What I'm Loving Wednesday

 

Here's what I'm loving today--

I'm loving that one of the new teachers on my team is inspiring me  to keep looking and planning ahead.  We are both planners.  The only difference is, she takes action on it all and gets it done on the spot!  I'm a thinker---and sometimes spend too much time thinking instead of doing.  We are working together and getting prepared for the weeks ahead.  It feels so good to leave school on a Friday afternoon with everything already prepared for the next week. 

I'm loving that I got accepted to the STAR Teacher Conference in October.  I worked on the application this summer and just got word this week!  More details to come!

I'm loving my Five Senses unit that I am teaching right now.  It brings me such joy to see the children experience their senses one at a time.  Today we smelled different items without using any other sense.  Some of the scents were peanut butter, mint, cinnamon, and popcorn. 

I'm loving that I have gotten THREE Donor's Choose projects funded already this year.  I am so grateful for generous donors in support of public education.  I will work with my students next week on writing Thank You notes. 

I'm loving that a loooonnngg weekend is coming up!  This teacher needs to catch up on some sleep!!

So much to be loving today!! 

Link up with Jamie here and tell me---

What are you loving today?

Donors Choose

Please Please Please....tell me that you know about Donors Choose!

This is a website that I have been using since 2006.  I have successfully written over 25 grant proposals that total over $6000 worth of materials.  Just from this website!

Hard to believe, right? 
Must be really hard right?
Must take a lot of time, right?

No, no, and no!

It is by far the easiest grant proposal I have ever written! 

You begin by creating a title for your project and then shopping online!  Sometimes, I do the shopping before I create the title!  What you ask for can range from water bottles to notebooks to sets of books and classroom furniture. 

If you have a classroom need and are tired of spending so much of your own money, this is the site for you! 

When you're ready to shop, you are sent directly to the vendor's website so all products and prices are well represented. My favorite is Lakeshore.

What sets this site apart from all the rest is their effort to advertise FOR you! The staff at Donor's Choose works hard to make connections with a variety of companies that will partly fund grant proposals.

 A number of my grant proposals started off on their site already half way funded by Perishing Square, Piggly Wiggly and even The Hootie and The Blowfish Arts Foundation.

I try to keep as many proposals active as I'm allowed.  And, I try to have one in each subject are too.  You never know what a donor may be looking for. 

And, speaking of these donors, they are REAL people!  So, in your write-up, you can "speak" honestly about your needs without educatioinal jargon and fluff.  The donors are regular,everyday people that just want to give what they can to public education.

I hope you'll visit the site today and get a project started!

Happy Grant Writing!