Our School would like to begin an authentic writing program with a resource called Units of Study.  These Units of Study provide teachers with lessons and read alouds to begin writing Opinion, Information and Narrative writing pieces with our students in grades K to 5.

Here at Marshall Middle School we are all about connecting. We embrace students creating responsible and respectful connections with other students. We encourage our teachers to connect positively and respectfully with our students and of course our administrators connect peacefully with both students and teachers. But how does one accomplish such a simple task in a school year that seems to speed right past you? The North Allegheny Tigers have answered that question: "Connections Class".

Connections has allowed student to let the anxieties and stresses of school slip away as they confide in a small group of peers and a teacher they feel confident with. While we have successfully brought connections to our classrooms many students and teachers felt that it was time to spread the wealth of connections to community. What started as a kind kid movement as sparked into an epidemic of charitable actions. 

This idea of decorating shoes came to myself and the connections class I teach through a community project we were already participating in. We were enjoying it so much and thought "this is what connections was missing, if there was a perfect class this was it!" "Helping out with my friends with not a lot of people is kind of relaxing" one of the students said.  We saw a breakthrough with how we were spending our time together and wanted to keep the snowball ruling, so together we brainstormed how we could better our community through things that interested us. We collaboratively came up with the idea to give tennis shoes to teenagers who are may be at Children's Hospital for an extended period of time.  The students here talked about how much they appreciated shoes, especially tennis shoes and how much they would appreciate the gesture as such. 

The monetary donations we are asking for will cover the cost of creating shoe decorating kits for teenagers at Children's Hospital. These kits will allow kids that are middle school age to artistically express themselves while they are experiencing and extended stay at Children's. Each kit will contain a basket, 1 pair of shoes, fabric paint, and a hand made card with words of encouragement. For this project to be successful we will need 50 pairs of shoes, 25 pairs of plain white sneakers for girls ranging from sizes 6-8 (including 1/2 sizes), and, 25 pairs of white plain sneakers for men ranging from sizes 8- 12 no 1/2 sizes). 50 basket, 50 cellophane basket wrappings, and 50 fabric paint sets.   

I hope you will consider contributing to this wonderful cause. Most of the time Children's is given donations with the idea of smaller children in mind and we tend to forget that their are young teenagers just like our middle schoolers that stay in hospitals like Children's for extended times and could very much use a 'pick-me-up'!  

George W. Nebinger School is situated between the Queen Village and Bella Vista neighborhoods in South Philadelphia. Our students come from all over the city by bus, car, and on foot. We would love to provide students with bike racks so they can also choose to ride their bicycles to school. 

From walkbiketoschool.org: 
"[B]icycling to school enables children to incorporate the regular physical activity they need each day while also forming healthy habits that can last a lifetime. Regular physical activity helps children build strong bones, muscles and joints, and it decreases the risk of obesity. In contrast, insufficient physical activity can contribute to chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and stroke.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that children and adolescents get one hour or more of physical activity each day. Research suggests that physically active kids are more likely to become healthy, physically active adults, underscoring the importance of developing the habit of regular physical activity early."

Your donation will make it possible to purchase two (2) Sunrise Series Bike Racks in Nebinger's hunter green.