpses of significant works of art by various artists, techniques, mediums, artistic styles, and also requires the exploration and understanding of historical events, places, cultures/societies, and people. Students are able to see and discuss how artists can communicate important events and ideas through their art in a positive, meaningful, and creative way. Through studying art history students will develop a base of understanding which will allow them the tools to develop their own unique, personal artistic style. The obstacles faced when trying to present art images to students involves struggles with a shortage of funds and technology. Buying art prints is very expensive especially when trying to build a comprehensive selection of images. Fortunately, the Internet provides many resources for art educators to retrieve and present valuable images for lessons. Unfortunately, to properly present these images to a class a quality LCD projector is necessary. Currently, in such a large school it is a challenge to secure an available LCD projector as frequently as needed. Additionally, many of the LCD projectors are dated and do not have a high quality resolution so the images are blurred making it difficult to identify details when observing works of art. To make the world come alive in my classroom and inspire my students through art a quality LCD projector, that is always available for use, is necessary. Having a quality projector will allow my students to further explore works of art, details and all! Discussions will broaden, inspirations will flow, imagination, and creativity will expand beyond the walls of the classroom. The world will be our museum! Your support will allow my students the chance to view the world past and present while creating their own unique images and ideas that can shape their futures and possibly our own. Art is a common tool of expression throughout cultures and time, what a wonderful gift you will provide for my students, the chance to truly experience the world through art. My students need 1 LCD projector.

My Turn! My Turn! – Fully Funded
My class is a first grade class of wonderful 6 and 7 year old students. They live in a community that is diverse and made up of mostly low income families. I try to make the learning process as engaging as possible for the kids. They think that an overhead projector is "magical" and they beg to use it. They want to write on it and "catch" the words with a piece of paper. (They also want to make hand puppets, but that's another story:)) The one I have now is very old and difficult to manipulate. I hesitate to let them use it independently. A new projector would allow the kids to work independently on writing, making words, and a huge variety of skill work. You will be giving my students another tool to make learning a special, magical, engaging activity. It will also give them the independence they crave! My students need an overhead projector.

Getting Ready to Read – Almost 50% Funded
Sometimes I feel like Old Mother Hubbard with all the children and she doesn't know what to do! I service 14, below grade level kindergarten through third grade students, all at one time for each hour of the day. Each child is at a different reading ability level. I want to read one on one with each child every day to monitor his/her growth or needs. I have a limited amount of space in the classroom, which used to be the custodian's closet. I purchased books and supplies for our room's library at garage sales over the summer because the district has a limited budget. These reading Centers can be taken to their desks and are student friendly creating high interest and motivation. These reading Centers will allow me to create and enhance an individualized lesson for each student. They can have fun while learning, be independent, and watch their confidence soar. My students need multiple Reading Centers to enrich their reading ability, allowing them to be able to work independently on components of reading, allowing me to work one on one with student at their level. Your generosity for my students this year will be "Paid Forward" for many years by the continuing flow of children that sit down by my side and say, "WOW, this is fun! Look what I can do!" My students need a complete set of Linking Language Cubes Instant Centers and 2 sets of Instant Literacy Centers.

First Grade Class Needs the Write Stuff – Fully Funded
Our school is a low income school with limited supplies. We need resources to assist in writing and to develop our language skills. First grade is a very important year in which students begin writing. When a student has the proper resources to develop their skills they can be successful in school. First grade is the most important year because our students are developing confidence and lifelong writing skills. We need your help to develop these wonderful students into life long learners! They need white boards and markers to be used in the classroom to show if they understand how to spell a word or write a sentence. By using the white board we do not have to use our limited amount of paper and I can immediately recognize who needs assistance. YOU can help make these 28 students achieve academic success! With your donation you can supply each of my students with their own white board and instructional materials that will develop their writing skills. Please note that these resources will be used each year to develop the writing skills of an endless amount of students. Thank you for your consideration to a very important class of 28 terrific first graders. You can make our New Year a year of writing and learning. What a great gift you can give- the gift of learning! Thank you!! My 28 students need 30 dry erase boards, dry erase markers and sentence strips.

What's an Oboe? Who Is Beethoven? (Posters) – Fully Funded
I teach music in a HOUSE that the school purchased because they were full to capacity. I love teaching in my house and would love to make it seem more like the music classroom through posters WHILE using those posters to teach music. I give each grade a family of instruments to learn. We listen to excerpts of the instruments, learn the names and then are tested on it later in the year. Students enjoy learning about the instruments, especially if they are expecting to learn one of the instruments later in 5th grade. The pictures on the posters are BEAUTIFUL and they show the instruments so well. The composer posters are also beautifully well done and students are better able to remember WHO composed a piece of music if they see the composers picture while listening to the piece. I would love to have a set of the musical instruments posters from woodwind and brasswind so that students can learn their instruments (as is a state requirement). In addition I would love to add the pictures of modern and classical composers to my classroom to help students SEE the people who composed the great music literature You will help me better serve the needs of my students by empowering them with visual aides to go with my auditory examples. Students learn better with multisensory techniques and YOU can help me make that happen with music. My students need the opportunity to SEE who it is we are learning about in music class. Students ALWAYS appreciate seeing who it was that composed the music. In addition to SEEING the composers, students love to see the instruments. The posters will give students a clear picture of WHAT the instrument looks like.

Tip Top Learning for First Graders – Fully Funded
”The most important thing about education is appetite.”
- Winston Churchill
I teach first grade students that for many of them, school is the consistent safe place they are look forward to every day. Many families in my school are low-income and the children eat breakfast and lunch at school. My students have an appetite for learning centers. I have been using reading centers three days a week and math centers once a week. A learning center is an activity that two students do independently in order to practice skills that I have taught them. For example, I have little wooden train cars of the alphabet that the students hook together in alphabetical order. Another center is a listening center where the students listen to a story on tape. Another favorite is ABC stamps to help learn how to spell words. So there are several learning centers going on all at the same time. Getting ready for centers is difficult in my room because of the desks. The desks are not all the same and are different sizes. Tables would be a tremendous help for the students and would help increase instructional time. Time is lost while I am setting up centers on the floor and moving desks around to make spots for the centers. With your help, my students will have more time at learning centers and more opportunities for team building if we had tables in our classroom. I have seen the excitement on each child's face during centers and the amount of learning that goes on during this time. Thank your for making this happen for my first graders. My students need 2 rectangular tables.