As a teacher in a public school system, I’m no stranger to shrinking budgets. While the school systems in the DC Metro area are taking budget hits, districts around the country are too. Teachers have always dipped into personal finances to fund their classrooms but are having to do so more now because state and local budgets have drastically cut the amount of money for school programs and materials.
Unfortunately personal funds only go so far. An educator simply can’t purchase a class set of textbooks, fund computers and textbooks for a computer class as needed by a high school in a DC suburb, or posters, microscopes, or science texts for a teacher in rural Mississippi.
Whether you are a room parent, take on a leadership role in the PTA-like organization, or volunteer in the classroom (or behind the scenes like me), your time is appreciated but if you want to go the extra mile, visit these sites that allow you to help teachers obtain funds needed to support classroom instruction.
DonorsChoose.org– On this site, teachers submit project ideas that they hope will be funded by you! As a parent, I love DonorsChoose.org because it is incredibly easy to use to find a classroom project to support. Start by clicking on You Give and then use the links on the right side of the screen to search by state or keyword to find a project that interests you. On the site you will find proposals from classroom teachers that list the exact materials that are needed to fund their project. Select a project and donate to help bring resources to students in struggling classrooms. Your donation is tax deductible and will be given directly to the teacher who is requesting funds. No middleman and no skimming off the top. Every penny of your donation will be put in the hands of a very grateful teacher!
WeAreTeachers.com is an online community/social networking place for teachers interested in technology and sharing resources. The site is organized into microcommunities according to subject area and some microcommunities currently have microgrants where teachers can submit ideas that are voted on by others members of the community to obtain $200 and a Flip camera to document their project. This site seems like a great way for teachers to use the power of social networking within a community to get some extra money for classrooms.
No compensation was received for mentioning either site.
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Original post by Tech Savvy Mama
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