Laura, a beginning teacher, writes:

“I would love to use some of your books and start some FVR!

How do I do that if the school doesn’t have extra money to buy books?”

Good question, and one that I get asked a lot. There is more than one way to skin a cat, as they say. You may just need some ideas and some models. Well, here are a few. I personally know teachers that have done each of these fund-raising ideas. I have done the ones in green print below for my own classroom. Once you decide what to do, I can help you with Professional Development and with books in Spanish written by me and by authors we support.

Here are some of the best…

Ways to Finance Your Professional Development

and Your Classroom Library

MAYBE YOU CAN’T DO ALL OF THESE, BUT YOU CAN DO SOME OF THEM.

START TODAY!

  • Ask. Just ask. It is often the case that you have not because you ask not. Ask.
  • Write emails and physical letters to government agencies, libraries, publishers, book stores, businesses and individuals asking for funds and/or donations to build your classroom library. It will work if you stick with it. What? You’ve never seen The Shawshank Redemption?
  • Make a deal with your administrator: Vocabulary-controlled readers instead of textbooks. This was the best ask and deal I ever made for building my classroom library because compared to textbooks, readers are: 1) cheaper, 2) more effective, 3) self-differentiating, 4) engage a greater variety of students, and 5) easier to update – you can respond to trends in student interest much more quickly.
  • ON LINE POSSIBILITES
  • Create a special Amazon Wish List and put it out on social media.
  • Put out a request on social media – there are retiring teachers with classroom libraries who would love to donate to enthusiastic teachers that will use books in their classrooms.
  • Ask organizations like Go Fund Me,  Donors Choose,  Give Send Go,  Adopt a Classroom, Buy Me a Coffee, etc. for donations for you to get professional development or to build your classroom library. I know teachers that have received up to $1200 in a week for PD and books. There are people out there that want to help you. Just ask.
  • LOCAL POSSIBILITES
  • Do a fund raiser. Have your school World Language Club sell something or do a car wash to get money to buy books.
  • Ask your school Honor Society to help buy P.D. and/or books for your program. Those engaged, can-do kids will help you with a worthy cause.
  • Restructure your program’s annual budget to include funds for regular professional development and classroom library expansion. White board markers and books are my main annual budget items.
  • Do a community-wide fund-raiser. Dustin Lee, of Pine Bluffs, Wyoming (population 1,200), did a combo fund raiser that helped his whole town and received $88,000 in the fall 2022. Some of it was for new uniforms and travel for his girls basketball team, some for a community Disc Golf course, and some for his Spanish classroom library. It showed he was working to better his community and helped to spotlight his Spanish program. Brilliant!
  • Appeal to administrators in your district, particularly if you work in a Title 1 school or have a large ELL/ML or SpEd population. There is money available… even if at first they say there isn’t.
  • Ask parents to donate money. Back-to-School night is a good time to do this. This can be intimidating, but do it anyway. Not every parent can or should donate, but some want to give donations to a worthy cause, especially for their own kids. Some have the means to do so. I have always received donations when I asked parents for money for books. Sometimes it’s one family, sometimes it’s multiple families. Sometimes it’s $10, sometimes $500. If it is for a good cause and for their own children, people will donate. All you have to do is make the case and ask.
  • Ask families to donate target language books they have outgrown or no longer use.
  • Ask your school’s PTA for funds.
  • Ask a local service organization for money to buy books for your classroom. Those groups often have money to give, but don’t know where to give it. They’re waiting to give you money. They want to give you money. Are you going to accept it?
  • Charge a class fee. Obviously not everyone is allowed to do this, but you won’t know unless you ask. I bet your school charges fees for materials in art, shop class, home economics, and other classes. Why not World Language?
  • LIBRARIES
  • Ask your school librarian to buy target language titles. Put them on a cart and wheel them down to your classroom. This added tremendously to the selection of target language materials immediately available to my students.
  • Ask your local public library to buy target language titles and tell you when they come in. In many public libraries teachers can check out 50 books at a time for up to 6 weeks.
  • Ask your school librarian about interlibrary loans – that’s probably the cheapest way, but it depends on being part of a large enough district to have a lot of libraries with a few target language copies here and there.
  • Ask your school librarian for creative ways to afford books. They are experts at stretching a buck.
  • Ask to get discarded target language books from your local public library.
  • Go to a Friends of The Library used book sale in your community and stock up. There are two such sales in our medium-sized town every year. Thousands of books are donated by community members and hundreds of thousands of dollars are made for the local public library. There are always world language titles in the mix. If there is not a sale like this in your community, start one.
  • Contact other schools in your district to see what’s in their book rooms and if they would be willing to share or swap titles.
  • OTHER IDEAS
  • Ask an embassy. There are embassies of countries that speak your target language that would be happy to send you books. Mexico is particularly generous with this.
  • Search for target language books at Goodwill or other thrift stores.
  • Write a grant. There are plenty of charitable organizations that exist to give teachers money. Are you going to accept it?
  • Find or create your own Weekly Reader-type program where students can buy books — and then donate them to your classroom when they’re done reading!
  • Have upper-level students create books for lower-level students. This can be a satisfying and pride filled project for students. See this template for student-made books. If you haven’t done this, it is a great way to enliven the blah times in February and March. You can also use it as an end-of-the-year project. I used to have AP Spanish students do this after the exams were over and we still had a couple of weeks in school. It unleashes their creative genius and let’s them contribute to future students!
  • Use the educational discount at bookstores in your area.
  • Look on Half Price Books, Thrift Books, or other such websites. There are amazing deals out there if you will just look for them.
  • Ask me. If you are an underpaid or beginning teacher with a low salary let me know and I may be able to help you. Many of our authors are generous and might be able to donate books or sell them to you at a discount. Keep in mind that I am not a publisher, I just point out authors with good books. Our authors are teachers too and often operate on slim margins, but they may be able to help.  I can get some of the books and materials I have written to you free or at a reduced cost. You just gotta ask!
  • Buy them yourself. This is the last suggestion because teachers often have tight personal budgets and are already spending too much of their own money in their classrooms. I did a combination of the above ideas and also bought books for my classroom with my own money. I don’t want to put an extra burden on you, but there are are pluses and minuses to buying your own books:
  • Disadvantage: Cost to you.
  • Advantages: You have control. You choose the titles. Faster delivery. No bureaucratic red tape or paperwork. You can take those books with you or donate them when you move on to another school or when you retire.

Please comment and add other ideas that have worked for you.

Thanks to Joanne Glasgow again for several of the above ideas.