Posts Tagged ‘Educators’

8 Great Lessons for Teaching Kids about Philanthropy

Friday, June 11th, 2010

One way to empower young people to make a difference in their school, their community and their world is to teach them about giving.

Learning to Give offers lesson plans, activities and resources to educate youth about the power of philanthropy — sharing time, talent, and treasure.

You can use these ideas yourself, or talk to your child’s teacher about incorporating them into next fall’s lesson plan.

1. Traditions
Grades 3-5
Students will learn the vocabulary of philanthropy, use literature to discover acts of philanthropy in the making of quilts, and participate in their own quilting bee.

2. Earth Connections
Grade 3-5
Students will expand their awareness of the earth through the study of some traditional Native American beliefs about the concept of “Mother Earth.”

3. Global Garbage
Grades 6-8
This unit is designed to promote an understanding of the adverse effects of the careless actions of people.

4. Environmental Groups and the Three Economic Sectors
Grades 9-12
Students will learn about the three economic sectors: profit, nonprofit, and government.

5. Watch Me Grow!
Grades K-2
The purpose is for students to see the interconnectedness of nature and its importance in their lives

6. Building a Mini-Park and Bird Sanctuary
Grades 3-5
Students will take an active role and gain pride in adding beauty to their surroundings.

7. The Four R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, RESPECT!
Grades K-2
Through four quick and easy lessons, this unit emphasizes the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling with a particular focus on the significance of respecting our environment.

8. Pitch In! – A Philanthropic Puppet Project
Grades 3-5
Students will study philanthropists and environmentalists through literature and research environmental issues.

Learning to Give units and lessons tie together service and learning, core academics, and real world learning.

These eight ideas are a small sample of more than 1,200 Learning to Give lessons correlated to state academic standards, that link learning and service.

Who Will Be The Mayor of The LEAD Summit?

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Because we’ll be exploring ways to use social media for social good at the LEAD Summit in Washington, D.C. next week, we thought we’d experiment and have a little fun with foursquare during the event.

We’re curious about how foursquare might be used to mobilize people to take action, but since many of us still aren’t using this mobile application, we thought the LEAD Summit might be a good excuse to download it and give it a try.

LEAD Summit participants can “check in” at the event and compete to become The Mayor.

I realize that technically the LEAD Summit is an event, but we’ve entered it in foursquare as a place.

[Because this is an experiment.]

I also understand that Mayoral status is awarded to the person who “checks in” at a foursquare location most frequently and this might mean that those interested in becoming The Mayor of LEAD will have to cheat by repeatedly checking in.

[Did I mention this was an experiment?]

This will probably mean that participants vying to be The Mayor will be bent over their smart phones checking in over and over again and not paying attention to the speaker…

[I know, I know,  there are a few sticky places in this experiment.  It's a leap of faith.]

Twice during the summit, we’ll call out the reigning Mayor and, each time, he or she will receive a $100 gift card from DonorsChoose.org.

DonorsChoose allows you to select a worthy education related project to which you can donate the full value of the card.

[These make excellent gifts you know. Just sayin'.]

If you’re planning to join us at the LEAD Summit in DC next week, I hope you’ll play along on this one.

May you become The Mayor of the Lead Summit!

More information on DonorsChoose.org

Founded in 2000, DonorsChoose.org is a nonprofit Web site where public school teachers describe specific educational projects for their students, and donors can choose the projects they want to support.

After completing a project, the donor hears back from the classroom they supported in the form of photographs and teacher thank-you letters. To date, 88,000 public and charter school teachers have used the site to secure funding for $30.3 million in books, art supplies, technology, and other resources that their students need to learn.

Through DonorsChoose.org, individuals from all walks of life have helped 1.8 million students.

Follow them on and and read their blog!