RAFTCOLORADO . ORG
RAFT COLORADO
RAFT CONNECTS THOUSANDS OF COLORADO TEACHERS WITH INSPIRATION AND AFFORDABLE RESOURCES FOR HANDS-ON LEARNING
Colorado teachers are known for going “ above and beyond ” for the sake of their students , and nowhere is this more evident than at the Colorado RAFT headquarters , located on the northern outskirts of Denver . There , you will find self-proclaimed Dumpster Diver and Executive Director Stephanie Welsh and her crew hard at work developing hands-on learning materials and activities to support Colorado teachers . Although these materials are all affordable , they are high-quality teaching tools providing immeasurable benefits to students . Says Welsh , “ Even teachers with excellent resources from their community depend on us for creative ideas and materials that will enhance student learning .” In 2016 alone , RAFT — short for “ Resource Area for Teaching ”— impacted over 270,000 students in 25 counties across Colorado .
Welsh began her career as an attorney at a large Denver law firm and then worked as a corporate lawyer for a national childcare company for several years . When local philanthropists Carrie and John Morgridge happened to visit the original RAFT office in San Jose , California , their vision for a local branch serving Colorado teachers was born . After some initial research into the idea , a hiring committee was established and Welsh — who had become involved with educational issues while her children were in school — was chosen to help develop and lead the organization . RAFT Colorado opened its doors in 2009 , with the guiding mission “ teachers come first ,” or as Welsh says with conviction , “ We ’ ll do whatever we can to help them .”
This singularity of purpose helped the organization reach over 4,000 teachers last year , although the precise number is hard to measure since many materials are shared with other teachers and classrooms . There are three divisions to RAFT : one that prepares time-saving activity kits — complete with detailed teaching guides — for students ; a second that provides hands-on consulting services and affordable materials for teachers ; and a third that offers professional development training and online resources for teachers . RAFT is located close to major highways to serve the maximum possible student population . Over half of its members are from districts where most students qualify for free or reduced lunch . Yet there is also a RAFT-On-Wheels component that
delivers these same programs to schools in rural communities that don ’ t have the ability to access RAFT materials on their own .
Staff members — most of whom are teachers themselves — are trained in developing creative , hands-on programs for children to meet specific curriculum requirements . They often work directly with individual teachers to help design custom activities to teach particular subjects . “ Project-based learning helps children build essential skills , like vocabulary , expressive language skills , and life skills ,” says Welsh . “ In the world of artificial intelligence , everyone ’ s realizing how important creative learning is .”
Generous corporate donors deliver pallets of everyday materials — cardboard tubes , fabric , foam , manufacturing by-products , jewel cases , and other items that are not even recognizable — which Welsh ’ s team incorporates into various activity kits . RAFT ’ s “ re-imagineers ” encourage teachers to look at objects for their attributes as opposed to their intended purposes .
“ A basic cardboard tube can be cut in half vertically and used to build a ramp in a lesson about gravity , force , and motion , while a CD can be used as wheels or as a base for a hovercraft ,” says Welsh . “ Through RAFT ’ s hands-on programs , students learn problem-solving skills , using cause-and-effect to figure out how items around them can impact one another .”
Despite its success , Welsh does acknowledge the organization ’ s challenges . “ Our business model is expensive ,” she says . “ We need a lot of space and support to execute our programming , and of course , pay rent and salaries .” Since today ’ s teachers are so inundated with job responsibilities , the organization tries to spread word of its services primarily by connecting
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