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Two volunteers are being paid to set up a resource room that will make science materials available to middle school science teachers for hands on explorations. We have a number of units that were replaced in the elementary grades that contain basics that can be used in the middle school classes. These classes have new teachers who are relying on text books and basic materials purchased with their own funds. This program will help enhance their lessons with hands on explorations for students.

I am requesting $500 to pay 2 volunteers who are sorting through various donated materials, Some funds will also be used to fill in gaps for additional materials.

All The Pretty Horses

School: Santa Fe High School

I'd like to buy a large set of Cormac McCarthy's novel All the Pretty Horses. It would be the first novel students read in next fall's AP Literature and Composition course. I like to start the year with an accessible, engaging novel, but right now we don't have enough large sets of student favorites that are also a) reserved for seniors and b) of "literary merit"—the College Board's criterion for works studied in AP courses.

Program DescriptionThe AP Literature & Composition course is a college-level senior English class that prepares students for the AP Literature exam and for the fundamentals of writing in the humanities.

Mariachi Conquistador

School: Milagro Middle School

Mariachi Conquistador, the after school youth mariachi program at Milagro Middle School, has the opportunity to attend and participate in the Mariachi Spectacular Conference in Albuquerque, NM, in July.

The conference provides three days of instruction by world renowned mariachi instructors, the opportunity to perform in the Friday night Showcase Concert and a discounted admission to the Saturday night Spectacular Concert at Sandia Amphitheater.

This year program sponsors hope to take 8-10 students to the conference, and they could use your help with funding!

$500 would really help offset the conference fees, and all donations would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

Eastern New Mexico University Choir Camp

School: Capital High School

My name is Jeff Owens. I am the choir director at Capital High School. At Capital High School we have many talented singers who need opportunities to perform at the state level. This Choir Camp in Portales (Eastern New Mexico University/Portales All-State Choir Camp) prepares students to audition for All-State Chorus auditions and nurtures their enthusiasm for the art with over 100 high school singers from NM.

We have been able to send 1 or 2 singers in the past, and every singer we've sent has achieved All-State Chorus membership by audition, the highest honor in the state. We have 4 singers who have committed to going to the camp, which takes place in Portales the second week of June 2018.

Any help toward that cost would be enormously appreciated, as these students live in very challenging socio-economic circumstances.

Dual Language Classroom Environment

Schoo l: El Camino Real Academy

Our first grade dual language program teaches all content areas in both languages. The daily percentages for first grade are 70% Spanish and 30% English. In subsequent years, the amount of English increases each year, providing strong linguistic foundations.

My classroom needs materials for literacy centers in English and Spanish that help students acquire skills in both languages, with an emphasis on hands-on and visually engaging activities that support language acquisition and are easily differentiated for multiple levels of students.

Accelerated Book Program

School: Acequia Madre Elementary School

I am requesting $1,000 to use toward my library. I do not have any level books, which make it hard to determine the exact reading levels per individual. These funds will help our students became less frustrated because they will have books at their level. It will also help our higher students by engaging them in interesting and advanced books. Please help our students set the foundation for a lifelong love for reading!!!
Many Thanks ~ Ms. Kat

Teen Tutor Training

School: Capital High School

Reading Quest provides ongoing literacy training for teen parents in the GRADS program at Capital High School, which prepares them to read aloud to babies and young children and eventually teach their own children how to read. This training also enriches their own reading skills and builds their literacy courage. We are requesting funding to purchase baby board books, easy readers, and literacy materials for the teen-parent classes. We also provide training for Capital High AVID students and stipends for high school students who are dedicated to sharing their love of reading with young, low-income, struggling readers.

Reading Quest partners with the Teen Parent and Avid Programs at Capital High School. We offer professional literacy training for students who want to teach their own children to read and who want to work with young children in our community who are 1-2 years behind grade level in reading. Young children are particularly motivated when teenagers are reading with them and encouraging them to persevere and work hard. Our teens become well versed in the Growth Mindset attitude of never giving up and persevering when the going gets hard. We train teen tutors using multi-sensory, hands-on, phonics-based strategies that support young struggling readers.
Reading Quest has been extremely effective in increasing children's reading levels. During the past six years, our summer students have made, on average, one year's growth during each two week session, as measured by a standardized reading assessment. Many of our students have learning challenges and/or are English Language Learners.
Approximately 25% of the students in the Santa Fe Public Schools are proficient in reading at grade level. Failure in learning to read by the end of third grade is, arguably, the single greatest determinant of subsequent academic failure - and the single best early predictor of eventually dropping out of school. The mission of Reading Quest is to help children who are having trouble learning to read become strong, enthusiastic readers. We provide individual and group tutoring; intensive two-week reading camps for groups of low-income children; and workshops, training, coaching, & mentoring for public school teachers.

Piano Performance Mastery

School: El Camino Real Academy

I request a funding for El Camino Real Academy (former Agua Fria Elementary school) piano students.

El Camino Real piano students are very talented group of students. They work hard and play the piano very well. So many of them dream of being students of New Mexico School for the Arts. However they do not have funds for a piano tutor. I help them as much as I can after dismissal of school, but they need a professional piano teacher who would help them to prepare for audition for NM School for the Arts. Audition for the School of the Arts are usually held at the beginning of February. It would in the best interest of my students if they could receive financial help as soon as it is possible, so they can get ready. Please, help my piano students.

Volunteer Background Check Assistance

School: Multiple Santa Fe Public Schools

As the SFPS Volunteer Coordinator, and in an effort to encourage a more diverse volunteer population, I would like to offer paid background fees for up to 50 volunteer applicants to distributed throughout 5 different schools within the Santa Fe Public School District. Certain demographic criteria, including a residence radius of applicants who live within 6 blocks of the schools' attendance area will be required to be eligible for usage of the background check funds.

Hands-on History of Photography at Monte Del Sol Charter School

School: Monte Del Sol Charter School

Please support photography students participating in a hands-on/experiential 19th century photographic history project - Hands on History of Photography.

This project will directly deal with the 1851 discovery of the collodion wet plate process. Students will read historical texts, view historical images and make in-camera renditions of modern day collodion photographs.

The funding is needed for all consumable materials including silver nitrate (fairly expensive), metal and glass plates for making the images, and all of the various chemicals needed for processing

Science at the Bradbury in Los Alamos

School: El Camino Real Academy

Several years ago, Dollars4Schools funded my request to pay for buses to take my students to the Bradbury Science Museum. It was so valuable. I want to take the students I have now. We'll need two 44-student buses,

8th grade science is physical science, including physics and chemistry, and the Bradbury is the best place in the state for this. My students have never been. At the Bradbury they will learn about cryogenics and liquid nitrogen, which is critical to a deep understanding phase change and chemical versus physical interactions; about radioactivity and the atom; about our history; and about rockets and forces, motion and gravitation. The museum visit will anchor conversations and activities in class for the entire spring semester. At this dual language school I teach my classes in Spanish, but the kids are bilingual.

Friday Service Projects at The MASTERS Program

School: The MASTERS Program Early College Charter High School

The MASTERS Program is an early college charter school on the campus of SFCC, serving a diversity of students, many of whom are the first generation in their families to go to college. The program allows students to move at their own pace and integrates high school classes with college classes based on each individual. We also provide a strong supportive community and service to the greater Santa Fe community.

Friday Projects are service-learning based and take our students in faculty-led groups out into the Santa Fe community every Friday. From the Humane Society, to The Horse Shelter, to Habitat for Humanity to Pinon Elementary School and to working with the county on trails, and more, we are building character and giving teens a sense of value with this program. Our request is for support running a bus that can take students to these projects. As a charter school, we cannot afford our own buses and the cost of renting each Friday is approximately $400/day.

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