As I’ve written here before, I am finishing up my second year at an elementary school in Springfield, Massachusetts. According to the Massachusetts Department of Education profile, 93% of the students at my school are low-income, 95% high needs, and for 30%, English is not their first language.

This is the first year the school library has been open in quite a few years, and these students love their new library. They often stop me in the hall to share with me how much they enjoyed their library book or to tell me how excited they are about their upcoming visit to the library. It’s been a joy to watch them develop as readers and to see some of them get hooked on a series or fall in love with a particular book.

I have two Donors Choose projects active right now to try to get funding so I can give every student in grades PreK-2 a new book at the end of the school year. In June I plan to share with them different summer reading programs, and I would like to kick off their summer reading with a new book.

Donors Choose is an organization that matches teachers’ projects with donors. I’ve had nine projects funded in the last two years, all for library books, and it has made a huge difference for my collection. I don’t usually ask for personal donations, but this summer reading project is particularly important to me.

If you’d like to make a donation, you can click here to give to the PreK and kindergarten students and here for grades 1 and 2 (click on the blue “Give” button when you get to the site). Thank you in advance, and I assure you your contribution will make some young child in Springfield very happy.

April 20, 2022 at 08:25PM Janet Dawson