PELL CITY, Ala. (WIAT)- Budget cuts are getting deeper and deeper in the Alabama school system, with resources dwindling by the day. Two Pell City teachers are bucking the trend, however, and bringing new resources into their classrooms.
"The big issue here is getting funding for classrooms. Horace Mann has partnered with donerschoose.org, which is an online site where teachers can go and list their projects that they want funded and then it's made available to the community to go online and donate to their projects," says Tom Moore with Horace Mann Educators Corp.
Donorschoose.org has helped provide funding for 61 teachers in Alabama with 112 projects, totaling over $48,000 in 2011.
Two of those teachers are Kelly Hicks and Amy Clardy, who teach 2nd and 1st grade respectively at Eden Elementary. Teaching young, impressionable minds comes with major challenges if teachers have nothing with which to demonstrate. "They need to be able to experience things for themselves. It's a lot easier if I can project something on the board to the whole group. I can keep their attention if they're all looking at the same thing," says Clardy.
With the funds, Clardy was able to purchase a laptop computer, flip camera, electric pencil sharpener, and a printer. Hicks purchased math centers for her students, allowing them to learn with money, time, and product values.
For more information of how you can help your favorite school or teacher gain materials for their classrooms, check out the link above to the DonorsChoose website.
