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The Gates Foundation's curriculum maps for the Common Core recommend that all high school juniors read William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. I heartily agree, and I would like to use it as a capstone book for next year's junior classes. It's a difficult book, but not an overwhelming one, and its strong characters and accessible plot make it appealing for high schoolers. Most importantly, I believe that reading As I Lay Dying will give our students a great burst of confidence going into their senior years. Unfortunately, our school does not have a class set of As I Lay Dying. I'm requesting funding for 32 copies at $12 each, which is the price listed by Follett, our primary supplier of novels. 

Thank you for considering these projects. As you know, teacher's imaginations can be limited by lack of funds. You're doing a wonderful thing.

Chaparral Elementary is reading Dr. Seuss' beloved book, "The Lorax".  Dr. Seuss warns against the dangers of not treating the environment with care and respect.  The book educates a new generation of young readers about the importance of not only seeing the beauty in the world around us, but also about our responsibility to protect it.  During the month of April before Earth Day, students at Chaparral will read this book for a bigger love and understanding of our Earth and environment.

We have been growing our AP program for many years, encouraging students to challenge themselves academically and completing their course of study by taking the AP exam in their subjects. Historically, the exam fee was generously subsidized by the state and district for our free and reduced lunch status students. This year (and we fear subsequent years) was less generously funded and even the reduced fee of $28.00 will be too much for our students, many of whom take multiple exams. We are looking for funding to defray some of this cost. We will need the money by the first week of May, 2013. 

Capital High’s 9th grade English teachers, in collaboration with REEL FATHERS, want to bring the ultimate poetry experience to all our 9th grade students. We’re planning a 2-week poetry intensive that will focus on fathers and connect the students' explorations to their study of the father-son theme in "The Odyssey.” REEL FATHERS supports fathers, youth and families to build stronger relationships through film, dialogue, creative expression and skills. 

All 9th grade students will participate in a 1-week poetry-writing workshop in which the poet/mentors will work with students on writing assignments. Students whose creative work and effort have been exceptional will be invited to participate in Week 2, a Performance workshop. They will work closely with Hakim and Manuel to express their individual work as a dynamic, unified group production.

We need extra help with our incentive programs. We would like to purchase pencils, books, book marks, bumper stickers, and various other forms of incentives for our students who have excellent points regarding their attendance, character, and grades. We love to give our students the most appreciation possible in order to help them stay motivated to come and achieve in school. We thank you so much for your help in our endeavors and your extra support in encouraging our students. 

I have to photocopy pages for all of my students several times a week, just so that everyone can look at the same thing and follow the lesson. This is a huge waste of paper, especially when a lot of these pages are simply thrown away after class or never looked at again.

What if I told you about a new, fancy technique for learning a second language that would help students gain an average of 15 months of language learning in only a 9 month school year? What if it only took 10-15 minutes, two to three times a week? What if it only cost an average of $21 per student? Would you be interested?  Now, what if that technique was not new or fancy at all, but the oldest, simplest technique ever. Reading. Fun books, interesting books, that students want to read and enjoy.

Connecting young people with history can make it more relevant and interesting to them. As a result, I am teaching my 7th grade Social Studies students a unit on their own histories. This can be done by interviewing older relatives to create direct links between the history student and his or her ancestors. I am going to ask students to ask someone in their family -- a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle, etc.-- to tell them a story about a relative or ancestor who came to America. Then, students are expected to rewrite the story in their own words. To introduce this lesson on Oral History, I would like students to read the book, "Family Pictures/Cuadros de Familia by Carmen Lomas Garza. Written in both English and Spanish, this book records the author's family's history using both words and pictures.

Trish Gharrity and Samantha Rivera co-teach in 2nd grade at Sweeney Elementary School. We are looking for a sponsor to help us increase our classroom library. We will use the books for different activities including Writier's Workshop which exposes children to different types of writing styles as well as Author Studies. We begin an author study by introducing an author with a short biography and discussing writing styles. We compare and contrast a variety of books within the author as well as between authors. While we study the writing styles, the children then begin to transfer the style to their own writing. With a wide selection of authors, we will be able to expand learning from different styles. A wide variety of books in the classroom will allow students easy access to literacy in order to broaden their vocabulary and build background knowledge. Our hope is to develop a system where children have easier access to check out boo ks as needed. 

Students in both AP English classes and English Language Development at Monte del Sol Charter school will team up with Jimmy Santiago Baca in a writing workshops. The workshop will be the culmination of a unit focused heavily on excerpts of Jimmy Santiago Baca's works, (old and new, poetry and prose) with a particular focus on follow-up writing exercises for students to connect with literature.

I wish to purchase guided reading leveled books for my classroom to help me implement the Teacher's College Reading Workshop model of teaching reading.

Nye Early Childhood Program provides services for children who are three, four and five years old with and without disabilities. Part of our school day includes playing in our big indoor space called “Choices”. Your donation will help us buy new toys and supplies for our Choices area. We need dolls, cars and trucks, puzzles and games, Spanish and English books, dress up clothes, trains and items for our play kitchen.

Help us build exciting, classroom, nonfiction book libraries to meet common core state standards of 50% required reading in nonfiction genre. Students will enjoying learning about the world, use facts for ACE Writing, develop skills for reporting and meet standards. Teachers will engage students with books on exciting topics and make available a variety of levels for readers.  Imagine a student becoming so engaged with a nonfiction book, that he continues to study the topic, finds a mentor, studies the topic in college and becomes an educated professional on that topic just because you made the donation to engage the student.Now, imagine a student connecting with nonfiction and becoming an author himself. You can help plant the seed!

$500.00 for nonfiction books for Acequia Madre Elementary School

I would like to purchase classroom supplies that support literacy in a general education classroom that has a population of 3 special education students and 14 ELL students out of 25 students total.
The items would be: 
(2) sets of Privacy shields (for testing) 35.89 x2 = $71.78
(1) unit of writing claws (pencil grip for writing) 1x 19.20 =$19.20
(5) units of Frayer 4 square Model Chart paper (Vocabulary Building) 5 x 8.99 =$ 44.95
1 set of EZC Strips (highlighters for reading)1 x 17.99= $17.99
The total amount would be $153.92 = shipping and handling of $25.00 = Total of $178.92

Sweeney Elementary School is an "Inclusion" school, whereby Special Education students are part of the Regular Education classroom. As a result, instruction in the classroom is conducted by a Regular Education bilingual teacher, and a Special Education bilingual teacher either works with the Special Education students in the classroom or takes those students out of the classroom for 1-on-1 instruction to meet their specific needs.  We would like to purchase 40 bilingual books that the parents and students can read together. (ex "House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros).  The left hand page is in English and the right hand page is in Spanish. 

Pinon Elementary School will afford our parents and families the opportunity to attend ESL ( English as a Second Language ) classes while their children participate in tutoring classes. In our efforts to empower parents to become actively engaged in their children's education at Pinon School, Saturday morning ESL adult classes will be conducted. These classes will be taught by Pinon faculty members to develop community and to support adults and their families. These classes will serve as an oppoportunity to engage and guide parents in their efforts to participate in their children's education, as well as to provide the support, knowledge and skills necessary for parental success at home, in the community and in the work force.

Certified Pinon ELL teachers will offer tutoring for the children and students in the area of reading, language arts and math while parents attend the ESL classes. This is a family academic endeavor that models for the students the importance of education as exemplified by the parents' participation. Saturday mornings will be a family event at Pinon School. 

Classes and tutoring sessions will be 2 hours on Saturday mornings for a seven week term. It is our goal to conduct three, seven week sessions of classes.  Overall the hope is to fund this entire program for $5000.  We can begin this amazing program with $1500.

I would like to purchase a class set of the book Seedfolks, by Paul Fleischman, for my fifth grade class. I just finished reading this book myself and immediately realized how well it would fit into my literacy curriculum. The book is written from the perspective of thirteen different characters (each with his/her own chapter), all from different places and different times in their lives. They all have one thing in common though - a neighborhood garden in the middle of Cleveland that has transformed their neighborhood and their respective lives.

Teaching students who are learning English as a second language can be very challenging at times! One strategy that I have found very effective is the; Listen And Sketch in which I read a short story out loud to the students, I instruct my students to sketch as they listen to the story.

"You're a Star" Through Literacy!  

Using the literacy components(listening/speaking, vocab., guided reading, phonics, fluency/comprehension, & writing) my First Graders would be rewarded with stickers for every reading and writing assignment completed during the first semester. We would also perform a play in December (using the element of rhyme) entitled "The Gingerbread Kid Caper" to be performed for the primary grades at my school, parents, and at one of our local nursing homes.

Students gain a deep understanding of what it was like to colonize this country in the 1600's as we read "Our Strange New Land: Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary" by Patricia Hermes. Reading an account in the voice of a child their age enables students to connect with the history in a very personal way. This novel study meets New Mexico State and Common Core Standards in both English Language Arts and Social Studies effortlessly.

The 4th grade at Pinon is interested in purchasing a subscription to Scholastic News. These are weekly classroom magazines for students that feature current events stories related to Science and Social Studies topics. 

I am developing a high-interest library of books for reluctant readers to encourage them to discover the joy of reading so they may become competent, life-long readers. The books I chose are geared to the modern child to pique their interest in reading independently. They are mostly fast paced books, with engaging illustrations to invite them in, and involving story lines relevant to their lives. Many use humor to create a bond with the reader. The goal is to draw the reluctant reader into the quiet, imaginative world of literature while raising their reading abilities by three levels or more using Guided Reading as the standard. Forty minutes each school day will be dedicated to independant reading, jotting, and sharing with a partner what the student read. Fifteen minutes of silent reading and five minutes of oral reading will be assigned each night as the student's reading component of their homework. Each student is encouraged to read 10 books in the first three months of school so a well stocked classroom library is essential.

This request is  to promote and deepen learning by developing and cultivating one’s knowledge-based interest in social studies.
In the 4th grade, having frequent and liberal access to a world globe is a necessary learning enrichment experience. However, it is difficult to receive adequate funding for more than one globe in the classroom (I currently have no world globes). 

Teaching 8th and 10th graders is so rewarding.  I just need help in creating a better presentation to my students.  A screen and document reader would be most helpful in presenting novels and short stories.  I also would ilke to save paper.

Putting more books and novels in each classroom will create an opportunity to students to read more and ultimately learn more! A large, varied, and new collection of books in the classroom is vital in improving reading performance.  Literacy studies confirm that the more contact children have with books, the better readers they become. 

The more kids read, the more they know.  This program will give teachers the opportunity to buy more books for their classrooms.  Many of the children at Tesuque Elementary do not have access to books outside of their school.  This program would give children the opportunity to have a wider choice of books to read, including book series which encourage children to read more!

We would like to purchase books for us to read to our preschoolers and some easy readers.  Studies show that the earlier a child reads, the better he or she will do in school.  With the purchase of additional books for our young readers, the more they will be encouraged to read!

The Library at Atalaya Elementary is where kids love to read.  They would like to purchase magazine subscriptions to increase the children's awareness and knowledge of up to date trends and current events.  These magazines would be incorporated into the classroom curriculum.

Kearny has a large percentage of spanish speaking children entering Kindergarten. National Geographic has designed this curriculum to help Kindergarteners learn to speak and read.  The library includes of a series of 10 patterned storybooks and a picture word book that students use like a dictionary.  Written in everyday language, students will have a chance to directly apply what these books are teaching them to their life at school and home.