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Health & Fitness

Donors Choose Their Way to Better Schools in Hyattsville

In the grand scheme, the items that populate back-to-school lists haven't changed that much over the last twenty or thirty years ...

In the grand scheme, the items that populate back-to-school lists haven't changed that much over the last twenty or thirty years - pencils, loose-leaf notebooks, rulers and crayons are still as high on the list as they ever were - but nowadays, all too often, teachers find not just one or two kids, but an overabundance of students who aren't able to lay their hands on even the most basic of school supplies.  Parents and teachers alike hope to have classrooms that are as
wonderfully-stocked as can be, but eventually, all are forced to reconcile with the fact that there just isn't enough money to make everything happen they way they'd like.

The things that are needed to make a typical student's educational experience a richer and more complete one are as wide-ranging and diverse as the classrooms they're used in.  Kids need dictionaries, glue sticks, microscopes, computers and Internet access - even kits to learn about electricity and the moon - and that's just a start. While that copy of Merriam-Webster goes for a quick and seemingly painless six or seven dollars a pop, and that five-pack of glue sticks just a clam - maybe two - what sounds like mere pocket change can actually add up pretty quickly, certainly so once you take that buck or two and multiply it by thirty-five or forty to cover each and every kid in your homeroom. So, as educational budgets continue to dwindle, it's all-too-often the teachers themselves who are left to make up the difference.  Nationwide, the cash they lay down at the register tallies up to tens of millions of dollars a year.

However, a unique charity known as Donors Choose, which is based in New York and now active in every state, was born out of this very circumstance.  It's the brain child of a New York teacher who simply wanted to help friends and colleagues better outfit their classrooms. At first glance, it might seem like a simple assortment of wish lists, but a closer look reveals that it's much more than that. The "what" and "how" of the web site are easy to explain - a teacher who has an activity he wants to do with his kids comes to the site, identifies himself by name and by school, and then creates a posting detailing the "who" and the "where" of his idea.  These details are then verified by Donors Choose employees, who make the call on whether or not to approve the request for posting on their site.  Donors from the public then search through the approved requests and make tax-deductible donations to help cover the costs of the projects that they've connected with.  If requests get completely funded, Donors Choose then sends the related items directly to the school in question. At any given time, there are about 20,000 projects up seeking donations. Roughly 60 - 65 percent of them end up getting fulfilled, and most of those call for less than 400 hundred dollars in funding. 

Jessica Kolling is a 7th grade reading teacher at Nicholas Orem Middle School who has a request up right now: "'Ms. K, you have no good books!' is a common complaint, and one I hear almost daily. And it usually comes from the kids who need to be reading the most." 

"But the lack of funds at my school means that individual classroom libraries are sparse and, simply put, boring.  My students are in 7th grade but read, on average, at a 5th grade level. They come from a community that deeply values education, but does not always have the resources that their children need most. In my classroom, our big goal is to increase our reading levels an average of 2 years in one school year." 

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Kolling further relates that when the newest "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" book came out last fall, students were knocking each other over at the book fair to buy a copy.  "Those who couldn't afford to buy their own copy borrowed one from a friend, and then it would spread through the school like wildfire.  For weeks, reading this book was the coolest thing you could do."

Teachers at many, if not most, of Hyattsville's schools already seem to be aware of the charity and how to use it.  Some have been lucky enough to get their projects funded - an eighth grade science class at Hyattsville Middle School was given a variety of astronomy equipment last month - while others, like a request for an assortment of classroom furniture at Hyattsville Elementary, were unable to garner sufficient attention, a circumstance which left teacher and students alike, disappointed.

As of this blog posting, Jessica is well on her way to getting her books for her kids - but she isn't there yet, and she still needs your help. So please, take this opportunity to visit Donors Choose and learn not just about them, but about your local schools too.  Over the coming months, this blog will bring any local requests to the attention of everyone who reads the patch, and it is my hope that you will all give, and give generously.  All the current projects at schools within the city can be found <a href="http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/search.html?max=50&keywords=hyattsvil....

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