The Our Schools Needs grand prize winner, Greenfield Hebrew Academy had a dilemma. They had accumulated tens of thousands of Donorschoose.org donation codes from the OSN voting phase. Every vote had netted them a donation code, and with 24,000+ votes, their families, teachers and friends were sitting on quite a stockpile. But since rules prohibited the grand prize winner from benefitting from additional prizes from DC.org, they could not redeem them towards Greenfield Hebrew Academy (GHA) projects.
This is one of those "good problems" as they say. And GHA had a plan.
They were going to "pay it forward." Take all the donation codes, and put them towards the other finalists that did not win their category. When we heard about this, we asked Sue Loubser, Director of Technology at GHA, how and why they decided to do this, and what everyone learned from the experience. Here's what she had to say:
Q. What did you think of the OSN contest as a whole? Do you feel like it empowered your students to go out and get what they needed?
A. The competition was a wonderful experience during all stages - before, during, and especially after. Everyone had a common goal, and as we worked toward it, we became increasingly cohesive and proud. Our parents glowed as they shared our story, and our community stepped up to help us in a way we never could have imagined. What has been especially rewarding is the "Paying it Forward" campaign that we have created to help other schools in need. We are buying library books for Bear River Charter School, musical instruments for James Singleton Charter School (see http://ghapayitforward.com) and we have sent almost $3,600 in Donor Choose credits to Jessie Beck Elementary School to help them improve their technology.
We feel the competition was a positive experience, and for us it still hasn't ended. As our relationship strengthens with some of the schools that competed against us, we hope that this will be a lasting benefit from the competition.
Our students felt a great sense of accomplishment and pride in their achievement. They were positive and optimistic throughout the competition. They also feel vested in the new roof, and therefore they feel more vested in the school.
Q. What did you and your students do to dream up and create your entry? Was the process educational for them?
A. At GHA, like at most schools, we have lots of needs. We discussed our most critical needs in an administration meeting, and settled on the roof replacement, an urgent project that would cost just over $100,000.
Once we had the need, we handed it over to our music teacher, Ori Salzberg. He uses rap music to study with the students, so it was an easy decision to create a rap. After discussing the "story", or what could be included into the rap, our students broke up into groups. Each group was given an area to write about, and then they combined their verses together into our song.
At GHA we focus on social skills, and a large component of this is group work. Traditionally schools require that students work alone (don't copy! don't cheat! don't talk!) but we understand that the real world requires cooperation, working together, sharing, and compromise. So, yes, writing a song like this is educational and we know our students felt really rewarded by their group effort. For them it was an authentic learning experience on multiple levels.
As another part of creating our entry, our younger students worked with their science teacher, a parent and a roofing contractor to check the reflectivity and heat retention of different roofing materials. This part of the project was great because it, too, was authentic. The students learned about the extent of the roofing problem and worked on the solution.
In our mission we reference the three C's: Curiosity, Community and Commitment. This project spoke to all three. Our students had a real world problem to solve, which engaged their curiosity; with help from parents and the roofing company we engaged the community, and with the understanding of what was involved we became committed to resolve the problem.
Our administration, teachers, students and parents all worked together, sharing a common vision, which made this powerful to experience.
Q. Do you think the students have a better sense of empowerment? That they can change things for the better, even at their age?
A. Absolutely. This was an empowering experience. I believe that our students also learned lessons about the value of being a volunteer. As the competition progressed, we had more and more volunteers coming into the school to help. The students made a point of stopping by and thanking the volunteers. A number remarked about their dedication and how we started doing much better when we worked as a team. Because the students voted, they felt part of the process. The experience was far greater than just the students involved in the rap and the research. All of our students had the opportunity to be involved.
Q. Do you have any funny memories you'd like to share from this experience?
A. We had a large group of volunteers who moved into the school to help us during the contest. They named themselves the "Bing-a-lings". They came when they dropped their children off to school, and some of them stayed all day. My best memory is of a parent, who kept stats throughout the competition. He was my rock. He would let me know how many votes we had per hour verses the other schools, and give me probabilities of success. When things were stressful, and people were shooting us emails about the vote margins, I would email him asking what the math said. He would let me know with 93% (or some other random percent) certainty what he thought. At the end of the voting, when he shared his stats with me, I discovered that he had been doing everything by hand!! Now who does that - and then shares their stuff with the Director of Technology! (I have attached his file because it is worth seeing).
Q. Did you see people come together in unique ways to build a community of support for your entry?
A. This was probably one of the greatest benefits of the competition for GHA. We reached out to our immediate community, and then we reached wider. When we realized that our immediate community would not be big enough, we approached our broader community: other private schools and other Georgia schools. We reached out to radio stations and TV stations. I think because we were the only Georgia school in the finals, we felt comfortable reaching out to other organizations. It was wonderful to have everyone on our side.
Q. How do contest like Our School Needs help create awareness for the needs in schools today?
A. The competition made us much more aware of the needs of other schools. We know things have been difficult at GHA over the past few years. We have had to cut teacher benefits and teacher positions. We have cut programs and employee hours. We even stopped our school lunch program this year. So, for us, things have been hard. But, when we looked around and we saw how hard it is for other schools, we realized that we are blessed. Some of their needs are very basic. This was one reason we started our "Pay It Forward" campaign. The contest also made us aware of the Donor Choose program, which is a wonderful way to help public schools.
Q. What does it mean to your students to have a big company like Bing take an interest in their future?
A. Our students are really proud of being able to partner with Bing. It is meaningful that they do not hand us a check and leave, but that they stay with us through the whole process of redoing our roof. I know the competition also raised awareness about Bing and what a decision search engine is. Beyond that, it feels like we have formed an emotional bond with Bing and Microsoft, and that is something we value.
Rachel Bilson Karen Carreno Bijou Phillips Marika Dominczyk Dita Von Teese
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