Past projects 2
Tablets for Dual Language Students
Funded Sep 21, 2023Thank you all for you kind donations! You all ROCK! Thanks to you, my students now will have tablets to access educational resources such as Splash Learn, Google Classroom, 99Math, iReady and more. They will also be able to conduct digital research in Math and Science. They will be so happy!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Cotto
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 8 other donors.Chromebooks for Dual Language Students
Funded Dec 20, 2016Thank you so much for donating Chromebooks to our classroom. These technology devices have been very helpful to us in many ways. My students have been able to use them to conduct social and scientific research in the classroom. For example, they were able to create their geology presentations about volcanoes and their research papers about important events in the history of the United States. In addition, they have also been able to access reading and math-tutoring websites to support, help expand and/or enrich their skills. Some websites that the students access daily are Reading A-Z, Cool Math Games, TenMarks, Khan Academy, and Haiku Learning. Most importantly, students use these computers to interact and collaborate with me and other classmates during work projects using Google Drive and other applications. These applications allow them to work more effectively by saving time through multiple application access. I can also provide them with meaningful feedback that students can use to improve their projects.
The students find most exciting the fact that they can collaborate with each other during group projects and be able to present these pieces to their peers using Google slides. The students feel like young professionals during these collaborative experiences. It gives them a voice to express themselves and be creative in the process. Slides come with lots of features that student love to implement in order to makes their presentations more engaging and interactive. It is almost like creating a game on a computer. They also find it amazing to be able to update, revise and improve their presentation live and be able to communicate with each other without disrupting others students using the chat tool. What I like the most is the fact that just like they can share with each other, I can also use these applications to provide them with next steps using a grading rubric. I can also provide them with links and other resources they can use to improve their work. Most importantly everything is always shared and saved electronically on the cloud for their and my convenience. No need for flash drives or wasteful printing. These amazing tools are not only helping my students grow academically and personally but also helping to take care of the environment.
The students have warmed up greatly to this new technology in many ways. The first emotion that this project caused in my students was the feeling of importance and a sense of being valued by their donor and me. I have seen their motivation increase in the past few months with these new devices in the room. Now, they love to work more in groups and research topics. This has helped them increase their social and professional skills, therefore warming and bonding as a collaborative class. Now, we are currently looking into more ways students can use these devices and make meaningful connections that will last. For example, we are thinking of beginning a new Skyping project where the students will be able to communicate and share ideas with other students across the nation. This is how the students will use them to connect with others next year.
Once again, thank you so much for donating the Chromebook computers. I promise to continue motivating and supporting student growth.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Cotto