A Graham County educator was able to further outfit her classroom, thanks to a grant from a well-known fast food chain.
Robbinsville Elementary School literacy coach Crystal Buchanan received funds from SONIC to purchase supplies for her classroom, including phonics-learning games, 16 whisper phones for reading and other speech-therapy toys. Some of the funds were also used for professional development tools.
In total, the materials cost $565, of which half was covered by SONIC.
“These materials will help in several classrooms,” Buchanan said. “They can check them out and use them, especially K-3.”
She said she was able to get the funds through donorschoose.org, a donor funding rescue website for educators.
“I put it in the cart, then I wrote how it was going to help our school and help the kids and all help us teachers with professional development,” Buchanan said. “Then you submit it, and anybody can go in there and donate to it. SONIC donated to it and I had a bunch of anonymous sponsors from North Carolina, Georgia; different areas.”
She said she had used DonorsChoose to support classroom supply purchases before. However, she was not aware of the SONIC program in the past.
“When I was in the classroom and I taught first grade, I applied for a bunch of science kits that were based toward first grade,” Buchanan said. “We’re actually using them right now in summer camp.”
She said she was also trying to help her colleagues learn how to use the site.
“I’m going to be doing (professional development) for the teachers, and I’ve done two right at the end of the school year,” Buchanan said. “It was voluntary. They didn’t have to attend, but it was a good turnout.”
Additionally, she said it was helpful for new teachers who might not have a large amount of classroom materials at the start of their careers.
“I helped one teacher – who’s going to be in kindergarten – get more materials to help these kids in small group instruction,” Buchanan said.
She said without the funds from SONIC, she would likely have not been able to purchase the materials.
“The budget is so tight that there’s not extra money to get extra materials and then this year, we’ve had to add a kindergarten, a first and a second grade (classroom), so we’ll have six of each grade level next year,” Buchanan noted.