Frozen Star Kristen Bell has just selected a Belmont Teacher to recieve a mountain of school supplies as part of her #FeaturedTeacherFriday campaign.
Kindergarten Teacher Kristin Riggs of Belmont’s Page Primary School was selected out of thousands of teachers from across the nation who submitted an email entrys for the campaign.
Kristen Bell announced she had selected Riggs to receive the mountain of supplies on her Instagram account (which has a total of 10.3 million followers).
She included a part of Riggs heartfelt letter as one of the main reasons for her selection, which reads;
“I teach Kindergarten at Page Primary School in Belmont, NC. Our school serves a wonderfully diverse population of students including English-language learners and children with special needs. We have 8 kindergarten classes and 9 first grade classes. Our job is not only to prepare our future leaders academically, but also foster growth across all developmental domains. With mandated state testing (yes, we test our babies the first days of kindergarten) paired with a highly structured and rigorous curriculum, I strive for my kids to still experience as many joys of childhood that we can provide in the classroom! They need dress-up clothes, blocks, paints, games, musical instruments, science materials, and manipulatives! We also need flexible seating to allow them to complete work while still being able to move their wiggly bodies! As a parent to young children you know there is SO MUCH more to a child than their ability to read and write. Language development, fine and gross motor skills, self-help skills, social-emotional development, creative thinking, and confidence building are all integral parts of my kindergarten classroom. You may have heard that teachers in North Carolina are some of the lowest paid teachers in the United States. We easily spend over $1,000 each year purchasing necessities for our classrooms. The craziest part is, there is no where else I’d rather spend my paycheck. Watching a child transform during a school year is the greatest gift. Support to fill our classroom with materials to nurture and stimulate my students would allow my current class, as well as future classes, the opportunity to reach their highest potentials!
My greatest hope as their teacher is that they leave kindergarten with a love for learning! Thank you for being a part of this. Teachers everywhere are deserving of whatever help anyone can provide”
Along with her Instagram shoutout, Bell also included the link to Riggs’ Amazon wishlist in her bio, resulting in over 100 of her followers to buy and send Riggs’ even more supplies. She ended up receiving supplies as far away as from the U.K. and Zimbabwe.
The #FeaturedTeacherFriday campaign is a part of the larger #10FeaturedTeachers movement focused at curbing the increasing burden of buying classroom supplies for teachers who normally have to buy supplies with their own money.