My students need visual and concrete manipulatives that are teacher made, therefore a color printer, ink, and Velcro is a necessity not only for curriculum but also for communication.
My students require individualized instruction on their level. The lessons I provide to my students are grounded in the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis. We focus on relevant, real self-help and life skills. Visual materials are key to providing the direct instruction my students need.
My students have multiple disabilities with a wide range of impacts.
Some of my students are non-verbal (meaning they do not use speaking to communicate). For these students, we introduce and reinforce the use of a picture exchange system. This is a way for the students to have their needs and wants met. This method has also been studied and has been proven to help foster growth in both speech and language skills. My classroom is in a typical middle school that embraces everyone and everyone's abilities. We participate in homeroom, art and P.E. classes with same age peers, as well as attend assemblies and eat in the cafeteria with them.
My Project
Because most of the curriculum materials are teacher made, the color printer will be utilized in creating materials for class lessons. Recently, I created (using my old printer that has broken) grocery store items that were used to teach where to find items in a grocery store. This lesson was then differentiated for some of my students who sorted the groceries as to where the items are stored in a home kitchen. This is just one example of the many lessons I use teacher made materials for. I also print picture icons to use in the students' picture exchange communication books and visual schedules, using the Velcro to attach the icons for easy removal and attachment.
The donations to this project will help further my students' life skills because it will build on curriculum for all my students.
For some of my students, this project will give them a "voice" and facilitate language and speech development. The resources in this project will be used daily in my classroom to aid in the direct instruction of my students.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Goddard- Bowman and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
