Local teachers win's $8,000 from Walmart
Here is Alta Loma Junior High teacher Jan Creasey's entry to Walmart's "Write to Change the Classroom" essay:
Junior High students have hearts the size of the moon. Junior high students are energetic, giving, enthusiastic, warm, and generous. They want to be involved with their friends, to gather and share and create. They live to give. Currently, there are no resources on the Alta Loma Junior High campus where students can gather to learn to sew, a very useful, practical, but seemingly forgotten skill. How could Wal-Mart help to change this? Wal-Mart's "Write to Improve the Classroom" school supply funds would be used to start a School Sewing Center. Sewing machines, cutting boards and scissors, and irons and ironing boards would be purchased. Parents and community businesses would donate the fabric. Students would give of their creativity and time! Alta Loma Junior High, with Wal-Mart's help to fund the Sewing Center, could provide an opportunity for students to learn to sew and learn the importance of reaching out to others. Many organizations dedicated to helping children in need could benefit from the students' handiwork. For example, Project Linus provides blankets to seriously ill children who are hospitalized.
The Craft Hope Project, whose motto is "Seeds of Hope, one stitch at a time", serves the Casa Bernabe Orphanage in Nicaragua, which accepts quilts, blankets, dolls, clean handkerchiefs, and pillowcases for their children. Alta Loma students will have the chance to research these and other organizations, deciding which would best benefit from their gifts of love.
How will the money be spent? 15 Sewing machines ($150 ea): $ 2250, 15 Rotary cutters and mats ($60 ea): $900, 15 Pair Sewing Scissors ($20 ea): $300, 5 Irons and Ironing Boards ($40 ea): $200. $3650 Sewing machines. Scissors. Ironing boards. These might not be among the first things you think of when "school supplies" are mentioned; however, they could be! The life skills that students learn by planning and completing a sewing project are just that-- life-long-skills. Our schools could provide opportunities that develop life-long-skills, and Wal-Mart's support for a Sewing Center at Alta Loma Junior High would do this. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.
Here is Abraham Elementary teacher Melissa Galvan entry to Walmart's "Write to Change the Classroom" essay:
"To Whom It May Concern: Every school day I am blessed to walk into my classroom and be charged with educating my students. I try my best to lead by example and learn as much as I can, show my students my love for them and learning, and hopefully, in turn, inspire them to love learning. As it has become apparent in these economically challenging times, we have to make due with what we have. We still have a lot to be thankful for: our families, friends, freedom, and our minds. I try to teach my students that if they believe, they will achieve! And no matter what is happening in the economy, they have the ability to control how successful they are in their lives. For some of them the idea that they can control their success is hard to believe. Many of the families at my school struggle in the best of times. Therefore, the problems with California's budget cuts and increasing jobless rates only intensify the extreme hardships that many of them already face. As a child coming from hardship myself, school was my "soft place to fall." No matter what was going on at home, I was able to come to school and throw myself into my studies. I was able to overcome difficulties, and I strive to inspire them to do the same. I was lucky enough to have great, enthusiastic teachers growing up, and as I see it, my students are lucky enough to have me. Someone that truly cares about them and would like to help them become successful life-long learners.
Having the following materials to help enrich the lives and learning of my students would be a blessed gift:
Organizational:
- 34 1" binders
- 34 sets of binder dividers
- 34 pencil boxes
- 34 three-pronged, pocket folders (poly)
- sheet covers
Technological:
- 1 or 2 basic laptops for checkout to students to take home.
- 10 2GB flash drives to check out to students
- 2 laptop bags/cases
- blank cds and dvds for students to burn their projects onto
- printer ink(black and color)
- computer microphone for students to add voiceovers to imovies, etc...
- 1 or 2 digital cameras
- sd card(s) for cameras
General supplies:
- colored pencils
- electric pencil sharpener
- printer/copy paper
- water colors
- several backpacks (for students that are not able to secure one)
Other:
- Educational board/card games for rainy days
- P.E. equipment such as: hula hoops, dodgeball, baskettballs, volleyball, volleyball net, soccer ball, orange cones, jump ropes, ball pump, excercise mat(s), stop watches, etc...
Thank you for your consideration, and more importantly, the opportunity to even apply for this contest. Your gifts will truly change the lives of many children. God bless you all!"
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