{"monthlySchoolDonationEnabled":true,"callToActionDisplayName":"Jim Ned High School","outOfStateSupporters":16.7,"allowSchoolLevelGiving":true,"hasFundedProjects":true,"projectGratitudeData":[{"teacherId":10112075,"projectId":10027133,"letterContent":"Thank you for helping fund this project for my theatre students. Through the generosity of members of our community and matching funds, this project raised $1,896.91 and gave our small theatre program access to technology that simply was not possible within our regular production budget.\r\n\r\nThe centerpiece of this project was four professional-quality wireless communication headsets, and I cannot adequately explain what a difference having this equipment is going to make for my technical theatre students.\r\n\r\nUntil now, our communication system has essentially been nonexistent.\r\n\r\nOur theatre program performs in a cafetorium rather than a traditional performing arts center. Our lighting board is backstage, and depending on the production, our sound technicians may be positioned out in the cafeteria. When our stage manager needed to communicate something to sound, there was no headset, walkie-talkie, or communication system available. Sometimes the only solution was for the stage manager to leave their position backstage, walk or run through the cafeteria—in view of the audience—communicate with the technician, and return backstage as quietly as possible.\r\n\r\nFor complicated productions, our students have simply had to trust one another to execute related lighting and sound cues at exactly the right moment without being able to communicate. During our previous musical, Hadestown, there were moments when having a communication system would have made coordinating those technical elements tremendously easier.\r\n\r\nMy students knew that what we were doing was not how technical theatre normally operates. In fact, they were the ones who kept asking me for headsets.\r\n\r\nThey wanted to be able to communicate like other technical crews. They wanted to learn how to call and execute a show properly. And they wanted access to the same kinds of tools they encounter when we leave our small school and travel to competition.\r\n\r\nThat last part is especially important to me.\r\n\r\nWhen my students travel for UIL One-Act Play competition, we often leave our cafetorium and walk into beautiful, state-of-the-art performing arts centers equipped with technology we simply do not have at home. At contest, students receive approximately one hour for a technical rehearsal in that unfamiliar space. That hour is precious. It is their opportunity to adapt lighting, sound, scenery, and every other technical element of our production to a new theatre.\r\n\r\nIn the past, that could also mean asking a student to use a communication system they had never been able to practice with before.\r\n\r\nI don't want their one hour of technical rehearsal to be the first time they learn how to communicate over a headset.\r\n\r\nBecause of this project, it won't be.\r\n\r\nThese four wireless headsets will allow our stage manager, lighting technician, sound technician, and backstage captain to remain connected throughout a production. Everyone can hear the same information immediately, and our stage manager can move throughout our unusual performance space when necessary without losing communication with the rest of the technical team.\r\n\r\nThey will also allow me to teach skills that go far beyond simply putting on a better show. My students can learn proper communication etiquette, how to listen and respond to cues, how departments coordinate with one another, and how a technical team functions as one unit. Instead of merely telling them how professional theatrical communication works, I can finally let them practice it.\r\n\r\nThere is a safety benefit as well. Communication no longer has to depend upon a student hurrying through a darkened cafeteria or leaving their position to physically find another technician. If something changes backstage, information can be communicated immediately.\r\n\r\nThe headsets arrived near the end of our previous school year, so we have not yet had a full production in which to use them. Our first performances of this school year are Chicago: Teen Edition on November 7 and 8, and that production will be their first major use. With microphones, music, lighting, scene transitions, backstage movement, and quick costume changes all happening around one another, I cannot think of a better production for my students to begin putting this equipment to work.\r\n\r\nThis project also allowed us to purchase a secure charging station for the four iPads previously funded for our theatre program, along with several smaller technology resources that have helped us continue updating a program that often has to make a great deal happen with very little.\r\n\r\nAs a theatre teacher, I will almost always choose spending our limited funds on giving my students a quality production experience over purchasing expensive equipment. That means resources like these can remain on a wish list for years.\r\n\r\nYou made it possible for me not to have to make that choice.\r\n\r\nMore importantly, you responded to something my students themselves had been asking for. They weren't asking for technology simply because it was new or exciting. They were asking for the opportunity to work the way theatrical technicians are expected to work outside our school.\r\n\r\nThank you for helping close that gap.\r\n\r\nThe next time my students walk into one of those beautiful performing arts centers for competition and put on a communication headset, it will no longer be unfamiliar equipment they have to learn during their one precious hour of technical rehearsal. It will be a tool they already understand because they have been able to learn, practice, make mistakes, and grow with it at home.\r\n\r\nFor a small theatre program like ours, that opportunity means more than you may realize. Thank you to every community member who donated, to everyone whose contribution helped unlock matching funds, and to everyone who believed that my students deserved access to the tools that will help prepare them for wherever theatre takes them next.","fullyFundedDate":1776203806590,"projectUrl":"project/professional-communication-for-student-t/10027133/","projectTitle":"Professional Communication for Student Theatre and Technical Production","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Martin","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp10112075_orig.jpg?crop=1:1,smart&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1760012092064","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/brittany-renae-martin"},{"teacherId":10112075,"projectId":9536987,"letterContent":"Thank you so much for supporting our project, Stage to Screen: Empowering Theatre Students with iPads. These iPads arrived just one week before the opening of our fall production of Macbeth, and the difference was truly night and day. Almost immediately, our technical theatre students were able to work more efficiently and confidently backstage. Digital scripts allowed cues to be updated in real time and kept consistent across the entire crew. My stage manager had a clearer, more reliable way to call the show, and one student with special needs especially benefited from having live script updates that helped her follow along independently. Instead of juggling bulky binders backstage, students could wear the iPads securely at their waist, keeping scripts compact, accessible, and hands free during the performance.\r\n\r\nFor our performance students, the iPads transformed the rehearsal process. Students recorded rehearsals and scenes, then watched them back to identify areas for improvement—much like athletes reviewing game film. This helped students become more reflective, focused, and confident performers. The iPads were also invaluable in preparing students for Texas Thespians competitions, particularly for music playback and performance preparation. Compared to Chromebooks, the iPads offered better sound quality, smoother playback, and more reliable access to creative apps—tools that truly matter in the performing arts.\r\n\r\nOur design students are just beginning to tap into the full potential of these devices. Set designers are using digital drafting and presentation tools, while marketing and costume designers are creating visuals in apps like Procreate and Canva. Even my middle school students have benefited by learning the foundations of technical theatre and backstage collaboration using professional level tools. Many of my students do not have access to this kind of technology outside of school, and these iPads are helping bridge that gap—giving every student the opportunity to create, collaborate, and see themselves as artists and professionals. Thank you for believing in our students and for supporting arts education in such a meaningful way.","fullyFundedDate":1758870479323,"projectUrl":"project/stage-to-screen-empowering-theatre-stud/9536987/","projectTitle":"Stage to Screen: Empowering Theatre Students with iPads","teacherDisplayName":"Ms. Martin","teacherPhotoUrl":"https://storage.donorschoose.net/dc_prod/images/teacher/profile/orig/tp10112075_orig.jpg?crop=1:1,smart&width=272&height=272&fit=bounds&auto=webp&t=1760012092064","teacherClassroomUrl":"classroom/brittany-renae-martin"}],"pageName":"schoolpage_10096","usesDonorsChoose":true,"infoPageType":"school","demographicsInfo":{"numStudents":454,"numTeachers":33,"percentFrplEligible":14,"percentAsian":0,"percentBlack":0,"percentWhite":81,"percentIndigenous":0,"percentLatinx":14,"showFreeAndReducedPriceLunchInfo":true,"showDemographicsInfo":true,"sourceTooltipString":"the National Center for Education Statistics","percentHawaiianImputed":0,"percentMultiracialImputed":2,"gradesServed":"9 - 12","studentTeacherRatio":"13.8:1","demographicsDataSource":"MDR School","equityFocus":false,"titleOne":false,"metroType":"RURAL","ncesMetroType":"RURAL_DISTANT"},"inStateSupporters":83.3,"schoolId":10096,"financialInfo":null,"twitterShareText":"Learn more about Jim Ned High School on @DonorsChoose:","schoolName":"Jim Ned High School","canonicalPageUrl":"schools/texas/jim-ned-consolidated-independent-school-district/jim-ned-high-school/10096"}