A teacher’s hard work begins long before the school year with lesson planning, supply gathering, classroom decorating, and more. Due to budget constraints, teachers are often left to cover a large portion of the cost for crucial classroom and/or course supplies. There is no doubt that back-to-school season is a great time to show gratitude for teachers who work tirelessly to educate their students. When Board Member Jennifer Willis-Rivera met a middle school journalism teacher in need of books, she knew exactly how Random Acts could help.
Civic Inspiration
Jennifer first met middle school teacher Sarah Adams at a Supernatural convention in Denver in 2018. While chatting, Sarah explained that she would soon be starting her first semester teaching journalism. Sarah was nervous about this new adventure, especially given the current disparagement and hostility with which journalists are faced. However, she had been inspired by Random Acts co-founder Misha Collins’ call for all people to be educated in civics, and wanted to play her part by teaching her students about the field of journalism. Since this would be Sarah’s first semester teaching journalism, she had a wish list of books that she wanted to have for her students to learn from. We were excited to check books off of that wish list!
Well-Read Members of Society
Jennifer used Random Acts funding to tackle Sarah’s textbook wish list. In total, we were able to send 32 books for Sarah’s classroom. This included a mixture of individual and multiple copies of books from Sarah’s wish list as well as a book recommended by Jennifer’s journalism colleagues. Sarah will be able to use these books to enhance her lessons on journalism, information literacy, and critical thinking.
Sarah was kind enough to send us photos and videos of her students explaining how they had already begun to put their new books to good use. Just look at those happy faces! The world is now armed with some pretty awesome, well-read middle school journalism students. We cannot wait to see how they use the lessons learned in journalism class to make the world a better place.