Donors Choose - A Teacher's Best Friend
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| Who doesn't love this song?!? |
Unlike a girl, a teacher's best friend is not diamonds (although I really, really wish they were). A teacher's best friend is Donors Choose. For those of you who don't know what DC is, get ready to have your mind blown. It's a website where teachers write proposals for materials, trips, visitors they want for their classes, etc. People donate money and you get your stuff. (It's only for public school teachers in the USA, sorry everyone else!)
It really is that easy. I have been a member since 2005. In that time I've had over 200 projects funded. The average project was about $200. That's $40,000 worth of materials I've gotten for my kids!!!!!!! What have I asked for? It's more like what haven't I asked for. I've gotten dozens of class sets of book (When You Reach Me, Cinder, Divergent, The Hunger Games, The Lost Hero, Oogy), hundreds of individual books for my classroom library, 30 Chromebooks, markers, pens, paper, field trips, you name it. My biggest project was definitely the 30 Chromebooks, but many of my projects are $100-$300.
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| Kids on Chromebooks on Grammaropolis.com. (both funded by DC) |
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| Need a book? DC has that covered. |
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| Every kids gets their own copy of When You Reach Me. |
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| Another DC Double. Colored paper for Interactive Notebooks and The Lost Hero books. |
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| Who wouldn't want to get this in the mail? |
Does every proposal get funded? Of course not. One of my proposals for Kore Active Stools just expired because it didn't get fully funded. Bummer, but not the end of the world. The donated money goes back to the donor and you can always repost. I recommend starting small, a $100-$150 proposal. DC works on a point system. Each project is worth so many points. You get points for completing steps and the more you have, the bigger projects you can post.
On the serious side, Donors Choose does an amazing job especially for schools hit hard by natural disasters. The tornado that went through Moore, OK, Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, even the Flint water crisis have all affected schools in those areas. And DC was there every time to help rebuild. They have also started specialty proposals for Life Essentials. These include healthy food and snacks, clothes and back packs. There's a match offer on right now for eyeglasses for your kid, as well.
Since the school year is winding down, it's time to start planning for next year. Get onto Donors Choose immediately, open an account and start writing proposals for the classroom of your dreams.
by Unknown
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