Why I'll Be Supporting Teachers on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Tonight

Hey, I'm in NYC right now because I'll be on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert tonight with Biz Stone, the Founder of Twitter, and others, like Charles Best of DonorsChoose.org, to show respect, as well as support for teachers.

The thing is, #respect4teachers is needed now more than ever. I've teamed up with DonorsChoose.org to help create the #BestSchoolDay ever.

I'm not going to give too much away, but on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, we'll be talking about the flashfunding initiative that we're calling #BestSchoolDay.

Here's a preview of what's going on: #BestSchoolDay is a call to action for people across America to support classrooms in need. DonorsChoose.org is kicking off #BestSchoolDay with a philanthropic flashmob of entrepreneurs, athletes, artists, and philanthropists who are funding every single classroom request that teachers in communities across the U.S. have posted on the site.

The Craig Newmark Philanthropic Fund is funding all of New Jersey, and at my suggestion craigslist is funding Detroit. The thing is, I spent 10 years of my life in Detroit as a programmer, and after a decade, well, I had a small fraction of a clue what the deal was there. Detroit's an important part of my history. And so, I wanted to help.

Also, important to note that I’m a ’50s-style nerd, grew up in Morristown, NJ, playing in one of the neighborhood junkyards. Please take that literally. I only recently realized that my family had been hovering between poverty and lower middle class.

We need to get behind our teachers-in-need, and access the power and potential of online communities (organized via flashfunding/crowdsourcing initiatives and otherwise) to get stuff done.

Having the supplies to teach should be a fundamental right. It's our job to give back to the people who are educating generation after generation.

Can you give back and help make every day the #BestSchoolDay? Also, make sure to tune into The Late Show with Stephen Colbert...

#respect4teachers