Teacher Jennifer Weter, a language instructor at Bradley, is among the most recent recipients of funding assistance through the Horace Mann Classroom Project, a joint venture of the Horace Mann Companies and DonorsChoose.org.
Weter outlined her classroom’s need for dry erase board easels on the DonorsChoose site and was selected for assistance through the Horace Mann program.
DonorsChoose is an online-based non-profit program that connects public school teachers with individuals and organizations committed to help public schools. Horace Mann, a leadership partner in the DonorsChoose program, is a multi-service insurance agency that specializes in providing coverage for teachers. Locally, Horace Mann is represented by agent Matthew Murphy with offices on Old Statesville Road.
The contribution to the project at Bradley will help Weter’s students explain and eventually solve problems in group tutorial sessions.
“Part of the program for these students,” Weter says, “is to have tutorial sessions twice a week. This is where college students or community members come in and work with small groups.”
Weter says her students prepare explanations of particular questions or problems prior to the sessions and then present the items to the group.
“This is where the dry erase easels come in,” she says. “The student presenter will write his or her problem on the board and the group will help them solve the problem by asking questions, not giving them the answer. The tutor supports the student presenter and helps guide the group when they need some assistance.”
The DonorsChoose/Horace Mann partnership program ran from Sept. 1 through last week. To qualify for contributions, teachers were required to have a DonorsChoose account and post a specific project for consideration. Weter’s “Tutorials Need Dry Erase Easels” was among those selected from the project page hosted by the Horace Mann Classroom Project.
“It is great that the partnership between Horace Mann and DonorsChoose is helping teachers and their classrooms,” Murphy says. “I am proud to be a part of this program and look forward to seeing more success stories like this in the future.”
