Donors Choose-Why I Love It!

A show of hands, how many of us use our own money for school supplies or classroom needs? Yup, all of us! Well I found a fantastic website that is all about helping teachers help their students!

Wow, half the school year has gone by and I haven't posted! This school year has been a busy one for me. I've been with this school district three years now and every year I've had a new teaching assignment, not to mention lots of changes in our district. Team teaching has been an experience. I love the teacher I'm working with and the kids are great. Teaching English Language Arts and Reading, not my favorite though. Oh and how I miss teaching math and science, especially science!

One change for me this year was not getting my usually iPad set. The previous two years, I had a set of five. I got them at the beginning of the school year and used them as a literacy and math station. This year I didn't receive them until much later and there were only two. Made it kind of hard for me to incorporate. Then I found Donors Choose! It's like GoFundMe but for teachers.

I have tried other websites that are similar but they seemed difficult to use and I didn't have much success. Donors Choose is so simple. You create an account and cancan then create a project that must be approved first. The process is simple and it explains everything you need to do step by step. What I liked about it was that you can actually "go shopping" and pick out what you need from vendors that work with Donors Choose to give teachers special prices. Vendors include best buy, scholastic, lakeshore, quill, school specialty, and others. Once it's uploaded, you have a few months to have your project funded. You can set up emails to send to family and friends and can promote on social media.

I chose three tablets, three cases, three headphones with microphones and three 2 year protection plans. My parents and a friend donated which were matched during a promotion from a company that was donating at the time. About 2 months went by and I had started slacking on promoting my project. I got in email in late February that an anonymous donor had funded the rest of the project, almost $900! My students and I were so excited!

Once your project is funded, you log into your account and accept your items. You will also be required to send a thank you package. Some donors will choose for you to send thank you cards so those will need to be written by students. You will also be required to post pictures of the students with your items. Donors Choose provides permission slips in English and Spanish for parents to sign. The last thing you will be required to do is write a teacher thank you letter which will post online on the project page. That's it! Simple, easy, and the best part is knowing that there are so many wonderful people out there that want to help.

I hope more teachers will use this wonderful website to connect with donors that want to help our students. I had an awesome experience with Donors Choose and have already thought of a new project to post soon: flexible seating! I've found wobble chairs, beanbag chairs, and sit spots that I think would be awesome for my kiddos. I can't wait to get this project started!

I hope my teacher friends will create their own projects or if you're inspired to help teachers, I hope you donate to find a project. Every little bit helps!