We reflect on our successes and failures at monthly staff meetings. Charles Best More Quotes by Charles Best More Quotes From Charles Best Teachers are heroes. Charles Best teachers heroes Hardworking, passionate teachers know their students' needs better than anyone else in the school environment. If we can tap into their needs, we can unleash smarter solutions and empower those people on the front lines. Charles Best teachers better people school No matter the circumstances, teachers show up each day ready to give their students every opportunity possible, and they never give up. Charles Best never-give-up never day opportunity DonorsChoose was conceived at a Bronx public high school where I taught social studies for five years. In the teachers' lunch room, my colleagues and I often lamented a problem that drained learning from students and creativity from teachers: a lack of funding for essential materials and for the activities that bring subject matter to life. Charles Best colleagues creativity learning life We will employ almost every strategy and hustle in any possible way to recruit top engineers to our team. Charles Best will hustle team way Acknowledging someone is an act of altruism in the first place, so converting that act of altruism into a pizza party or company fleece jacket or a gift card is fine, but it's not in keeping with spirit in which it all began. Charles Best gift someone place pizza I created DonorsChoose by putting pencil to paper - literally - and sketching out each screen of the web site and how it would work. Then I paid a programmer from Poland $1,500 to turn my sketches and common-sense rules into a functioning website. Charles Best pencil rules sketching work Learning is a critical part of our mission and organizational culture. Charles Best mission our learning culture We've long believed teachers know best what their students need to succeed, and that includes the creation of healthy, supportive school communities. Charles Best teachers best long school It's hard to enlist the support of people you don't know, but it's critical to growing your career, finding new customers, and building out your team. Charles Best you support team people Our ideological dilemmas won't ever be solved by machines. Charles Best dilemmas ever our machines At DonorsChoose.org, we believe that teachers are unsung heroes. Charles Best unsung teachers heroes believe At DonorsChoose.org, you can give as little as $1 and get the same level of choice, transparency, and feedback that is traditionally reserved for someone who gives millions. We call it citizen philanthropy. Charles Best someone choice you transparency I do not live off canned soup. Charles Best canned off live soup Our only political stance is this: listen to these teachers. Charles Best listen teachers only political We think there's nothing like sunlight to mobilize and energize citizens to demand change of their elected officials. Charles Best nothing think sunlight change We've established a free marketplace of teacher ideas and donor interests. Charles Best free marketplace teacher ideas We all remember special days at school, whether it was going on a field trip, doing a science experiment, or performing in a school play. Charles Best special remember science school To take on the jobs of tomorrow, students must become more than good test takers. They need to become makers who design, sketch, build, and prototype. And their classrooms will need more than a chalkboard and a set of textbooks. Charles Best sketch good design tomorrow At DonorsChoose.org, we believe that classroom teachers often know their students better than anybody else in the system and that their front-line experience gives them a special kind of wisdom. Charles Best better experience wisdom believe
