The cost of this photo paper, copy paperand ink is $380, including shipping and <a target="new" href="http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm" onclick="g_openWindow('http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm', 300, 800, 'fulfillwindow');return false;">fulfillment</a>.
The only thing that I have held onto from middle school is my yearbook. I always cherished my yearbooks because they preserved pleasant memories: I remember racing home after school to read what girls had scribbled in the margins of my yearbook and I still flip through my yearbook to remember the teachers who shaped who I am today. Although I have many memories from middle school that I could happily forget–I think we all do!—my yearbooks remind me of the good times. Yearbooks are probably the only place where adolescents almost always write nice things to each other. However, it wasn't until I became a teacher that I learned to appreciate yearbooks as a teaching tool.
I am currently a second year member of Teach for America teaching seventh grade Language Arts at MS 325 in the South Bronx. My school is situated in the poorest Congressional district in America (this statistic does not account for the high cost of living in New York City) and 99% of its students qualify for the free lunch program. The average student in one of my classes is two or more grade levels behind in reading and writing, and I struggle to convince them that literacy matters in “real-life.” However, they adore writing yearbook articles. Last year my Language Arts classes created yearbooks featuring their photographs and writings and the project taught them a new appreciation for writing because they had a “real-life” audience to impress. Most students in the class invested more energy perfecting their writing for the yearbook than they did on all the previous writing assignments that year combined and their writing showed it!
I would like to repeat the yearbook project on a grander scale this year but I do not know how to pay for it. Last year I financed the yearbook project out of my own pocket, yet I cannot afford to do this again. With your help I can create vibrant yearbooks for all ninety of my students using a digital camera and my home computer. I can take pictures of the students throughout the year with a friend's digital camera and print a cover and student portrait section on glossy photographic paper at home. Students will write news articles, reviews, biographies, short stories and poems, which I will Xerox and include in the yearbook. Lastly, I will bind student writing and photographs with clear plastic report covers. These yearbooks will be attractive and last a lifetime.
The total cost of the supplies mentioned above is $260.69. For this amount, you can motivate students to improve their writing and purchase a gift that will last a lifetime. I bet you will also enjoy reading copies of the yearbooks signed by ninety grateful students.
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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 Mr. W. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
