Past projects 6
Ninja Skills for Emotional Regulation
Funded Mar 12, 2024These social/emotional resilience books are a critical part of our class. Students search for the little spots and eagerly wait for each Friday to hear another skill they need support in. They are getting much better at identifying how they are really feeling as we read each book. Some of our favorites are the book about Anger, the book on Happiness, and Positive Thinking. We have learned that you can not be happy and mad at the same time.
The students especially have enjoyed the Positive Thinking book. The students in my class struggle with basic reading and math. Some of their peers make comments about their reading skills. It is hard for them to stay positive. We have worked on balancing out our negative thoughts with more positive thoughts. With just a few reminders, the students are looking for good each day.
We have also been able to bring in another powerful tool for each of them; the Power of Yet. They may not have all the answers, all the skills, or even any of them YET, but they will! These and other tools are made easier through the materials you helped provide my class.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Harbison
A Little Spot of Social Emotional Learning
Funded May 9, 2024I would like to thank you for the gift you have helped provide for my special education students. Many of the students I work with struggle with emotional regulation. They have big emotions and don't always know how to even identify them. The books and little stuffed characters provide a fun way to get students to engage in something familiar.
When a student has a time they need to step back and cool off, we often come and just play with the stuffed characters. The students are asked to see if they can figure out which one shows how they are feeling. After some play time, we pull out a book to coincide and read a simple story of what the emotion is and learn some strategies to use to create new ways to react when a similar emotion returns. We have even built them into our day to day learning.
The students who struggle the most are beginning to ask for some time with the emotion guys as they refer to them. One student in particular loves to come and have a calming break with them and is starting to read the books to my instructional team. These resources are truly shaping their futures.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Harbison
This classroom project was brought to life by An Anonymous Supporter and 10 other donors.So Much Fun They Won't Know They Are Learning!
Funded Aug 25, 2022My students have absolutely loved all the hands on fun we have in reading and math these days. They were all thrilled to try out and learn each game and now have a repertoire of activities to choose from. At least two days a week we pull out one of the games and engage in math in a fun way.
The first day I brought the games out, the students had a difficult time deciding which game to play. I took a game with me to a small group to work on blends and they were immediately eager to make words to get to the end of the roller coaster. In another group, we pulled out the CVC dice and what excitement took off as they got to retrieve the dice to build words. I think their all time favorite, and mine, might be the Splash Math card games. It makes it so easy to have multiple groups playing a game at the same time as they can all look for a card to match the answer from a sea of answer cards.
I am so grateful for your generous donation to my special education classroom. I can see for years to come the growth my students will make in math and reading with the help and enthusiasm these activities bring.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Harbison
Variety using Hands-On Learning
Funded Mar 12, 2022This school year is off to a great start thanks to all of you! I am so appreciative for all the hands on manipulatives and games that you helped provide for my students.
When the items first arrived last school year, they were on a table for them to just look at and decide which would be most exciting to use this school year. As the year began this past August, they remembered and have requested so many of them. We usually spend half of our class either using math manipulatives for learning about place value and the value of 10, building words with a variety of activity centers, or playing a math or word game.
In the next few months, we will continue to build our number sense using the manipulatives and continue to strengthen our reading and decoding. Their favorite games are the CVC Blenders, CVC Word Builders, Zingo, and the Addition and Subtraction Pop; they ask to play them every day! Words can't express how great it feels to see them so excited about learning to read and calculate math.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Harbison
This classroom project was brought to life by Arizona Department of Education.Oh the Places They Will Go With Ipads
Funded May 10, 2015What a gift you helped contribute for the library. Just today as I was considering the impact of this iPad I realized it is honestly innumerable. As fifth grade students were in the library today they were able to each have a place to perform research for their explorer reports they are doing in class. One particular student just came to our school. They are typically disheveled and unkempt but they really have an ambitious spirit about them. They came to me and said they had no way to get the required information off the Internet. I sat them down with the iPad and showed them how to find their explorer. A few minutes later they came up to me and asked me what something was on the screen. It was a video! They had no idea what it was and when they found out, asked sheepishly if they could watch it. I provided headphones and let them glean the experience and information from the video in privacy. It warmed my heart to see that their life was so enhanced with this small bit of technology that we often take for granted.
Other students have shown such excitement when they are able to reserve books from the library on the tablets or simply mark down favorite books in their own catalog profile. Aside from the obvious games they are playing before school, most often the iPad is used for library catalog searches.
Thanks does not seem adequate enough when I see the excitement students have when they are able to learn things they are not aware are possible. Truly the iPad has opened new places for them!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Harbison
There's An App For That!
Funded Aug 22, 2014The addition of an iPad to our library has brought so much joy and excitement to the students. It is so sweet to see them come running in each morning, racing each other to be the first in so they can use the tablet. You can see on their faces how much they anticipate the ability to interact with the small technology device. And equally visible is the emotion they feel when they have not made it in to be first. These young children need opportunities to interact with technology and this iPad has increased their skills. It is obviously used often to play various game apps, but it is not uncommon to see students using it for searching in the online school library catalog to reserve a book or complete a works cited page.
During the school day, similar activities take place. Additionally we have used it to watch supplemental videos. Just recently students used the Ipad as part of a lesson on various holiday traditions. Students used the tablet to scan QR codes which took them to various videos about Kwanzaa as one method to learn about cultural differences at this time of year. It has also been used to check student work with an app called Aurasma which allows students to check their work by scanning a photo and an additional image or link will show up on the screen. Obviously we have used the Ipad for research in class and to use Destiny Quest, the library catalog app.
Using this type of technology allows my students to interact with technology in a non-traditional way. Most students consider computers and tablets as just a gaming device. The lessons I have used and plan to use are intended to teach them how useful the device is for other methods. I personally put lessons on my Google drive or Evernote to share with the class. This allows me to do work at home and share anywhere. These are such great collaboration tools. Not only are students learning how to connect with the world of technology they are learning in other areas.
Students are seen with their peers learning how to share and take turns, they learn time management when they are asked to split time used with others, and they are learning that the world around them is larger than they imagined. The world has truly been opened to them!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Harbison
This classroom project was brought to life by Gates Foundation Back To School and 13 other donors.