JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – With a new school year right around the corner, many teachers are spending this week preparing their classrooms. Some teachers are turning to crowd-funding websites to get the supplies they need.
A popular choice is called, DonorsChoose.org.
The non-profit allows people across the country to donate to various teachers classroom projects, giving them an opportunity to get supplies they may otherwise have to pay for themselves.
Jennifer Draper, a kindergarten teacher at Durbin Creek Elementary School, said she’s had more than a dozen projects funded in the last year through the site. “To me, it means there is still support for public education which is sometimes hard to find,” Draper said. “It still shows me that people want to help our children.”
Her colleague, Jill Tor, also uses it to fund projects for her classroom. “It’s really good because we are able to get hands-on materials,” Tor explained. “I fully believe in hands-on learning as opposed to sitting and doing worksheets, so we’re able to have those.”
Draper said the projects stay up for four months until they are funded or expire. To help a teacher in your area, visit donorschoose.org.