All Entries in the "News" Category

September Goals

As you know we had a meeting at the Scholastic Head office in Markham, just last week.

I must admit, I was a little nervous, but overall it went really well.  It was an honor to meet with the President and other key members of staff to show them our progress so far, with Write to Give.  We were there for just over an hour and a half  discussing the program, software and our long term plans.   We hope to hear from them soon.

In the mean time, September is quickly approaching.  Where did the summer go?

Later this week I will be posting up some book topics that are available.

I have posted the goals for our program below - please help spread the word.

1.  In the Grand Erie Board, the program was delivered to  55% of the schools in the 2009/2010 school year.  I would like to move this up to 75% this year. We need 8 Books for the winter print.

2.  Produce 4 books from the Waterloo Board.

3.  Produce 4 books from the Toronto area boards.

4.  Have international involvement from Hong Kong and one new country.

Our Big Goal is to raise $8600 to build a library.  During the last couple of months we have been working with VICDA to build a school in a rural area of Kenya.  You can see a picture below.  I would like to add a library for the students in 2011, and of course, fill it with Write To Give Books!

Meeting with Scholastic!

This coming July 20th, will be an exciting day.  I just confirmed a meeting with Scholastic’s President.  Stu and I are excited to share our growth of  the program, as well as our Member’s Area for teachers and the books that we have done already (all 21 of them :).

I am honored that Scholastic is taking the time to hear about our success and hope that they can help us spread the word about the program.  After all, the more teachers and students that participate, the more we can help overseas and raise awareness for poverty among young children.

New Book Topics For 2010/2011 School Year

This summer I am spending some time revamping our Member’s Area for Teachers.  This includes new lesson plans, examples of what is expected for our art wok, king of like exemplers, a central blogging area for teachers to share ideas and much more.

Also, this summer I have been spending some time thinking about new topics for books for this coming third print season.

I have had a few ideas that link with the curriculum, some of these are:

• Our Favorite Canadian Animals - Students write about what these animals look like, where they live and what they eat. *Science Curriculum Connection*
• Move Here Today - A persuasive writing activity where students get a chance to write about their town and why someone should move there. *Language Curriculum Connection*
• Top Ten Movies - Students get a chance to write a movie review.  *Media/Language Curriculum Connection*
• Top Ten Books - Students get a chance to write a class book review of their favorite story.  *Language/Media Curriculum Connection*

ISBN Number On New W2G Books

This coming print session (March and April) we will be printing our books through a new publisher.

We are very thankful for our old publisher (Reverb. Inc)  who published 14 books for us. They were wonderful to work with and helped us get the program off the ground.

However, as the program continues to grow our team has been on the look out for other publishers that meet our needs.  As a growing campaign, one of our big goals is to get these books on the shelves in stores throughout Canada.

As a result,  we will be printing the next seen books through Amazon.  The exciting thing about this is that the books will have an ISBN number!

We have received a draft copy of one of our old books and are extremely impressed.  We look forward to seeing and completing the next seven books.

Hong Kong Students Write to Give

This is an exciting time for Write to Give.  As the program continues to grow, it also reaches out on an international level.  This year we have students from Hong Kong currently working with Ontario students to complete one of our books.

The children from Hong Kong attend Kingston International School.

This is what I would like to see more of - in the future for Write to Give.  With the power of the internet, we could have one book written by four classes from four different countries!

Write to Give Helps Haiti

Thousands of children and adults have lost their lives from the earthquake that struck a week ago.

World Teacher Aid and the Write to Give Program has decided to join with others to help Haiti.

Two dollars from every book sold in the next printing session, from series two will be donated to help families in Haiti.

Please visit this site later this week for details on how the funds raised from the program will be used.