More Kindles have been donated in the last three months than in any other similar stretch in the history of the Kindle Classroom Project.
Since Nov. 1, 92 Kindles have arrived at the KCP. That’s one a day!
Please take a look at this chart:
It’s normal to have a holiday jump. Amazon usually comes out with a new Kindle model before Thanksgiving, which people buy for themselves or their loved ones. This means that generous people look for good homes for their used devices. Last year, 56 Kindles were donated between from November through January. But 92 is most the KCP has ever received by far.
Getting so many Kindles has been really fun, and I’m getting better at processing them quickly and getting them ready for students. Because the volume is so high, I hope to open another Kindle classroom in the next few weeks.
Again, I’d like to thank all the generous people who donate their Kindles, contribute money for books, and leave kind messages of support for the Kindle Classroom Project. Although the program is still small, it’s becoming something, and I’m hopeful to see it grow.
Encouraging students to read isn’t rocket science, but it takes a few important ingredients: (1) a strong and committed teacher, (2) kind and curious students, (3) lots of good books.
I’m happy to report that everything is coming together for the Kindle Classroom Project. Students are reading and reading and reading. Thanks, donors!
Here are just a few books that Kathleen‘s students in San Francisco finished today:
Bronxwood, by Coe Booth
Erik’s Review: The book is the best book I have read so far. It is so realistic, and the details are so good that it made me picture everything and have a feeling of how it was happening.
Everything about the book is crazy good. It’s funny, sad, emotional, romantic, and addicting. I would recommend the book to everyone. It’s such a great book; I don’t think anyone would not like it.
American Sniper, by Chris Kyle
Brandon’s Review: I can say that this is one of my favorite books that I have read, mostly because of how in depth Chris Kyle was while writing the book. Reading the book brought out a sort of patriotism because of everything he did for our country. All in all, I really enjoyed reading this book. I would recommend the book to people that like war stories or just want to learn about the U.S. Military.
(Brandon requested this book just a few weeks ago.)
Dope Sick, by Walter Dean Myers
Lazarus’s Review: Dope Sick is one of the best books I have ever read. Me personally, I don’t read books how I’m suppose to, but when I started reading this book, I couldn’t stop. The struggles the main character went through are similar to people I know. The book was about a young African American male who gets himself in a lot of trouble by hanging with the wrong person. One thing I didn’t like about the book was the ending because I felt like the author should have put more into it. Besides the ending, I really enjoyed reading this book. I would recommend young African American males to read this book because it tells you the real deal about life.
Street Life: Poverty, Gangs, and a Ph.D., by Victor Rios
Alex’s Review: This book deserves 5 stars. This is an autobiography/memoir. It talks about Rios’s experience in the streets of Oakland, California. By the age of 13, he already joined a gang. He grew up in a really poor family where he was surrounded by crime and murder in his neighborhood. Later in Rios’s life, he decides to switch his life around, complete college, and help out kids who go through the same things he used to as a kid. He now has helped many people change their lives. Now I’m going to read his second book Punished.
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I’m very pleased with the work that Kathleen and her students are doing. As Kathleen says, reading promotes “a life of the mind.” Also, where reading is, there are stories, and there is joy.
If you’d like to get involved, please consider making a $10 donation so that I can honor the next student’s book request. There is a cute little button on the top right corner of the blog.
Also: If you’d like to leave comments for any or all of the four students, please do so! I’m sure they’d love to hear from you, especially if you’ve read the books they’ve read.
Monday, 1/5/15 – 9:15 am
We are in our beautiful new building!
Today, our first day back from winter break, is our first day in the new space, and it feels amazing. We started off with a ribbon cutting, followed by some words from our principal, a former student, and a city supervisor. So exciting! The kids act like it’s nothing, but I think they feel good in this space, with new furniture and clean walls. And a cafeteria! And a dance studio! And A LIBRARY (still under construction, though)! We have all the things a high school should have, and it feels great. Our message: you deserve this school. Every kid deserves a nice school!
Wednesday, 1/14 – 12:30 pm
Winter break feels like a million years ago. We are back in the thick of school, and the long semester looms ahead. My students are acting out a bit, stressed about the pressures of junior year and how quickly half of it has gone by already. I remind them that we need to work on SAT prep, and that it’s time to start writing their personal statements. The imminence of college and young adulthood weighs on them, and they are cracking a bit.
I’ve seen this before; for many of these kids, LHS is their home away from home. For the several in foster care and group homes, and for the handful who are homeless, our school is the only safe space they have. While they look forward to the freedom of adulthood, they hang on to the comfort and safety of high school life. They revert back to ninth grade behaviors, then scream when they’re treated accordingly. It’s a tough time for everyone.
Thursday, 1/22 – 3:45 pm Today was tutorial day in advisory, where students work on homework and get help from their teachers. My job is to give them help when they ask and remind them to stay focused on work. At the beginning of the year, I would get extremely frustrated if they were off task or being loud. I’ve relaxed a lot, and they have improved. Now I try to bring some joy to the situation, and use the looseness of the time to connect with them individually. It’s my favorite day of the week.
Friday, 1/23 – 12:15 pm
A wonderful surprise! The LHS library has received a donation for EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS! What a wonderful surprise! That means we are well on our way to our $60,000 goal. Such great news.
It’s time to make my LHS Library Donation Thermometer. I’ve always wanted to make one of those!
Ed. note: Michele Godwin is in her 14th 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 11th grade adviser. These are her musings from the past few weeks, her sixth contribution to TEACHER VOICES. Please donate so Michele can buy more books!
English teacher Angela’s 10th graders at City Arts and Technology High School in San Francisco like to read books with their friends and talk about them.
For example:
4 students are reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie,
4 students are reading Speak, by Louise Halse Anderson,
7 students are reading Boxers and Saints, by Gene Luen Yang.
This is where Kindles shine.
With physical books, these 15 titles would cost about $250. With Kindles, following Amazon’s terms and conditions, these books cost about $40.
Better yet: The Kindle e-books never get lost or worn. Their pages and covers stay intact. There’s no need for contact paper or library binding. Angela doesn’t need to beg her students to return the books. They’re all safe up in the Amazon cloud.
This also means that Angela can spend more time talking with her students about what they’re reading, rather than worrying about raising funds to replace lost or worn books. She can push her students to more challenging books. Her students, in turn, can spend more time enjoying reading and discussing their books instead of waiting for the most-popular titles to become available.
Sure, Kindles don’t let you flip pages and curl up in a sun-lit reading nook. There’s no book smell or dogeared corners.
But Kindles get books in the hands of students, fast and en masse. As Kathleen says to her juniors at Leadership High School in San Francisco, a Kindle is like “a book store in your backpack, except you don’t have to pay.”
That’s because of the many generous donors who contribute to the Kindle Classroom Project. Thank you, donors!
If you have not yet donated to the KCP, I challenge you to do so. We all know the power of reading. It’s self-discovery, it’s mindfulness, it’s connection, it’s empathy.
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As you can see, I’m hoping that new donors to the KCP consider a $10 contribution so that a book is added to the KCP Library for the program’s 253 students. (To donate, you need a credit card, $10, and less than 2 minutes.)
If this is not the right time for you, please do your part to get the word out. There is a small reading movement happening among young people in the Bay Area, and it’s about time that people find out about it!
More Kindles have been donated in the last three months than in any other similar stretch in the history of the Kindle Classroom Project.
