I received an email today from my daughter’s pre-K teacher. I was sad to read this email. As a few of you know, my daughter was diagnosed with autism. Few people really know what’s going on with autism. Not every child acts the same way. They could be normal looking kids who don’t have the ability to talk and are sensitive to song or the tastes of foods to the kids who have what are called “stimmy” behavior which could be that they hit themselves or bang themselves around or making odd gestures. I have to say we have received excellent help along the way from the school system. Kara, my daughter’s teacher is the best. All of the aids who help her out are also the best. They all have the patience of saints, but the problem is that they only get $250/year to supply their class. When I was a kid, my mother along with other moms would bring stuff to the class for the teacher to use. My mom was a teacher and still had lots of left over stuff that we wouldn’t need anymore, but would probably be able to be used in the class.
Dear Family and Friends,
As most of you know, I am Pre-K special education teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District. I teach a wonderful group of 3-5 year olds, who are mostly on the autism spectrum. What many people do not know, is the huge negative effect our economy has had on California’s schools. The last two years SFUSD teachers have only been given $25 a month for classroom materials. Yes, that is right, we are given only $250 a year to purchase paper, markers, books, puzzles, etc. It is nearly impossible to access these materials alone, and our current materials are nearing their end. Recently, I joined Donor’s Choose and submitted a project to help enrich my students’ learning through music, art, science, and sensory materials (as well as necessary classroom materials such as shelves without holes, new carpets, etc.) On this wonderful website, you can support this project by donating any amount. Once we reach our goal, the website will purchase the materials and send them to my class. I’ll take pictures of my kids using them and we’ll make thank you notes to our donors!A free way to donate $5 to my project is by going to this website http://www.bing.com/gives/default1.aspx#fbid=nYe–0CPAFi&wom=false . Click START HERE, enter your email address, click MAKE BING MY HOME PAGE (do not worry it will NOT make BING your homepage), click NO I will not make BING my home page, and then click finish. You will receive an email from Bing (most likely in your junk mail) subject donation code. You can redeem the $5 donation yourself for my project at : http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=487308 .