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This teacher needs your help!

Ms. Pokorny from Elyria OH is requesting classroom basics through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

See what Ms. Pokorny is requesting

Building a Thinking Classroom!

Help me give my students large whiteboard surfaces to practice collaborative discovery learning so they can prepare to be innovators in their future fields.

  • Be the first to donate!
  • $800 still needed

expires Aug 11

  • Be the first to donate!
  • $800 still needed
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My Project

Two years ago I took on the task of converting my high school mathematics classroom into a thinking classroom after reading the book "Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Grades K-12: 14 Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning" by Peter Liljedah. The methods in the book aim to enhance students' problem solving abilities while strengthening their capacity for collaboration, perseverance, and taking risks. These are all skills that will benefit them in the future regardless of the fields they choose to go into, and these are also all skills they cannot just Google how to do (unlike curriculum items), they must practice them in real time in order to build them up.

In my efforts to make my students stronger independent learners, I put the strategies learned from this book into practice, and one of them is having students explore new material in small groups, on large, vertical, non-permanent surfaces.

In other words - they should work on whiteboards that are large enough to be propped up and seen from all around the room. After two years of trialing this it has gone extremely well with students naturally picking up the ability to mobilize knowledge around the room themselves and relying less and less on me to just hand them the information. They have never ceased to amaze me in their abilities to make connections and discoveries without me holding their hands through it and I am finding more and more how much they crave this collaborative work and the opportunities to showcase their brilliance.

For the past two years I have utilized cost effective and homemade whiteboards but they are falling apart now as they were only a temporary solution so I am looking for something more durable and permanent for them to be able to work with.

Ms. Pokorny will only receive her materials if this project is fully funded by August 11.

Ms. Pokorny
Never Before Funded Grades 9-12

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TEACHERS, FEELING INSPIRED?

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Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes
Materials Cost Quantity Total
MasterVision Wood Frame Magnetic Dry Erase Board - 24" x 36" • Blick Art Materials $43.97 8 $351.76
Magnetic Dry Erase Graph X-Y Coordinate Grid Whiteboard Sheet with Improved CleanWipe Surface by AgilePacks 19" x 19" for Classrooms, Math, Graphing Plus Magnetic Cleaning Cloth • Amazon Business $35.99 8 $287.92

Materials cost

$639.68

Vendor shipping charges

 FREE

Sales tax

 $0.00

3rd party payment processing fee

$9.60

Fulfillment labor & materials

$30.00

Total project cost

$679.28

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$119.87

Total project goal

$799.15

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

 $799.15

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

 $799.15

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Pokorny and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.

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