Bloggers helping public schools

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Since first hearing of DonorsChoose.org, I’ve been a fan of the charity, which allows public school teachers to outline small-scale projects online. And then -- you guessed it -- donors choose to support what they want, with the amount that they want. Above, Mr. Palmer, a New Jersey music teacher, poses with his students and the band instruments purchased with DonorsChoose funds.

This year, DonorsChoose has launched its second blogger challenge, in which bloggers ask readers to contribute to projects they’ve selected. (Don’t worry -- I’m not going to ask you for money; the L.A. Times has its own robust literacy program.) A couple of bookish types are already on board, having sussed out book-related projects to support.

The litblog Baby Got Books wants to help a fifth-grade teacher at an inner-city Atlanta school create book clubs for her students. ‘The 4 person collaborative clubs will choose their own assignments, discuss their reading (using their class-learned strategies!) and hone teamwork skills,’ she writes. ‘They will practice their reading, get some much needed social time, and cultivate a love of reading for pleasure -- so that they can continue to be successful beyond fifth grade.’ She’s hoping the Goosebumps and Narnia series will do the trick.

Michigan’s Motown Writers Network is supporting two projects, one about reading and the other about writing. In the former -- Books That Look Like Me -- an elementary school teacher writes, ‘My students need books. Lots of books. Books that show African American children playing sports and having adventures, fantasies and their history. We need books of poetry that show the beauty of people of color.’ In the latter, a fourth-grade teacher wants to get special journals for her students that have both lined and blank pages, so the kids can write and draw. Maybe the next great graphic novelist will find his or her pen in her class.

There are more than 2,500 book-related projects at DonorsChoose. If you’ve ever wondered how you could add graphic novels to a school’s library, help integrate science and literature or support a kids’ vampire book club, now’s your chance.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: DonorsChoose.org