Entries tagged with donate

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I guess he's happy inside

Got a little packet of thank-you notes from a Donorschoose classroom that I gave some maps and globes. Quoth one kid, "I am internally [sic] greatful [sic]."

He goes on to say, "Now I no longer get a headache, because I'm having fun while learning."

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donate,
education

DonorsChoose

I gave to this proposal for a Carson high school to get copies of "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" for the honors and AP literature students. There's just $125 to go to get it fully funded, so do what you can, or find some other worthy project. (PS thank you Wasserman Foundation for your matching gift)

I also finished off a modest request from a quasi-local elementary school for pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. Freaking pencils. Okay, so the teacher splurged and put some colored pencils on the shopping list, but still. Half the projects on Donorschoose seem to be for digital projectors and iPads, while then there are teachers trying to get paper and pencils.

"Also, Dude, colored pencils is not the preferred nomenclature. African American pencils, please."

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Donorschoose letters

Got my thank-you packet from my latest 'philanthropic' effort to put aliens and Roald Dahl into the hands of impressionable schoolchildren. Selected pull-quotes from the kids:

My favorite character was charlie because he was mean

This book is cool because They Sneack into the aliens houes and find there real teacher was frosend.

My faveret part is when the girl hits a boy in the face, also when the alien kidnap the kids.

What I like about this book is the part when the people over 12 years old will die.

My work here is done.

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Apples & Aliens

Love Kaia
One of the thank-you notes from DonorsChoose

Always neat to get the thank-you notes from DonorsChoose. This was from a project called "Cooking with Fairy Tales". The kids had been experimenting with apples and apple sauce as one of the first projects, and sent art and notes along. Dr. Pookie and I liked this one in particular due to the unusual green and purple one-eyed aliens, which look like they should have been produced in Milano's recent awesome-sauce experiment teaching children to create religious icons of the Great Old Ones.
However, evidence from other artists suggests that the green and purple dudes are actually balalaikas or some similar stringed instrument. Anyway, to up your Awww quotient...

Thank you for giveing our class money for cooking supplies. I had fun. We made apple sauce. We read Snow White and the 7 drawfs. We ate apples. And we ate red yellow and green apples. We looked at the apples.

We read Snow Whie and it was fun but it was a little scary.

We cut apples with knives and we read Snow White.

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Revenge of the California State Parks

So Prop 21 didn't pass, but the California State Parks Foundation (not the parks themselves, but a nonprofit that supports them) has a benefit this weekend featuring Hollywood films shot in California Parks.
California State Parks starring in Hollywood Films

Saturday's at Paramount Studios with
Return of the Jedi (already sold out, apparently) with Q&A with Mark Hamill
Race your speeder through the redwoods parks.
M*A*S*H (both film and a few TV episodes) both shot in Malibu Creek (you can hike out to the set, but there's not much but a rusted jeep there) Elliott Gould and Father Mulcahy in attendance.

Sunday's at Fox with
Spartacus (partially shot at Hearst Castle)
Planet of the Apes (1968) partially shot at Malibu Creek and Point Dume.

The site also has a nice list of the parks, detailing the movies they've been in. I've been to Egypt! Or at least its body double for the Mummy at Red Rock Canyon.

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yay Townsend Press

Educational publisher Townsend Press has donated $1 million to DonorsChoose.org, which helps ordinary folks like you and me help out teachers in the public schools, by donating money for supplies. The money from Townsend is being used to partially fund all of the book-related projects down to under $100, making it easier to get these projects fully funded.

Entry tags:

donate,
education

Speaking of teachers...

A ways back, I funded a DonorsChoose project for a teacher to buy Frankenstein, Dracula, and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde for his students. His project was all about how "Monsters can teach us about ourselves and our history." So in my donor note I wrote, "As a Monster-American, I applaud efforts to teach children more about our kind."

I enjoyed the teacher's reply:
"Hi Mike! Monster-Americans are this country's great unsung heroes and deserving of understanding and acceptance just like everyone else. Thanks for your generosity! Mr. D"

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donate,
education

Introduce little kids to Dracula and Lovecraft

I seem to be posting like crazy today, but this one's at least in a good cause. I've updated my DonorsChoose list of projects to aid classrooms:

Check it out.

The "Classic Graphic Novels for Middle School Students" project looks more like they'll sit on a shelf rather than be part of the curriculum, but it would put two copies of "Graphic Classics, Volume 10: Horror Classics Edgar Allan Poe, Saki, Jack London, H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith" within a few feet of small children!

Other projects put Bram Stoker, HG Wells, or Greek mythology in the classrooms. Art boards for sketching downtown LA, croquet sets for physics... I can satisfy all your giving needs. Or if I can't, you can search the site for projects you like even more.

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donate

Ooh... now with shiny graphics

And a big thank-you to Mr. Richard Becker (who is not afraid to be named by name) who has charitably helped to decrease children's fear of algebra and increase their fear of scary things.

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donate

Donors Choose Blogging Challenge

I've made my own Challenge as part of Donors Choose. I've added a few teacher-projects for your benevolent perusal. Please go have a look and help a teacher or two.

--Mike