Say Thank You to Teachers in a Way That Matters with the Adopt-A-Classroom Program! #TeachersChangeLives #CGC

For the past six years, I have supported education on 3G2S by raising awareness about worthy causes.  I truly believe that every child deserves the best educational possible, so that he or she can have an equal chance in excelling in whatever they decide to take on in life.  I've always appreciated the amount of patience and caring I see from every teacher who has led my 3 children's classrooms ever since preschool.  I know it's a job I could never do.  It was not until last year, while our twins were in kindergarten, that I understood exactly how extraordinary teachers can be.

I was somewhat of an overachiever, as is my oldest son.  Our daughter is doing very well at school also.  It was last year that we discovered her twin brother, however, was struggling with reading, writing, and speech.  Now in first grade, we discovered that our son has visual tracking, spacial planning, and sensory feedback issues.  This explained why a boy, who is extremely bright and can make very complex connections, is having problems in these areas.

I've met with 10 different professionals who have screened our son to get a clear picture of how he can be helped.  I was very impressed by them all, but especially by our son's classroom teachers, his speech teacher, his reading/writing teacher, and the school psychologist.  They all think the world of our son and are playing a huge part in his succeeding at school.  They also make sure that he doesn't lose his self-confidence and that he knows that he is an extremely smart 7 year old who can make important contributions to the world.


Listen to what these students have to say about the extraordinary teachers in their lives . . .


Because I know that our teachers often spend money out-of-pocket to keep their classrooms running, I never mind contributing when they put out a call for certain classroom supplies, but there is only so much one family with a modest income can do.  However, when many families pool their resources, amazing things can happen!  That is why programs, like Adopt-A-Classroom, are so important.  Regular people like you can help fund not only classrooms that need to replace broken equipment or furniture, but also make ideas for innovative teaching projects come to life.

Office Depot, who has been a longtime supporter of education, has teamed up with Adopt-A-Classroom to raise awareness about how teachers really do change the lives of our children.  In addition to adopting a classroom in your area, you can let your local teachers know how to receive support through this wonderful program . . .

How to Register Your Classroom as a Teacher

• Go to Teachers Change Lives website
• Click on the red box that says "Register Your Classroom," which will take you to the Adopt-A-Classroom website
• Follow the corresponding steps from there

How to Donate to a Teacher

• Go to Teachers Change Lives website
• Click on the teal "Donate to a Teacher" box on the Teachers Change Lives website, which will take you to the Adopt-A-Classroom website
• Follow the corresponding steps from there

Do you know a teacher who could benefit from this program?


I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

3 Ways to Have Fun Food-Free Classroom Celebrations for Birthdays and Other Occasions

Thank you to Winning Moves for providing an educational board game to facilitate this post.  All opinions expressed are my own.

We're well into the month of December now, a time when most people are focused on their Holiday plans and finishing up their gift shopping.  For me, however, it is a time to think about how we will be celebrating our 3 children's January birthdays, the first of which is coming up in just a few weeks.  When the children were in preschool, we used to send in cupcakes and other treats to celebrate their birthdays, but now things are different.  In our health conscious grade school, cake and cookies and other sweets are not allowed in the classrooms, even for special occasions.  I am all for not giving our children sugar highs while they are supposed to be well-behaved and focused on learning.

Throughout the years, the school has slowly moved away from asking for healthy treats towards encouraging non-food celebrations for birthdays, the Holidays, and Valentine's Day.  This is actually a relief to me.  There were so many allergies to consider when providing treats for the class, including no eggs, no nuts, no dairy, and more.  I am in no way disappointed with this new trend.  If your school is encouraging non-food celebrations too, then here are three of my favorite ideas for celebrating food-free in the classrooms . . .

1.  Donate an educational game to the classroom.  This January in honor of their birthdays, all 3 of my children will be donating a fun game to each of their classrooms in addition to handing out multi-colored pens to each of their classmates.  I'm particularly excited about donating the game PayDay Classic Edition to our 4th grader's class.  Throughout the year, the class learns all about money, including earning classroom cash and paying fines for doing (or not doing) their homework, keeping a bankbook to track their balances, building and running a business, and more.  This board game is all about making and spending money and is just the perfect game to gift to my son's classroom.  There are many educational games out there that teach reading, counting, strategic thinking, problem solving, and more.  You just need to find the right one for your child's classroom.

2.  Send in a themed goodie bag for each student.  If you decide to go the goodie bag route, then why not put some thought into including items that really work together?  Random little items are fun, but items that can be used together for a particular activity can be even more fun.  For example, last year we sent goodie bags in for all the students in each twin's kindergarten class that contained a detective's pad, a pencil, and funny glasses (with attached nose and mustache) so the junior detectives could have disguises to wear when they were working undercover.  Those goodie bags were a huge hit!

3.  Do a fun craft with the whole class.  I think this is a fantastic idea, but I honestly have never done it.  If the thought of having to direct a group of 20 grade school children does not phase you (I don't know how teachers do it), then it would be a very cool celebration to have each student make something, which they can then keep.  Some easy ideas would be to make pencil cups for their desks, decorate notebooks, make magnets, or make bookmarks.  The possibilities are really endless and I'm certain that you will find some great ideas for low-mess kids crafts on Pinterest and at your local craft store.

What ideas do you have for non-food classroom celebrations?  Please do share your ideas because I have 3 children and many more birthday celebrations to plan in the coming years!