NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Pre-K blended classroom at Kirkpatrick Enhanced Option School has been chosen to represent Nashville and the Tennessee Titans in the weekly NFL PLAY 60 DonorsChoose.org Showdown. The showdown is in conjunction with *Thursday Night Football *and was launched this season through a partnership between the NFL and DonorsChoose.org.
Each week a DonorsChoose.org proposal from each of the participating teams' host cities is selected for a voting process. Voting for the Week 6 showdown between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Tennessee Titans begins Saturday, Oct. 6 and goes through 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 11. The proposal with the most votes will receive full funding up to $1,000 from NFL PLAY 60, and the proposal that finishes second will receive half funding up to $500.
Kirkpatrick Enhanced Option Pre-K teacher Katie Elam's blended classroom has 4-year-old students of various development levels. Some students have developed typically when compared with peers but others have developmental delays or other special needs.
Elam submitted the DonorsChoose.org proposal entitled "Character, Community, and Connections" to reinforce the school's three rules: be respectful, be responsible, be safe. Elam would like to use the grant money to primarily acquire books but also puzzles, posters and stickers that can be used to teach lessons that emphasize citizenship and encourage the children to embrace each other's diversities.
"This project has lots of books in it," Elam said. "Books that will help us teach lessons about being a good friend, being a good student, but also help us talk about being respectful and responsible and introducing character concepts that may be new to our kids."
Elam said she is grateful that her classroom was chosen to represent the area and hopes to have a strong showing in the showdown.
"If we have lots of support, it would be so exciting, not just for this project, but to send the message to our kids and to our school that they are so important and that they matter to the Titans community and the Tennessee community."
"I had the opportunity to visit Ms. Elam's classroom and met her students, and it was apparent to me why this project was selected by the NFL to represent the Titans," said Bob Hyde, Titans VP-Community Relations. "As an organization, we are very familiar with these students as many of their families are served by the Martha O'Bryan Center, which is located adjacent to the school and where we have participated in many programs over the years. We want to encourage everyone to vote often for them as rules of the 'Showdown' allow votes to be cast hourly, giving us the chance to show our support many times over between Saturday and next Thursday's gameday!"
To cast your vote, please log on to http://www.nflrush.com/choose. Please remember to vote often!
About DonorsChoose.org
Founded in 2000, DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need. Public school teachers from every corner of America post requests, and individuals can give directly to the ones that inspire them. To date, 240,000 public and charter school teachers have used DonorsChoose.org to secure $121 million in books, art supplies, technology, and other resources that their students need to learn.
More from Metro Nashville Public Schools:
The Metro Schools First Choice Festival is Thursday, Oct. 18 at McGavock High School. Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools serves 81,000 students with the goal of being the first choice for families in Nashville and Davidson County. The governing body for MNPS is the Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County Board of Public Education, a nine-member group elected by residents of Metropolitan Nashville. For more information, please visit www.mnps.org.
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