Hello and Welcome
Hello Educators,
Welcome to the Pass the Apple e-newsletter!
As you may already know, our goal at Pass the Apple is to make it easier for teachers in need of supplies for their classroom to connect with teachers who have gently used educational supplies to offer. However, our goal extends further than this. Beyond connecting teachers with affordable classroom materials, we want to help educators pass along their wisdom, advice, and inspiration to the next generation of teachers.
We all know just how hard those first few years of teaching can be, especially at low income schools. Personally, I taught at a Title I school in rural Tennessee for five years. About 80% of our students received free or reduced breakfast and lunch, and we received very little in the way of community and parent support.
Each year, I had a budget of just $500 to outfit my entire classroom, including my own copier paper and ink. As you all know, $500 just doesn’t go very far in a classroom, so I routinely ended up dipping into my own pocket. And I wasn’t surprised to learn that I wasn’t alone. In fact, it’s estimated that 99.5% of all public school teachers use their own financial resources to buy education materials. On average, teachers spend about $485 of their own money each year, but many teachers spend far more than that. If you stop to think about it, I’m sure you’ll agree that’s a staggering amount of teachers.
However, I believe the lack of funding isn’t the only problem we’re facing in our schools. Teachers must also deal with a lack of resources and support, especially in those first few years. With Pass the Apple, we want to help address both of these problems by giving teachers better access to gently used teaching supplies at low prices and also a community of support and advice through our blog (the Apple Seed) and our partnership (The Giving Tree) with DonorsChoose.org.
A Partnership that Continually Gives Back
Every time someone makes a purchase on PasstheApple.com, they’ll have an opportunity to donate a fraction of a dollar to DonorsChoose.org. We will then collect those donations and put them toward campaigns created by our customers. So, if you have a project that you need help getting funded, please let us know and we’ll be happy to assist in any way we can.
Spread the Word to Fellow Educators
I encourage you to increase awareness of Pass the Apply by telling fellow educators about our mission, services, and website. As I mentioned before, we are a very young company, and good word-of-mouth will go a long way toward helping us reach more teachers across the country. Through our newsletter, you'll receive great incentives such as discounts, exclusive content, and advance access to sales and promotions.
We hope that we can continue to connect with you not only on the Pass the Apple site, but also via social media. Please take the time to follow us on Twitter or “Like” our page on Facebook.
Happy Teaching,
Yolanda Terry