When Michael found AdoptAClassroom.org in 2020, he was struggling. He had been teaching in his home state of Florida for three years and decided to switch from a middle school to a high school. In his first few years of teaching he had spent nearly $9,000 out of his own pocket on supplies to support his students, but these supplies wouldn’t work in his new classroom. In 2020, like many teachers, Michael was also struggling to navigate teaching in a remote setting.
Knowing that spending money out of pocket was no longer sustainable for him, Michael was searching for a crowdfunding site that specifically supported teachers when he found AdoptAClassroom.org. While he doubted that he would receive anything, Michael’s parents encouraged him to set up a classroom page.
“To start, I asked for $500,” Michael said. “I was asking for composition notebooks and basic supplies like that. I wasn’t expecting much. I ended up getting $650. I realized there was something here and decided to continue doing it. Now I’ll never go back to spending my own money.”
If you’re a teacher like Michael, tired of spending your own money on supplies, make sure that you’re registered to receive funds on AdoptAClassroom.org.
What is AdoptAClassroom.org?
AdoptAClassroom.org is a national nonprofit that supports teachers at public, private, and charter schools. Teachers and certified school staff with registered classroom pages can receive funds through crowdfunding, grants, corporate sponsorships, or giveaways on our site.
After that first positive experience, Michael continued to use AdoptAClassroom.org. He posted his classroom page on social media and developed relationships with his donors by sharing the classroom projects their donation funded. His donors love hearing about projects like the posters students made after studying the Great Depression and the New Deal.
Those projects, along with so many others that happen in Michael’s classroom, would not be possible without donor support.
If you want to help make hands-on learning happen, you can support an educator like Michael by searching for a classroom page.
Michael said, “If it wasn’t for AdoptAClassroom, I would probably be really stuck. I’ve only been teaching for six years, but I want to be teaching forever. I definitely want to continue to use AdoptAClassroom and I want to make it better than it’s ever been.”
To help make AdoptAClassroom.org better, Michael decided to join AdoptAClassroom.org’s Teacher Advisory Board.
What is the Teacher Advisory Board?
AdoptAClassroom.org is committed to being a better resource for teachers, and the Teacher Advisory Board helps us make that happen. The Teacher Advisory Board members are from all across the United States and represent a variety of grade levels and education roles. Their input helps us better understand how we can offer real, tangible support to teachers.
As Michael said, “The job of the Teacher Advisory Board is to give advice, input, and guidance on how we can make AdoptAClassroom.org better. We are teachers, former teachers, social workers, any certified staff for schools. We are this amazing group of people who try to make AdoptAClassroom better and easier for more teachers who are on the site trying to get donations.”
Want to meet the teachers making a difference? Check out our Teacher Advisory Board here.
We onboard new members of the Teacher Advisory Board every fall. If you’re interested in being part of our Teacher Advisory Board, please contact [email protected] and let them know of your interest. They will make a note to contact you should spots open in 2023.