Just last month, the Kindle Classroom Project reached 700 Kindles, and just a few minutes ago, the KCP added its 700th book.
The KCP’s 700th book is The Rose Society, by Marie Lu.
Congratulations to Grace (Oakland, CA) for requesting it! (Nearly all books in the Kindle Library are requested by students.)
I’d like to thank KCP students for requesting excellent books and KCP supporters for donating the funds to make it possible to purchase those excellent books.
Let’s keep going!
Ninth grader in #Oakland confided that he'd never finished a book in his life. That changes soon. He's reading Tyrell by @coebooth. #kcp
— Mark Isero (@iserotope) March 5, 2016
Go ahead, follow me on Twitter! Or donate to the KCP!
Brittany Flynn | Oakland, California
I am just starting out as a KCP teacher, so my kids are just getting started on their Kindles. However, it has been great to see how quickly they’ve latched on and gotten excited about their new devices. They are reading during down time in classes, and I am particularly excited to see a lot of my students benefiting from the features that Kindles offer. My students have IEPs (individualized education programs) and can have challenges in reading. Features such as the dictionary feature as well as audiobooks really augment students’ ability in and enjoyment of reading.
Ed. Note: Brittany is a KCP teacher in Oakland.
“I’m grateful for the education”
Monday, 2/1 – 2:45 pm
They are falling off. Four of 15 advisees are out today. J is putting her mother into hospice care, but the others are just taking the day off, I guess. They likely feel they accomplished something huge by getting through their portfolio presentations, so they’ve given themselves a three-day weekend. They don’t realize that it only picks up from here. English, AP Bio, Advanced Leadership, senior exhibitions, student aid applications, scholarships: There’s still so much to do. It’s not time to celebrate just yet.
Monday, 2/8 – 8:45 am
J’s mother died Friday morning. Friday evening, J attended the orientation sleepover at the university she was accepted to and wants to attend. I know why she went: she wants to show the school how committed she is. She wants to make a good impression so they will give her the full ride she needs to attend the college of her dreams. She wants to think about her future and forget about her loss. She’s coping the only way she knows how.
Friday, 2/12 – 9:30 am
C isn’t here today. He hasn’t been here all week, and that’s not good. I talked to him Tuesday afternoon, when it became clear that he will receive an F for Psychology last semester, since he hasn’t finished his contract for the incomplete grade he received. Nonplussed is the word I would use to describe his response. Perhaps cavalier would work as well. He texts later, though, finally considering what an F might do to his 3.9 GPA and the college acceptances he’s counting on receiving. He’s in the penitent phase of the semester. We’ll see how long he stays there.
Monday, 2/22 1:45 pm
I drop off a care package of nine books to a sophomore girl who’s never been in the library. I subbed for one of her classes, where she walked in 25 minutes late with a full bag of McDonald’s, which she proceeded to eat as if she was in the cafeteria and English class was long over. I didn’t argue with her because SUBBING! I was nice and welcoming and made a joke that she appreciated. She asked me, “Aren’t you the library lady? Will you help me find a book?” I responded with a watered-down version of the back-handspring I usually do, and she agreed to meet me in the library at lunch, since she wasn’t hungry anyway. Perfect!
We didn’t have much time to meet, so she told me the kinds of books she is interested in: mysteries, high-school drama stuff, and stories of social injustice.
“Perfect! Those are the Three Pillars of The Leadership High School Library!” I told her.
I pick out some books and deliver them to her during the last 5 minutes of history, just as she is finishing dessert. She gushes her appreciation and pleasure at having an entire bag of books to look through.
Reading! It’s what’s for dinner!
Friday, 2/26 8:30 pm
I spent much of my day refining a letter of recommendation for one of my advisees. I had written one for him before, but his mother asked that I make some changes: “Please emphasize that my son is a Black boy and that he’s lived in poverty for most of his life.”
I am embarrassed. I’ve always prided myself on my letters of recommendation. I take my writing seriously, and I think I am pretty good with turns of phrase and metaphors. I don’t lay it on too thick, but I challenge myself to come up with innovative ways of describing students’ gifts and personalities. Overall, I’m a pretty good writer.
This mother, though, has helped me see that this letter is not about my writing skills. It’s about getting her son the scholarship he needs. I can’t be futzing around with a thesaurus and patting myself on the back because I use a word like “plucky” for someone who really gets on my nerves. And I can’t shy away from describing students’ real-life situations. “T is intellectually curious and motivated” is fine for plenty of students—but not for T. He’s brilliant and autistic and easily unnerved and extremely literal and laser-focused and big and Black and poor and he’s grown up in a society that has normalized the homicide of young Black men—and he’s survived. And now he’s going to college and he needs help.
I didn’t want to call T poor or Black, and I didn’t want to name the violence that surrounds him. I wanted to write my little letter and hope he gets a scholarship and feel good about how I helped. T’s mom called me out, as she’s had to do with many people, I’m sure, and explain, yet again, what it is people of privilege can do to help. I’m sorry she had to be the one to explain it to me, but I’m grateful for the education.
Ed. note: Michele Godwin is in her 15th year of teaching high school. She’s back at Leadership High School, where she taught from 2001 to 2008. An English teacher by training and experience, Michele has changed her focus to build a library for Leadership. In addition to her fundraising and library organizing, she is an 12th grade adviser. These are her musings from the past few weeks. Please donate so Michele can buy more books!
The Kindle Classroom Project has reached 700 Kindles. Here is Kindle #700, donated by Dan (New York, NY). Thank you!
It seems like just yesterday that the program passed 600 Kindles! (And here’s the post from when the KCP hit 100 Kindles.)
The Kindles keep streaming in — 47 so far in February, 47 last month, making that 94 Kindles in the first 55 days of 2016.
The previous record for February was 14 Kindles, set last year.
I just checked my donation records, and 59 individuals have contributed the 94 Kindles so far this year. Some people donate multiple Kindles, and one sustaining donor took advantage of a recent $39.99 Amazon sale for new Kindle Fires — and purchased 27.
Kindles are arriving from everywhere — Virginia, California, Missouri, Washington, Texas, Illinois, New Jersey, Maine, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Wisconsin, New York, Arizona, Ohio, and a number of additional states.
Nearly all donations begin with generous people making a simple Google search about how they can donate their used Kindle. I continue to appreciate the trust that every donor gives me to take care of their Kindle and give it to a student.
What next? The obvious question is, When’s 1,000? It’s impossible to say, right? No one really knows. But my thinking is that it’s not entirely crazy to suggest that maybe the 1,000-Kindle barrier could be reached by the end of 2016.
Even if the current pace continues, there are many talented teachers in San Francisco and Oakland who are ready to become part of the KCP. In fact, I received three new applications today. The program is growing quickly, and as long as I have hours in the day, I’ll keep processing these Kindles and getting them out to students who are eager to read.
The KCP believes in choice and access. All young people should be able to read the books that speak to them, wherever and whenever they like.