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This teacher needs your help!

Ms. Cook from Baltimore, MD is requesting art supplies through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

See what Ms. Cook is requesting

Help! Art Class in Need of Flat Surfaces for Drawing!

Help me give my students drawing boards so they can move from using old, pitted desks to smooth new work surfaces that will improve their ability to draw from life with correct perspective.

  • $970 goal

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Keep the momentum going! Make a donation to Ms. Cook for her next project!

Help Ms. Cook

Keep the momentum going! Make a donation to Ms. Cook for her next project!

My Students

After sixteen years as an English teacher and Professional Developer, I started last November at a new school in a new content area. My new school is a medium sized high school in a large, underfunded urban district that serves a high poverty student population. Over the course of the school year, I will teach approximately two hundred students in grades 10 through 12.

I have less than a year’s experience in this new content area and am moving to a school that doesn’t have many existing resources for art instruction, so I need assistance in setting up a classroom that will provide a framework for student success.

I want to give my new students the classroom and materials they need in order to build their art and literacy skills as effectively as possible. We need as much help as possible to do the best work possible!

My Project

My students are making art in a dilapidated fifty year old building at wobbly student desks with uneven surfaces. Imagine trying to draw a straight line when your work surface is chipped, gouged and slathered with bumpy blobs of dried paint! Small desks limit the size and types of art we can do. We can't use paper bigger than 12"x18" without projects hanging off the desks. Additionally, students are seated at desks all day. Being sedentary makes them restless and anxious, losing focus from their work.

I want to provide my artists with drawing boards so they have opportunities to move, to create larger works of art, to capture correct perspective through use of upright work surfaces, and to provide the kinds of choices more affluent schools have, allowing them to explore ways of creating art that work best for them as individuals.

Since starting in this new content area, my students, who've had inconsistent art education in the past (many have not had art since elementary school), have grown as artists more than I could have imagined. However, there is still so much more that they need. I want to build a more robust art program, supporting and challenging students as they grow, but our school barely has the budget for any supplies at all, let alone specialized items like the drawing boards I am requesting here.

My students are socioeconomically disadvantaged. They often come to school weighed down by trauma and loss. Having access to art education helps them develop art skills, practice critical thinking, articulate their thoughts and feelings and then channel those feelings into creating something they care about. These materials would provide more choices to allow students to do just that.

Ms. Cook Reach - Partnership School 341 Grades 9-12

Celebrate Black teachers and kids! This project supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of students are Black.

Equity Focus

This project directly supports students at a historically underfunded school. Learn more about our Equity Focus.

This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.

More about Ms. Cook

Baltimore, MD View local requests

Nearly all students from low‑income households Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more

250 students impacted 9donors

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Expand the "Where your donation goes" section below to see exactly what Ms. Cook is requesting.

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Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes
Materials Cost Quantity Total
49000-1023 - Alvin Heritage Gridded Sketch Board - 23-1/2" x 26" • Blick Art Materials $20.51 36 $738.36

Materials cost

$738.36

Vendor shipping charges

 FREE

Sales tax

 $44.30

3rd party payment processing fee

$11.08

Fulfillment labor & materials

$30.00

Total project cost

$823.74

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$145.37

Total project goal

$969.11

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

 $969.11

6 Donors

-$726.00

Donations toward project cost

-$632.10

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$93.90

match offer

-$225.46

Match offer toward project cost

-$191.64

Match offer to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$33.82

Excluded support for DonorsChoose

-$17.65

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

 $0.00

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

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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. Cook and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.

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