Past projects 6
Playing is Learning Too!
Funded Jan 20, 2017Thank you so much for participating in the learning that we are creating in our classroom. Sometimes it is so intense and/or fabulous that it will literally take your breath away. I don't mind having to repeat myself when it is because a child is so engrossed in what they are learning that they are out of tune with me. Thank you for allowing me that type of engagement in my classroom.
My students are enjoying the ability to work on individualized work, hands-on motivating work directly aligned with their specific needs or the specific areas that I am teaching therefore providing a pre-teach or a re-teach opportunity.
Learning is definitely taking place!”
With gratitude,
Ms. McGinley
Technology Motivates and Teaches!
Funded Nov 25, 2015Thank you everyone for helping us achieve another iPad for our classroom. My students were so excited when it arrived. We do a lot off our activities on the iPad and this creates a waiting time for many so they were excited to cut that shorter. I love being able to put a motivational learning tool into their hands and watch them light up.
My students are soaring with their reading testing because if you read your book, you get to take a test on it and that means you get to use an iPad. It is a beautiful strategy. They also are seeing that with more iPads we are able to get to more things and that means branching out and trying our learning in different ways.
We are truly blessed to have friends and parents that are enough about tomorrow's future to jump on board. Thank you all for being a part of tomorrow.”
With gratitude,
Ms. McGinley
Everyone Learns!
Funded Oct 4, 2015I would like to send each of you a sincere thank you for helping us acquire another ipad for our classroom. We now have six that we can use in our classroom putting us at a 6:1 ratio. We are hoping to someday be at a 1:1 ratio and operate our classroom paperless even if we achieve that one i-pad at a time. Your kind donation put us one step closer to that goal.
We use the ipad in a variety of ways. We use it to take morning reading comprehension tests and the students are very excited to see immediate feedback on something that they work on. It quickly motivates them to want to read another book and do it again.
We utilize the ipads during our reading centers for read alouds as many students are struggling to read on their own. We used them for individualized teaching of sight words as the teacher, myself, has the ability to load individual words for each student that they can work on during a center. We utilize them to make i-movies to retell stories that we have already read, we use them during math to practice our math skills and again the students are not only engaged in their work, but they are motivated by the immediate feedback they get from their work. We use them in writing to help us spell words or organize thoughts into sentences. It is very exciting to create something and share it with someone immediately.
My students are thriving thanks to your kindness.”
With gratitude,
Ms. McGinley
Exploring Nonfiction Text
Funded Nov 27, 2013We received our books and the students are crazy about them. We are using them in our reading groups, individual reading, and we read a book about music and then we made music instruments and created a really cool music video that I was hoping to share with our donors, but sadly it can't be uploaded.
We are using many of the books as resources for our writing reports both on and off our ipads. My students honestly can not get enough of nonfiction reading. I have students who have struggle all year working harder to gain their skills because they have their eyes set on a book that is too difficult for them to read all by themselves.
We are located in a rather rural community so it is wonderful to be able to send my students into a variety of environments to learn about many, many different aspects of the living, breathing world.
Thank you for making our reading rock!”
With gratitude,
Ms. McGinley
Learn Reading and Math with Technology! Future of Learning..
Funded Sep 10, 2011My classroom is booming with learning. It is often very difficult to reach the many different learning styles and student levels within the time frames and restrictions of my day. Our i-touch systems; however, have offered a very individual level of learning that only takes a matter of minutes to implement and switch from child to child. The learning is totally engaging and the motivation that it promotes is beyond anything you can imagine without actually experiencing the moment. I have been able to set non readers up with individual reading plans, struggling readers are able to read while recording themselves so that they can later hear how they sound and repeat this pattern over and over again to view their progress for themselves and challenge themselves with each reading.
Students are applying higher math skills as they branch out from the classroom structured curriculum into higher order thinking. Basically, everyone is winning with our i-touch systems and we send our gratitude to everyone that contributed to our project and made this learning experience possible.”
With gratitude,
Ms. McGinley
This classroom project was brought to life by Gap Inc. and 8 other donors.Learning Reading and Math with Technology
Funded Apr 15, 2011Thank you all for your support in my students' learning. I am sorry I can only share a few photos of their joy because from where I stand looking in, it is overwhelming. We have explored making videos, taking classroom pictures, reading books, learning math facts, adding money, learning about our vowels and we are only just beginning.
The students are so engaged with the new technology that I could host a party and they wouldn't be distracted - I have yet to achieve that kind of devotion to learning on my own. Next year we are going to explore the internet so we can interact with our classroom webpage, blog with one another and hopefully connect with our soldier pen pals. I have found this to be a great tool for struggling students who need a safe environment to ponder and explore their learning. I love that they can try answers without worrying about being wrong in front of their peers. I have also enjoyed watching my gifted students control the device. It has been a joy to be able to download higher order thinking for them to explore.
We honestly, even Abe Lincoln showed up to declare our honesty, thank each of you for helping our classroom. We were so excited about our new technology that we danced for joy, literally, and then we got down to business and started learning. Please inquire as to their progress if you know someone from our classroom. You won't believe the excitement.
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With gratitude,
Ms. McGinley