Past projects 3
More Smiles, Less Piles!
Funded Jun 29, 2021Thank you for providing organization bins for our classroom! Prior to the school year starting, I set up the bins, each labeled with a student's name. The students were excited to see and use their new organizational spaces as the year began.
Our students change classes throughout the day. They have small cubby spaces in their homeroom class. However, since they are frequently out of that classroom, they are expected to rely much on their backpacks for holding and transporting belongings. The result is heavy backpacks with straps that are breaking. Many of my students exhibit executive functioning deficits, as well. The organizational bins that you helped provide for our room have allowed each student extra space to store his/her belongings. This has helped them to keep up with their materials more efficiently. Two of the students even use their bins to hold and charge their Chromebooks each evening so that they will not forget to charge them at home.
I have some of the sweetest and best students out there, and I so appreciate your contribution to their educational experience. Organizational bins may not seem like a huge thing, but these have made a difference in our classroom. The students have less cluttered work areas, their backpacks aren't as difficult to carry between classes, and they're learning to be more organized. Again, I say thank you for blessing my students and enriching their learning opportunities with your willingness to give!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Tate
Seeking Sensory Squeezes With an Autism Steamroller
Funded Dec 1, 2020Thank you so much for donating to our project!
Other than a few isolated quarantining situations around the building, we have been very blessed to have our students whose families chose in person instruction back since early January! We were initially still on a 4-day schedule through the week but have been on the 5-day schedule again for the last couple of months. It feels so wonderful having students back in the classroom!
When the students returned to school and saw our new sensory steamroller, they were super excited! They each took turns trying it out. Some of the teachers tried it out, too! One of our students with autism who has sensory-seeking needs has begun to use it independently at times to help meet those needs. When the students were being rewarded with a movie one day, he pulled the steamroller out of the sensory room and crawled into it rather than sitting in a chair or on the floor to watch the movie.
Your contribution provided this wonderful machine that is helping our students to presently handle the stress and anxieties that have resulted from the pandemic. I'm certain that as we continue to move forward, our students in the years to come will benefit greatly from it, as well.
Thank you once more for blessing our students! Have a wonderful summer!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Tate
This classroom project was brought to life by FamilyAlbum and 4 other donors.Sensory Tools to Ease Socialization Experiences
Funded Oct 20, 2019What a strange year it has been! Thank you so much for supporting my class this year! We hope you and your families are doing well!
When our resources arrived in late fall, we were initially reluctant to open the "big" items, as we were scheduled to be moving into our new school building over Christmas break. We organized the fidget items so that the students could begin using those to ease their anxieties during the socialization experiences that required them to step outside their comfort zones. We decided to go forward with welcoming Alexa to our classroom, as well. The students loved having these new resources available to them! One of our students especially enjoys fidget spinners. We saw really encouraging gains in her socialization skills this year, but more on that in a bit. The students were able to play new games and participate in new activities with their social peer group classmates using the Alexa Echo Dot skills. I'm amazed at how many skill activities are available! I'm still exploring and learning more!
So, Christmas break came and went....our new school opening was delayed. We continued to use the resources in our old classroom. Realizing that the new school opening date was still up in the air, we decided to set up the bubble tube floor lamp. For confidentiality purposes respecting my students with special needs, I did not include identifying pictures of them. They were excited to open that big box, though, and assisted with putting the fish into the tube. One of my students independently made it his routine/job to turn on the bubble tube each morning. We didn't use this resource in structured activities with our social skills group, but it did contribute to the calming atmosphere during our socialization activities.
Finally, we received word that we would be able to move to our new building! We began preparing our new classroom, which is complete with two sensory areas! My vision was to make one of the areas more of an independent calming space and have the other as a more active, sensory-friendly space for small group social activities. The students came over to tour the building on March 11th. March 16th was scheduled to be our first instructional day at the new school. Instead, March 16th was our first nontraditional instruction day with students working at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. :( We held out hope that we would be able to return to school during the 2019-2020 school year. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Even as I sit here in our new classroom now, we aren't certain what the fall will look like. We have a wonderful new building with new technology and awesome resources that donors like you provided, here waiting to be used by the students. My husband and I just recently put up the fiber optic curtain light kit in one of the sensory spaces. I know the students are going to love it, as well. I am so very hopeful to see my kiddos here in the building in August!
During our traditional instructional time this year, I did see good progress with my students in the areas of communication and overall social skills. The students were eager for Alexa to understand and respond to the verbal prompts they gave her. As such, they became more attentive to their articulation and language efforts. We frequently used Alexa during our morning meeting calendar time. The students would take turns from day to day asking, "Alexa, what is the temperature?" One of my students independently realized how much Alexa could assist him in other areas, as well. During math one day, he tired of using his calculator and asked Alexa the answer to the equation on his page. Part of teaching is helping students know how to use their resources, so I found that to be smart thinking! The students, also, used the resources that you provided in our lessons about how to make requests and how to wait appropriately when necessary. Many of the resources received were used to help the students relax more during social interactions. Over the course of the year, the little girl I mentioned earlier in this note began to independently choose to sit with peers from her general education classroom during lunch. She began to talk with them more and would play with them on the playground during recess. Friendships are so important in life. One of my biggest goals for all the students is to help them build those social relationship skills.
Again, we thank you for your contribution to improve our classroom! You have invested in the lives of some remarkable students, and we greatly appreciate you!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Tate
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 8 other donors.