Out of Pocket Outrage

All too often our nation's teachers are digging into their own modest salaries in order to provide their students with everyday items. The demands on teachers are only growing, and Adopt-A-Classroom wants to hear your story.

Please take a minute to answer our survey, and tell us about the out of pocket costs you experience every year as a teacher.

http://app.simplycast.com/?q=survey%2Ftake&i=-112991&click_id=23191

Happy National Teacher Appreciation Week!

This year, we wanted to reach out to a school where teachers rose above and beyond their circumstances to continue bringing opportunities to their students. The answer was obvious – Henryville Elementary School. We flew down to Indiana with gifts in tow to see the new classrooms at Graceland Baptist Church. Wow! The teachers and staff really worked hard to turn the space into a welcoming school environment. Student artwork lined the hallway, gym, and classroom walls.

We were lucky to have several corporate partners with us: Post-It, OfficeMax, and Coach. Each brought a wonderful gift for the teachers of Henryville Elementary. OfficeMax announced our fundraising total - $44,000 – with a giant roll of fake money that had Principal Riggs’ face right on the bills. 

Post-It surprised each teacher with a box of supplies worth $200. They also brought in a giant Post-It board full of encouraging messages from people in New York. 

The Coach bags were the most delightful surprise of all. Each teacher got a purse or a sharp messenger bag. 

We had a wonderful time while at Henryville Elementary School on Tuesday. It was heartwarming to see the progress that has been made in recovering from the tornado that devastated their town. We were honored to give these teachers a little sunshine after all they’ve been through. We owe it all to our corporate partners and the generous people that made our Help Henryville campaign a success. From our team, we thank you!

For more, read and watch the coverage from local news channels WDRB & WAVE. 

Hear Our Story on Huffington Post!

Yesterday, our founder Jamie Rosenberg shared the story of how Adopt-A-Classroom started on Huffington Post. Here is an excerpt:

While I was happy professionally, I wanted to give back to the world outside the law firm. I started mentoring a student at a nearby school for mentally and physically delayed children. During my time in the classroom, I was shocked to see how few resources the teacher had to work with and how often she would bring in materials that she had purchased with money out of her own pocket.

Meanwhile, at work, I was exposed to billions of dollars flowing through corporate America, and thought, "Why isn't there a program that funnels some of these corporate dollars into classrooms where it's needed most?" Then, driving to work one day, I saw a sign for "Adopt A Highway" and it hit me: If we can adopt roads to make them better, we can certainly adopt classrooms to give teachers the resources they need to better educate our children.

And so Adopt-A-Classroom was born...

You can read his full blog post here! Jamie also talks about the importance of a campaign like our Help Henryville in rebuilding classrooms after a natural disaster. 

Look for more blogs on Huffington Post Impact from Jamie soon! 

Adopt-A-Classroom is growing!

We're honored to announce a new Executive Director, Bob Thacker, who brings four decades of experience in business and marketing at OfficeMax, Target, Sears and beyond. We're thrilled to have him join our team and are opening a second office in Minneapolis so we can continue to push beyond on boundaries to support more teachers and their classrooms across the country. You can learn more about Bob and his aspirations for Adopt-A-Classroom at http://tiny.cc/AAC2011. Please join us in welcoming Bob! 


-- Jamie Rosenberg
   President & Founder

Contest Alert!

We hope 2011 has been off to a fantastic start for you! At Adopt-A-Classroom, we've been involved in the Members Project contest and it's ending soon on Feb 20, so if you haven't voted for Adopt-A-Classroom this week (you get 1 vote per week), would you please vote today? Your vote can help us win $200,000! www.takepart.com/membersproject/vote

Separately, we recently came across two contests that sound like they could be fun for your students / children. If you're a teacher, perhaps it could be a classroom project. These contests are not associated with Adopt-A-Classroom in any way, but we wanted to put it on your radar in case your students / children would like to participate:

IN CONNECTICUT: K-5 Contest to Dream Big! The 2011 CHET Dream Big! Competition is a drawing and essay contest for K-5 students in Connecticut. The contest aims to encourage families to start thinking about how higher education may help children realize their dreams and make a difference in the world, and to promote the importance of saving for college early. Children will be able to express themselves creatively for a chance to win prizes.

PLUS! The top ten teachers whose students submit the most entries will receive a $50 prize to help purchase classroom supplies.

The contest will run from February 7 through April 4, 2011. For more details, go to http://www.chetdreambig.com/.


NATIONAL: Doodle 4 Google
Doodle 4 Google is a national competition inviting K-12 students across the US to use their artistic talents to think big and redesign Google’s homepage logo for millions to see. The theme of this year's contest is "What I’d like to do someday..."

Guest judges include Whoopi Goldberg and Jim Davis, the creator of "Garfield"... sounds pretty cool to us!

One lucky student artist will take home a $15,000 college scholarship and $25,000 technology grant for their school, among many other prizes.

Registration closes on March 2, 2011 and entries must be postmarked by March 16, 2011. The winning doodle will be featured on the Google.com homepage on May 20, 2011! For more details, go to www.google.com/doodle4google.

Supporting Our Friends at Kids In Need Foundation

Our friends at Kids In Need Foundation are in this week's Target Give Joy Promotion and we are happy to support their participation! They'd like you're support too and here's what you can do to help Kids In Need Foundation receive up to $50,000 this week: go to www.facebook.com/target and create a wish list. For each wish list that's created, Target will give a $5 donation, up to a maximum of $50,000 per nonprofit organization.

Kids In Need Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that every child is prepared to learn and succeed by providing free school supplies nationally to students most in need. If you're a teacher at a Title 1 school located near one of their 25 resource centers, you should make a trip out to pick up free supplies!

So here are more detailed instructions about the Target Give Joy Promotion- we promise it's very easy to do:

• Go to facebook.com/target
• Click on the “Give Joy” tab, then click the “Get started now” button and allow permission
• You will see 20 products – select 5 to add to your list by clicking “Click to Add” under the products of your choice
• Click the red “Submit your list” button
• On the next page, a pop-up will ask you to share your list on your Facebook wall. You can add a personal comment – add something about why you support Kids In Need Foundation and why your Facebook friends should help out by creating their own wish list too!
• Click “Publish”

After you submit a list, you can enter the sweepstakes to win a Target gift card to purchase your wish list items. You can only enter the sweepstakes for the gift card once during the week. However, as far as we know, you can create one list a day to for the $5 donation to Kids In Need Foundation.

Please share this with all family, friends, and colleagues!

Guest Blogger: TIMING IS EVERYTHING, ISN'T IT?

By Laurie Johns, 1st Grade Teacher, Greenbrae Elementary

Teachers: The whole idea behind Adopt-A-Classroom is to get your classroom adopted, correct? That requires getting friends, family and businesses to adopt you. To do that you need to ASK, ASK, ASK. The more businesses and people you get supporting you, the more money for your classroom. What a sweet deal!


We as teachers all know it’s expensive to get things we need for our classrooms. What a better way than to have someone “adopt” your classroom, or your special project. Now, I am a true believer that timing is everything. The end of the year is a perfect time to ask family, friends, businesses to consider adopting your classroom. Many people and businesses are looking for last minute, end of the year, tax write-offs. Why not have them donate to your classroom! The time to act and ask is NOW!


My suggestion is to make several copies of the Adopt-A-Classroom donation form (click here for a copy) with your school and classroom information already filled out, then take them with you in the car, in your purse, your work bag so you have them with you wherever you go and ASK everyplace you go. What can it hurt? You never know who will be looking for you at this time of year… Remind them that making a donation is 100% tax deductible and you may get more than you thought. You never know unless you try and you may just get what you ask for just because timing is everything!