Dear Friends, Family and Aid India Supporters,
Warm greetings from Chennai to you and yours in 2010!
Thank you to everyone who has already donated to the Ready to Read DVD Initiative and helped spread the word. In just 1 month we have succeeded in raising $2,853, or 71% of our intended goal for the next episode. In the first day alone we got pledges for over $1,000. Amazing! Thank you so much! It has been very encouraging and inspiring to get messages of support and see the new pledges everyday. The English team at Aid India and I are very appreciative!
Project Update:
In December, in addition to releasing the pilot episode to the public (thanks to everyone for coming!!), we also released it at the nearby Chennai school where 4 of the 6 kids who starred in the DVD attend. Not only were the kids thrilled to share it with their classmates, their classmates were thrilled to see them on screen--movie stars in their midst. I've attached two pictures from the all school viewing. Arranging this viewing for the entire school was a small challenge because as you can see from the pictures, the school does not have a large enough space for all the students except in the 'auditorium' which only has one outlet and lots of outside light, although no overhead lights. We brought the screen, projector, and speakers from our office which allowed all the kids to see and listen to it. Viewing movies, educational or otherwise, is not part of the regular curriculum at this school, so it was a special treat for everyone.
We are currently in the process of assessing the pilot episode at the above mentioned school as well as others to get valuable feedback from the teachers and students. Since the whole school screening, we've viewed it with the 4th graders three times as part of our initial assessment. Additionally, we are doing pre and post assessments with several students from each class to gauge the overall learning outcomes. Its a learning process for us as well, but we are borrowing ideas from the creators of Sesame Street. We are training volunteers to help us with the assessment and we will continue screening it and collecting feedback for another 1-2 months. This information will be invaluable as we develop the next set of scripts. I have posted a few updates (including pics) to the kickstarter website and will be posting more soon. Please stay tuned.
Project Details:
If you haven't already, please visit our 'Kickstarter' page to learn more about the Ready to Read DVD Initiative. Watch the 5 minute teaser and the behind the scenes videos to see clips from the project and learn more about how we made the pilot episode.
Kickstarter page:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/KirstenAnderson/ready-to-reads-educational-english-dvd-series
Ready to Read Program Blog: http://www.ready2readprogram.blogspot.com/
Announcement of the release: http://www.eurekachild.org/events/wow-whats-that-sound.php
How it works:
We have about 2 months left using the kickstarter website service. Our official funding goal is $4000 (for one episode). If we reach that goal, we get to keep all the money that has been pledged. If we do not, we get nothing. However, we can fund raise above and beyond our goal (and we hope to!). Given the generosity thus far and all the support we have received, we are hoping we'll be able to fund, not just one episode, but two, or raise about $8,000. If you haven't already, please donate if you can, even a few dollars will make a difference (our kickstarter page explains more and there are rewards). Please also share this project with your friends and family: forward them this email, or share it on facebook, twitter, delicious, myspace, or digg. There are links provided on the kickstarter website. You can also grab the widget and put it on your blog or homepage.
If you think you have pledged, but have not received a note of confirmation from me, we have not received your pledge. Please try again. The website has worked well for most of our backers so far, but there are a few kinks, so please let me know if you have any problems.
Your support and feedback is most appreciated.
Thank you,
Kirsten
