Proration. Budget cuts. These dreaded words have a chilling effect on life inside a classroom. They mean teachers often do not have the tools they need to present subject matter to children in the most effective and productive way such as no money for an “extra” sheet of paper or a kit of things that will make a tricky math concept more real to a student.

That’s the situation in Kelly Harris’ “Tigers Den” at Baldwin County High School. Her class has 20 special needs students in 9th through 12th grade. The students have physical and mental handicaps, and Harris needs a variety of things to teach her students. For example, her students need to know about traffic safety. A set of common traffic signs would be a budget breaker, and Harris had gone to her own wallet more than once already.

But today, a set of traffic signs sits alongside a plethora of items all purchased especially for Harris’ students.

Did she win the lottery? Knock over an ATM or two? Hardly.

“Last year Sonic came in doing a fundraiser. They mentioned DonorsChoose.org. You sign up and ask people to donate to your project,” said Harris. The DonorsChoose.org group was already known to Harris, who said she began using the website in 2008.

DonorsChoose.org was founded in 2000 by a social studies teacher in the Bronx, according to a DonorsChoose website. Teachers, Harris said, get ideas for items they would like to have by examining a DonorsChoose catalog. They then post an appeal for the funds needed to buy the equipment.

According to the website, “DonorsChoose.org makes it personal: You choose a project that moves you, and then hear back from the classroom with photos and updates. We validate the project request and purchase the resources for the teacher, so integrity is guaranteed.”

Another page on the site states, “more than 165,000 teachers at 43,000 public schools have posted over 300,000 classroom project requests, inspiring $80,000,000 in giving from 400,000 donors.”

Harris added that people could choose to send as little as a dollar or as much as they wanted to her projects. It’s not immediate gratification. She began the appeal for the traffic safety signs and activity kit (worth $266) in September of 2010, and it was not filled until January.

The DonorsChoose program has received national attention. Oprah Winfrey named it “one of her favorite things” around Christmas last year.

“You do send the donors (whose identities are masked from the classroom teachers and students) thank-you cards and Harris’ students, who cannot write, make thank you notes using stickers.

One of the most unusual requests Harris has made was recently granted.

“I wanted a microwave, a Foreman grill and a toaster oven,” she said, explaining that she teaches her students to make simple meals, like warm sandwiches and hot soup. Until the new appliances arrive, the students will continue to go to an adjoining classroom, and even then, the microwave is too high for students in wheelchairs to use. The class can go upstairs to a teacher’s lounge, Harris said, but even then someone has to hold the heavy microwave so wheel-chair-bound students can use it.

According to the DonorsChoose site, 13 projects are active for Baldwin County schools, from Foley to Bay Minette.

It’s amazing, said Harris. “We have received more than $5,000 worth of stuff since October of ’09.”