School Supply Donations- WishList Wednesday- Dry Erase Boards

Here we are again! Another week has passed and it is WishList Wednesday!

 So this week, we are going to highlight a more unique item from our lists, dry erase boards. So why are they on  the list? You may ask. Well, we will tell you.. Sustainability!

Every school supply item for our kids is provided by their family. These families routinely skip meals, eating maybe one a day, so they can scrape together the fees to send their kids to school. Barely having enough money or food to eat, they struggle to provide the simplest of items like pencils, workbooks and paper. 

And it's the last one that we are working to fix. Think back to your school years, and how many notebooks, pieces of paper, worksheets etc you completed. I bet if we stacked them all up in a pile, we could tower over small buildings in your city. We have all heard of the strain on our natural resources paper production is. Removing trees to make paper, paper to use and then discard, leaving less trees and a recurring demand for an item. 

Dry erase boards help alleviate some of that disposal and financial strain. Students can use and reuse these boards for practicing math problems, spelling words or even handwriting.  

We selected several different sizes, shapes and amounts to be able to supply each grade with a “ classroom set” that the teachers can pass out and use for their daily lessons. 

Imagine how much paper would have been saved if you could have practiced your letters over and over with little more than taking a rag to erase your squiggly attempts before you can begin anew.

Sustainable and reusable, the name of the game. On our lists there are also dry erase markers to go with each classroom set. 

So many of these overcrowded classrooms literally have students shoulder to shoulder across rows with no space for the teacher to walk from the front of the room to the back. Now imagine trying to teach long division and check the work of students in the waaaay back that you can not physically get to. They can write out their problem and hold it up for review! We all remember when they still taught multiplication tables ( I am dating myself a bit here because I have been told that is no longer a major thing in most areas!). We would have those timed worksheets that either ignited the incredibly competitive nature inside of you or froze you in utter mind-blanking fear. These boards can allow the teacher to check for answers without causing stress. Give a problem, write and answer, hold it up!. Erase, repeat.  Time to teach the kids to tell time? Have a board and a marker, show me a clock that says 2:25. Imagine little hands creating their answers and proudly holding them up for review. 

The creativity of teachers continues to astound me. Amondi loved her time teaching math to the students in MPIS. It was her stories of climbing over desks and kids sharing a piece of notebook paper that sparked this idea in my head. I am sure they will come up with many more uses for them than I cannot even imagine!

We would love to give tablets or computers to every student but that is just not feasible. So until we solve that problem, let's work on a sustainable alternative. 

We have had some donated already, but there are still many more needed to make sure each class, each grade can take advantage of these wonderful tools of learning. 

amondisavengers.com/wishlists