40 Days and 40 Ways ...(to help) #10 Help Teachers Help Kids

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. Today in my class a "leprechaun" visited while my students were in dance class. He left his footprints all over our classroom and the trail led to a container of cookies for us!! When the kiddos got back from dance they were absolutely ecstatic!! I love that magic and make believe exist for them. I wouldn't trade their looks of excitement and wonder for anything! Not even the extra time and money it took me to bake cookies, decorate them, and then cut 25 footprints out of green paper and tape them around my room. All that is part of the job.

On average, elementary school teachers spend about $541. a year out-of-pocket. And that's out of their measly salaries. They aren't reimbursed for supplies or mileage like a business person, they may spend more than they make for 2 months (as I did this year- sorry Dave Ramsey), and they use their Christmas wishes for things like 100 sharpened pencils just so they don't have to keep buying (and sharpening) their own for a while. The sad truth is, it's getting worse. As budgets are cut and the economy swirls farther down the drain, there is less and less money for supplies and teacher pay. But there's still the never-ending battle for teachers. How do they keep kids engaged? They can't battle the Xboxes and Playstations for attention with pencil and paper, sitting in rows of desks. Monotony will not excite our kids to learn. But teachers can't afford the extra materials or technology to make it fun. What else can they do but spend their own money?

Here's what: http://www.donorschoose.org/

This is an amazing site that allows teachers to post projects they are working on with their kids that need funding.

Projects like....

For Christmas my sister donated to a class in our (John and my) honor that was creating a green classroom. They were growing their own organic foods to eat as well as creating a green house and educating the school on having more sustainable classrooms.

Another great project was one done by my pal K. Decker. Her kiddos made pillowcases for children in the hospital for Valentine's Day! What a great way to teach children about charity and to do something other than the regular old hype-up-on-sweets party!

You can donate as little or as much as you want. You can search for projects based on what type of project, those needed the most or least amount of money, for classrooms in high poverty areas, those with a majority of military children in them, classrooms for children with Autism, etc. Or just make a gift that will go to a classroom in need.

Still not convinced? Check out the movie Waiting for Superman it will change the way you see public education. http://film.waitingforsuperman.com/videos