Edutopia - February/March 2008 - (Page 41) go gl bal tions, fashion shows, and other inventive ways to raise money. Read-a-Thons, one of Room to Read’s most popular fund-raisers, help kids improve their own literacy skills while raising money for others. (A downloadable Read-a-Thon kit is available on the Room to Read Web site.) the fund-raising efforts tap into the ingenuity and optimism many young people have in abundance. As an added push this year, Room to Learn has inaugurated the Literacy One Challenge, which invites students and schools to match a 2007 donation from Scholastic of 400,000 English-language books sent to Room to Read The Kids Are All Right schools and libraries in Cambodia. Funds raised during the These programs “engage students in a new way—a very 2007–08 academic year will go directly to Room to Read’s student-centered way,” says Anna Maria Menza, a teacher- local-language publishing program, with awards for “most librarian at Cherry Creek High School, in Greenwood funds raised,” “most creative,” and “a little goes a long way” Village, Colorado. The school opened to be presented to contributors in sumits own Room to Read Café, complete mer 2008. BOOKS ABROAD with donated baked goods, espresso Thanks in part to these grassroots Help an international school at machine, and an experienced barista. efforts, Room to Read can boast some www.edutopia.org/aid-international-schools Students and teachers decorated the astonishing results: During its sevencafé with Room to Read educational year existence, the organization has materials and tirelessly spread the word to the school and opened nearly 5,000 school libraries and about 400 schools, community. They raised $3,500 in a single week—enough to donated more than 1.4 million English-language books, build a school library in Nepal. published 146 local-language titles, and touched the lives of “It helped them understand how lucky they are to have roughly 1.5 million students in developing countries. access to a free education,” Menza adds. Participating in Still, Wood is modest about these accomplishments. these kinds of fund-raisers and events encourages students Judging by the size of the problem—one-seventh of humanito think of themselves as global citizens, program manager ty is illiterate and has no access to a basic education—he Molly Redding points out, as well as sharpening critical- says, “it’s not time to pop the champagne corks yet! We’ve got thinking and problem-solving skills. Not least, says Redding, a long, long way to go.” ROOM TO READ There’s a fine line between freedom and free time. Give your students the freedom to discover the digital world – without wandering off course. With SMART’s SynchronEyes™ classroom management software, you see a thumbnail of each student’s desktop on your screen so you can keep them on track. It’s easy to learn, easy to use and it’s worry free. SynchronEyes now features enhanced security and works with both desktop PCs and mobile devices. Works with the Get the most out of class time. Visit www.smarttech.com/SYNCG2y8 © 2007 SMART Technologies ULC. All rights reserved. SynchronEyes, smarttech, the SMART logo and all SMART product logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SMART Technologies ULC. EDUTOPIA.ORG EDUTOPIA 41 http://www.edutopia.org/aid-international-schools http://www.smarttech.com/SYNCG2y8 http://www.smarttech.com/SYNCG2y8 http://www.smarttech.com/SYNCG2y8 http://EDUTOPIA.ORG
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