Past projects 2
Flexible Seating for Adaptable Learning
Funded Aug 13, 2019Thank you so much for your generous donation to our classroom. The students use the yoga balls, donut seats, and lap desks in ELA class every single day. Kids are able to use the chairs for group work, a comfortable place to read, and to bring their work into a quiet area if they want to work independently while others work in groups. By keeping the donut chairs at my group work table, I am able to encourage more students to seek extra help and to choose a seat working with an adult.
As my school works to implement Universal Design for Learning, including more seating options is an effective way of eliminating barriers to success. Students who struggle to sit still are able to wiggle and move while still maintaining appropriate behavior and completing their work.
Overall, the flexible seating options have made my classroom a more welcoming place that meets the needs of more students, and I could not be more thankful.”
With gratitude,
Ms. McNulty
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 5 other donors.Help us Diversify our Reading List!
Funded Dec 30, 2015Dear Donors,
Thank you so much for helping us to diversify our reading list! My purpose in requesting these reading materials was to make sure that more of my students are represented in the reading materials available in my classroom. Research shows us that the higher kids' motivation, the more they read, and that increased reading in their free time improves academic outcomes across the board!
In our class, students read in all different settings; sometimes, students read independent books, other times, students read in guided reading books at their own levels, other times, kids are reading a whole-class text. During our current unit, students are learning to run their own discussion groups, asking high-level questions of their classmates using Bloom's Taxonomy as a guide. By having more diverse books available to my students, they are better able to make text-to-self and text-to-world connections, which are so important to reading comprehension. Students have also connected some of the book choices to current events, about which they are writing research-based op-eds.
The kids have been able to connect on a personal level. As we were opening the cases of books, I explained to the girls who were helping me unpack the purpose of the grant. They thought it was cool to try to represent more of our classmates, and I explained that I tried to choose books that were also written by authors who shared the same cultural background as their characters. I then pointed to "Since You Asked," and noted that both the main character and author are Asian-American. One of the girls, whose parents immigrated from Cambodia, gasped in delight and said, "She's Asian?! Can I read that one?!" Your generous donation has helped my students see themselves in texts, and we are so thankful.”
With gratitude,
Ms. McNulty