Underwood Teacher Receives Donations for Classroom

  L​indsey Hjelle​, middle school teacher at Underwood CSD, is looking forward to purchasing new furniture for her classroom thanks to several generous donations. The new tables and chairs will benefit her students and their learning environment.
This project began when Hjelle noticed that as her students ​would ​sit at their desks, most, if not all, seem​ed​ uncomfortable, awkward, and unable to ​fully ​focus. Like many other school districts, recess is not on the daily schedule of a junior high student at Underwood. This can make it difficult to create opportunities for students to be active throughout the day. "I firmly believe that my students need to have more opportunities throughout the day to be active, even if it's in the smallest way," Hjelle states. So she began researching and discovered flexible seating. "Flexible seating is a term that caught my eye about a year ago. I read various articles about how students were more engaged in their learning when they were able to make their own choice of where they could sit and how it could help promote being active in the classroom (instead of the normalcy of being stagnant the entire day)," she shares.
  This transformation would also bring on changes in a teaching structure Hjelle realized, "In order to be even more effective​,​ my teaching would need to adapt right along with it. ​It was a scary thought. I've only ever known to have desks in a classroom. But, ​I couldn't help but think that this is exactly what my students need​ed​."
  Lindsey went to DonorsChoose.org to bring her project for flexible seating to life. Six donors had contributed to the project when a New York company, Ripple, decided to fund all of the active projects on the Donors Choose website. With $29 million, they funded over 35,000 projects!
Hjelle could not believe it! She says, "Flexible seating is not something that will transform my classroom in a day, but I do feel like it is my duty to try and reach my students on a different level, one that makes them more active, engaged, enthusiastic, and comfortable.​ I ​am truly thankful that I am able to make my classroom a place where every student can learn their own way,​ which is​ the best way,​ thanks to Donors Choose and Ripple."