I am absolutely thrilled with my new teaching resource. My initial thought for use of the teaching easel was for bridging at the end of each quarter, but I have found that I am using it on a daily basis, and I absolutely love it!
When we walked into our classrooms this year, we still had no idea what we would be able to use, not use, and how the desks could be arranged due to the ongoing pandemic; when I realized that my 41 total students (I have half in the morning and half in the afternoon,) had to be arranged in rows and columns, I thought "how in the world will some of the students see the board from all the way in the back?" Well, in comes the easel! It is movable, so I am able to move it from the front to back when needed. I am able to move it closer to the students so they have a better view. I also use it for student participation, students LOVE writing on the whiteboard, and since the movable easel is short enough for my students, they are better able to write on it and show their work. Students absolutely love that they have a whiteboard that they can use and it definitely encourages participation.
As I stated above, walking into this year was very uncertain. We had an idea on certain things we would be facing with the students being out of school for such a long period of time, but we were really not prepared for the intensity. The district seemed to continue to push and add things to our plate, like this was a regular school year. When our students came, we realized just how intense students' reintroduction of school would be. Simple life skills such as time management, organization, impulse control, tying shoes, lining up in a line, walking in the hallway, asking to go to the bathroom, staying quiet, and much more, were out the window. We had to reteach the simplest of tasks. This movable easel has allowed me to incorporate executive functioning skills into the classroom with games such as Pictionary or BLURT! I am able to move the easel to anywhere in the room so that students can play in groups while still following safety guidelines. Since this first quarter was so chaotic, the next steps for this resource will be to start bridging, bridging what students have learned in Spanish and in English in order to connect the two. We just started quarter 2, and for Social Studies/Lit, will be discussing Native Americans: Past and Present. Students will be learning about Native Americans in the US and how their communities have changed over time; they will learn about goods and services and bartering. For their end of the quarter project based assessment (PBA), students will be creating trading cards to trade with other students using a barter system.
This movable easel has been an excellent addition to my classroom, and I am so grateful to the donors who took the time to read my proposal and who donated their money to add something super special to our educational environment. I cannot thank you enough for your support and generosity.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Barger