Responsibly: Gift Wine to Fund Education

What it is: Responsibly is a new way to gift your friends, released just in time for the holiday season.  Purchase Responsibly wine for your friends and 100% of the purchase price gets donated to a Donor’s Choose project.  Talk about killing two birds with one stone!  It works with 3 easy steps:

1. Go to Facebook and choose which friends you want to gift.

2. Friends are encouraged to pay it forward by gifting their friends.

3. Funds are matched and donated to fund a Donor’s Choose project.

Cool huh?  I love gifts that are further reaching than just the physical gift given.  Not only will you be spreading cheer to your friends, you will be spreading cheer and learning to classrooms and students everywhere.  That is a big deal.

From the about page (because I couldn’t have said it better myself!):

Responsibly is creating a platform for social philanthropy. We have created a mechanism that allows individuals to simultaneously share with friends and give back to society. We at Responsibly believe that doing good and feeling good do not have to be mutually exclusive. By connecting products in which 50% of the price tag funds corporate matched projects validated by Donors Choose, we can proudly say that 100% of whatever you spend at Responsibly.com will go towards helping our children get a step closer to the gaining access to the education they deserve. Coupling this with the social network that Facebook has created, hopefully, you can help inspire others to contribute to this cause.

One of the things that continues to astound me is the way that social networking is being used to change the world.  I see this on a regular basis through Twitter, organizations like Donor’s Choose, TED and the movements that it spurs, and now Responsibly.  Genius I tell you!

What are you waiting for?  Head on over to Responsibly now and start gifting, spreading the word, and making the world a better place.

Side note: I am talking with Responsibly about how they might be involved in helping to make #TwitAcad (scroll down for all posts that mention this)  a reality.  Now we are talking!

And the winner is: Donor’s Choose Project Funded!

The voting is finished and the winner is (drum roll please) Gerard Dypiangco and his students are receiving Tag Readers!  In November I took the Change the world Challenge.  For every unique visitor to iLearn Technology I vowed to donate a penny to a worthy charity.  I settled on funding a Donor’s Choose project and had you all help me out by voting for the project that should be funded.  Voting ended today (it was close!)  Please take a look at the project below.  I am happy that I could help fund this project, as you can see from the comments on this post, Gerard is not only an incredible teacher himself, his mother created a legacy of incredible teaching.  Thank you Gerard (and all of you teachers out there) for the ways you impact the world each and every day.  What you do matters.
Want to have some fun this holiday season? Hunt for and fund a Donor’s Choose project with your family.  You won’t believe how good it feels to change education one classroom at a time!  Need a suggestion?  Start by funding the projects featured in this post.  Linda Yollis and her class came a close second place.  I would love to help Mrs. Yollis to purchase microphones for her classroom.  Through the end of this year, purchase anything from the iLearn Technology Store and 100% of that purchase will be donated to this project.  Or if you are feeling extra generous, you can head directly to Donor’s Choose and help complete funding…only $172 to go!

My Students: What do you do when you are reading a book and come across a word that you do not know? You might crack open a dictionary or try to look up the word online. But what if a devi…

My Project: Many of my third graders are reading at or near grade level, which is great. But I still have a sizable number of students who are reading one to two years below grade level. … more»

My Students: What do you do when you are reading a book and come across a word that you do not know? You might crack open a dictionary or try to look up the word online. But what if a device could read the unknown word for you? What an amazing thing that would be!

I teach third grade in a primarily immigrant and working class neighborhood in southern California. Most of my students are learning English as a second language, a couple of them are receiving special education services, a group of students are identified Gifted, and ALL of them love to learn.

My Project: Many of my third graders are reading at or near grade level, which is great. But I still have a sizable number of students who are reading one to two years below grade level. They want to become fluent readers but have not yet acquired the skills necessary to become good readers. What they need right now is more practice reading and listening to stories.

One way to accomplish this added exposure to reading and listening is through the Tag School Reader System, which includes four Tag Readers and four copies of six different books, including Arthur Writes a Story and Honey Saves the Day!: A Story of Young Abe Lincoln. The Tag Reader is a handheld learning tool that provides audio feedback to a student. The device can read the story, pronounce a particularly troublesome word, or provide story context and background information. The Tag Reader can also provide a student with practice of necessary skills such as compare and contrast, cause and effect and sequencing.

With these Tag Readers my students will be provided with on-demand reading assistance when needed. Gradually my less fluent readers will begin to become confident readers as they work at their own pace. Eventually these students will become independent readers, able to read on grade level with their peers. These once struggling students can become readers for life. Thank you.

My students need a LeapFrog Tag School Reading Center Set and a set of rechargeable AAA batteries.

Project Funded! Congratulations Gerard and students, we can’t wait to see what you will learn next! Please be sure to share pictures and stories with us!

iLearn Technology Change the World: Vote for your favorite Donor’s Choose Project

**** UPDATE The poll has closed due to the OVERWHELMING number of votes, however, your vote can still be counted!  Please leave a comment with your name and the project you would like to cast your vote for. Voting ends on December 20, 2010.  Thank you!

In September, I joined @adambellow’s Change the World project here on iLearn Technology donating 1 penny for every unique visitor that I had on iLearn Technology in a little over a month.  Right before Thanksgiving I announced the amount I would be donating ($400) and have since received some generous donations to add to mine.  I asked you all for your Donor’s Choose projects that needed funding. The results are below and it is time to start voting!  Send this post to all of your family and friends until December 20 and ask them to vote. Depending on the winner, I may be able to fund some runner’s up as well.  It isn’t too late to add a donation, you can help us fund even more!  Please contact me or leave a comment if you would like to help fund one of these awesome projects!

The time has come to start voting for the Donor’s Choose project(s) to fund!

Happy Thanksgiving! – Anyone have a Donor’s Choose Project?

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends!  For those of you who won’t be celebrating with us in the States, let me assure you that I will eat a piece of pie on your behalf 🙂

This week has been relatively quite on iLearn Technology as I wrap up projects, start some new projects, and get ready for the holiday.  Just because I have been quite here doesn’t mean that I have been slacking; here is what I have been up to:

  • The Community of Learners Dream Team– my first post on the Cooperative Catalyst blog.
  • In October, I joined @adambellow of edutecher.net in his Change the world campaign.  You can read more about that here: EduTecher Change the World post. I am cheating and calling it a day early so that I can post the results and not have to worry about it tomorrow.  From October 1 to today I have had 54,656 absolute unique visitors to iLearn Technology (according to Google Analytics). Truly amazing!  That works out to $546.56.  Now, like Adam I had to cap my contribution at $400 (teacher who is not employed makes even less than a teacher who is!).  I would love to use my contribution to fund some teacher Donor’s Choose projects.  If you have a project on Donor’s Choose that you would like funded, please leave a comment below.  If I get an overwhelming response, we can put it to a vote.  If anyone would like to donate to help reach the $546.56, or would like to match in any way, please leave a comment.  Help me to fund projects and dreams that will change students lives and make learning a richer experience!

I am truly thankful for all of my readers, you all encourage me regularly!  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!