Help ISM Students Raise Money for Schools in the Philippines

This year I am the luckiest teacher in the world. I get to teach at the best school ever – International School of Morocco, with some of the best, most creative, teachers ever. Each time I walk into someone else’s classroom, I get inspired and we just seem to spiral great teaching ideas off of each other. It’s a wonderful place to teach, and since we are all collaborating, it’s a wonderful place for our kids to learn – a teacher’s dream, right? I have tried and tried to convince the other teachers to create blogs of their own to spotlight and share some of their amazing ideas, but everyone is super busy. Instead, they have each agreed to let me spotlight some of their ideas right here on Raki’s Rad Resources. So, each Friday night, I will be posting an ISM Spotlight.

This week, ISM students put on a Winter Concert with the help of our Pedagogical Director, Meredith Achlim.  The students put on plays and sang songs about the holiday season.  The show was cute, well put together and brought our ISM family together to celebrate the season of kindness and giving.

In addition to the show, students, teachers and parents have been working this week to put together a way to raise money for two schools in the Philippines who were devastated by Typhoon Hainan.  The students created Christmas ornaments and collected donations from friends and family.  The Girl Scouts organized a bake sale.  The teachers organized selling hot chocolate.  At the Winter Concert, our school community came together to support buy our goods and donate money. In total, our school raised 6,000 Moroccan Dirhams ($ 731.52).  It was an amazing way to expose our students to the concepts of charity, working together, and problem solving.

All of the proceeds will be sent to two schools in the Philippines who were severely impacted by Typhoon Hainan.   However, our goal was $2,000, so while we are extremely proud of our students for their efforts, we still have a ways to go.  Now, we are turning now to our global school family and asking for help.  Here are two ways you can help: 

1.)  If you, or your students, would like to donate directly, we have set up a PayPal button for you to donate directly to these schools. 100% of donations will be sent directly to the schools.

2.)  For the next week (from Friday, December 13th to Friday, December 20th), I will be donating 100% of my TPT sales income to the cause.  So, if you (or your friends, colleagues etc.) purchase anything from my Teachers Pay Teachers store in the next week, you will be donating 85% of the cost to these schools.  (The other 15% goes to TPT for fees.)

Here’s some information about the schools we are helping:

The first school is President Roxas Central School in President Roxas, Capiz.  At this school, some classrooms were destroyed by a tree falling on the roof. The department of education is only covering the expense of the exterior infrastructure. Teachers, however, are to bear the expenses of the interior restoration of the classroom, as well as the school supplies for the students. The teacher we are trying to help is Maricel L. Draper, a Grade 3 teacher of 26 students. The estimated cost of the bare minimum of school supplies, i.e. pencils, pens, and notebooks to last until the end of the year (March 2014) is 5500 PHP = 1043MAD (Moroccan Dirhams) ($126).  The estimated cost of restoring the classroom interior, i.e. painting, dry wall is 14, 360 PHP = 2, 722 MAD ($329).

   

  

School 2 is in the mountains of Maayon, Capiz.  The teacher we are helping helping at this school has been serving the students in this mountain region for over 35 years. Her name is Merlinda Laurente and she is head teacher. She has seen this school grow over the years. It serves 169 students from Pre-School to Grade 6, averaging between 20 – 30 students per class with a total of 6 teachers including Ms. Laurente. The typhoon destroyed all but 2 school buildings. Immediately after the typhoon, families who lost thier homes lived in the school. Now that families have moved out, the teachers have opened the school back up.  However, classroom space is limited, so there are 2 shifts of teaching time: 6:30am-12pm & 1:00-6:30pm.  Most families, including the teachers have lost their homes. School supplies are needed and the estimated cost for the bare minimum to last until March 2014 is: 17,750 PHP = 3, 366 MAD ($406). If there is extra money after the school supplies have been purchased, materials to rebuild the homes/roofs of the teachers will be purchased.  This is an area in which people are still living on $1 or 8 MAD a day. At this time, there has been no relief that has reached the region.

   

            

Thank you for any donation you can make!