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Saturday, September 20, 2014

Classroom Wish List Items...Go Get 'Em!

Do you have things on your classroom Wish List?  Of course you do!  Why sit around wishing?  Go get 'em!!  Applying for grants is not as hard as it seems.  I have won several over the last few years.  If I can do it, you can too.

The first opportunity that you need to do NOW is through Donor's Choose.  The whole process takes under an hour, with a simple fill-in-the-fields process.  Once you decide what you want, you can shop from dozens of online vendors.  Sometimes, a corporation or famous person funds whole STATES of projects at a time, so it's best to always have one posted.  Take a look at some of my funded projects:


This is a rolling book shelf that holds guided reading books.  {Usually, it's full, with labels in the front label holders, but this picture is from when I had just unwrapped it from summer storage--blah!}


This is my set of composition books that I won, along with a huge box of Avery labels.  Every student gets a writing journal.  I use the labels for printing the prompt (on occasion).


This is guided reading table that I won a few years ago.   The donors were former students from my school who didn't even know me.  They just felt an allegiance to our school and wanted to help.


Here's my latest grant--an iPad mini.  I will use this to support my online Class DOJO behavior management system.  Now, I can log on to my DOJO app where ever my class is in the school to award points. The kids are so excited!


Another GREAT resource is Adopt-A-Classroom.  You simply go online to register your class, describing what you need. I was notified within a month that I'd been sponsored for $104 to shop online.  I bought neon paper for my monthly newsletters, disinfecting wipes for my germ warfare, and a heavy duty stapler for my student dictionaries, etc.  F-U-N!!  The supplies were mailed to me within 3 days, arriving in my school office.  I just set it up again and wrote ANOTHER grant that is waiting to be filled--yipee!!






















Another fun grant was offered through my credit union.  If you bank with a credit union, they often have grants for teachers.  I've won several from my credit union.  Here's a picture of my reading bean bags that I bought with one grant.  I also won my Elmo and Projector from them another year.  Too cool!!

Another source you might want to look into is your local Lion's Club.  We have an active Lion's Club in our city.  They generously offer grants to teachers every year.  I've won $250 worth of classroom library books from them twice.  Yep--twice!

The resources are out there, waiting for you.  There are people who want to help. It feels really good to know that there's a support system of good, generous people in our world that want to help teachers and schools.  Show them what you need.  You can do it!















6 comments:

  1. Signed up for Donor's Choose today... going to try the others too. Thanks for posting this information!

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    1. Good job, Julia! I'll look for it! Let me know how it goes! :)

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  2. Thanks, Carol! I've used Donor's Choose before, but had not thought of the others! Why do we always spend our own money? You're a great resource, thanks!! I'm going to give them a try!!

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    1. Yay! So happy that you're inspired to give it a try. We really do spend way too much of our own money in our classrooms. Time to get creative! :) I wish you luck, and will keep my eyes open for your grant proposals.

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  3. You have inspired me to give DC a try, i really want 4 ipads for my kiddos!!!

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  4. Do it, Christina!! I know you can do this! I'll keep a watch for your project! Don't forget to share it to Facebook if you can. :)

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