CLASSROOM CHAMPIONS: Teacher finds non-fiction magazines fosters real-world learning

LADSON, S.C. (WCSC) – Teaching is an ever-changing landscape, with much of the content students take in coming through digital mediums like projectors, laptops and tablets, some teachers still see value in the old ways. Paper and pencil.

One Berkeley County teacher makes what was once old, new again by providing non-fiction learning magazines to her students that she says really make a difference. Her Donors Choose campaign was recently funded by the Chuck Lorre Family Foundation and the Young Sheldon K-12 public school STEM initiative.

“When we were kids, you know, you could do a newspaper project or you could go read a newspaper and find a current event article,” Sangaree Intermediate School fifth grade teacher Mrs. Amy Wagner said. “We just don’t have that and this day and age.”

There’s something special about holding paper in your hands. In Mrs. Wagner’s class – she’s not trying to cling to the past – it’s nostalgia for the next generation.

“Having those physical copies of those Scholastic readers is so important and I just really truly believe in it and I’ve seen my scores increase in nonfiction,” Wagner said. “Which is not always the easiest for the students to grasp.”

That’s where you can help. Scholastic Non-Fiction Magazines aren’t covered through the school’s budget. Mrs. Wagner has been buying them herself. You could become a Classroom Champion – donating funds through her Donors Choose page helping to supply these magazines, which she says, make a huge impact on the kids in her class.

“I truly believe this is the best way to expose children to nonfiction because a lot of our reading standards are fiction-based, you know,” Mrs. Wagner said. “We do have nonfiction standards, but the modes and means that the kids are presented with that information is not in that nice kid-friendly wrapped-up magazine.”

Your donation will go twice as far in helping more children as Mrs. Wagner’s class expands in the following school year. Her typical class size is 25, she’ll teach roughly 50 in the 2024-2025 term.

“I’m going to be having two sets of children and be departmentalized,” Mrs. Wagner said. “So it’s going to give me an opportunity to have two different groups of children throughout the day. So this will not only serve one classroom. It will actually be two full classrooms of students which is going to be you know exposure to even more which is wonderful.”

While the physical pages of the magazines may remind you of a different era, the details within jump off each page – covering topics from AI to conservation, inventing and more. They help teach today’s emerging youth about today’s evolving world.

“So they’re making connections to their own lives and kind of seeing the world from you know, a 10 and 11-year-olds’ perspective,” Wagner said. “But then how that gets applied when they get older and they can see that, you know, I can grow up and do this so I can grow up and be interested in this.”

Expanding their horizons. Changing what’s possible… turning the page.

“It just gives them perspective and meaning to what they’re actually learning about and it relates it back to them,” Mrs. Wagner said. “And it’s all age appropriate, which I love. I know it would just be awesome to have this ready to go so I can hit the ground running in August and get my students that first article and you know go over it and get them exposed to it. And then you know, they just kind of take it the rest of the year and take off with it.”

To donate to Wagner’s other Donor’s Choose Project, click here.

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