Past projects 8
Decoding & Blending Your Way To Reading Success!
Funded Jun 14, 2021Thank you so much for your gracious donation to my students. My students will achieve greater success in meeting their reading goal using the HandsOn Phonics Learning Bundle from Lakeshore Learning. This will truly help my students become lifelong learners by helping them develop their phonemic awareness, phonics, and reading skills. Again thank you!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Speight
This classroom project was brought to life by Panda Cares and one other donor.Embracing One Another’s Uniqueness through Reading!
Funded May 17, 2021Thank you so much for your contribution to my class. My students will most definitely appreciate your donation. I am so excited to see that this project has funded. I can't wait for the books to arrive to my school. The support of the DonorsChoose community is overwhelming and I feel so blessed to know so many people that value public education as much as you do. Thank you again for allowing me to provide these materials for my children.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Speight
This classroom project was brought to life by Chevron and one other donor.Inspiring the Artist Within Me
Funded May 21, 2020I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for your donations towards our "Inspiring the Artist in Me" art supplies. The drawing pads, colored pencils, and pastels placed wide smiles on the faces of all my students when they received them.
During one of art drawing moments, students drew their version of Van Gogh's "Starry Night". The students interpretation of the original piece was amazing as students used a variety of colors opposite of what was used in his painting, suns were used in place of the stars, others even drew rainbows in among the stars, and some in place of the stars.
Your gracious donation to our classroom project will enable my students to continue to be artists in the making; inspiring their creativity! My students have been able to express themselves through a variety of drawings. Again, thank you so much for donating to our class project.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Speight
This classroom project was brought to life by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and one other donor.Zooming Into Google Classroom With on-Demand Recorded Learning Sessions!
Funded May 28, 2020Thank you so much for your contribution to my students success. The iPad Air 3 has allowed me to actively engage my students during distance learning. As a teaching tool, it has provided students with a variety of ways to learn through a multitude of apps to to teach math, art, writing, reading comprehension, problem solving and researching,
My students were especially excited to see how I could provide direct instruction through the use of visuals, quick takes, photos, and videos. Distance learning at this critical time has been difficult for many of my students. However, I was able to modify my instruction to focus on individual students and group needs using the iPad to engage them in ways online we we unable to do at the onset of distance learning.
My students definitely enjoyed art class this year. The iPad has been a life saver as it is extremely hard to draw on an art pad under a document camera including not to mention my students had difficulty observing or even see the entire drawing. My students had the opportunity to see me draw in real-time a variety of characters from stories we read and to join in using the art supplies to create their own drawing.
My students and I am truly grateful for the class donation and we will continue to use to enhance teaching and learning!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Speight
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 5 other donors.Got Coding, Got Science Materials,But Need iPads!
Funded Jan 1, 2018As you know, schools budgets do not always take into consideration the needs of the student populations especially those that are reflective of Title 1 schools. Your contribution to our classroom and most importantly student learning has impacted us immensely. My students were very excited to have access to these iPads.
Although a variety of activities were conducted using the iPads, our major focus on using them was researching "Earth-The Water Planet". Since my students had access to a limited amount of iPads, we discussed and created a schedule in which all students to were able to participate in in their groups projects. Multimedia presentations were created by student groups based on key question in which they research on the "Earth-The Water Planet". iPads were used to research and to document their learning using Google applications.
With the addition of keyboards I purchased separately, students where able to use their keyboarding skills to enhance their final group research papers. I believe the most exciting aspect of the iPads was the students ability to create videos and to take pictures.
Thank you so much for your contribution to our classroom and my students!
With Much Sincerity
Al Speight”
With gratitude,
Mr. Speight
Our Next Generation Scientists and Engineers
Funded Jul 14, 2015My students and I are very grateful for your donations to this classroom project. They were extremely excited about the Nasco Polydron Bridge building set when I opened the box in our classroom. As we embark upon STEM activities in the classroom as well as the use of 21st Century Skills, students were given the opportunity to put into practice what they have learned about in collaboration, discussion techniques and understanding that everyone can make a contribution with dose of patience, time, effort, and cohesiveness.
This activity gave my students the opportunity to cooperatively work together to unlock the secrets of bridge building and inspire their inner creativity with bridge developments from the world's leading construction experts. Students where given the activity cards and planned how they would build the bridges as well as gather materials. The simple designs of the kit also allowed my student to quickly come to terms with making the most recognizable and world famous bridge constructions that span some of the most famous landscapes on Earth as they used the iPads to find these bridges in the world as well as discovered who designed them and for what purpose. The next challenge will include students going beyond the current set shapes and experiment with their own bridge creations.
Thank you so much for contributing to learning in our classroom!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Speight
"Science Looks Better Under a Microscope!"
Funded Apr 6, 2015My students were extremely excited about the microscopes donated to our classrooms. They were able to learn about the the purpose for microscopes which allows them to see living things they cannot normally see with the naked eye. My students also learned the parts of the microscopes and how to use them.
During our investigations, students were able to observe:
Algae - Those yellow, green or red things are not plants but are classified as organisms that exist in isolation or in chain.
Protozoa - Creatures resemble algae but have a tail that can be pretty hard to spot, and algae. They were so fascinated to see these organism move and even eat food.
Amoeba - Microorganisms that move with wobbly movements and form a blob in order to consume their food.
Several of my students who have behavioral challenges and in need of additional academic support have highly benefited from the use of microscopes during our science discovery and investigations. They were actively engaged and focused throughout the entire investigations. They were able to participate with minimal supervision and worked well with the other students. They were so excited about using the microscopes.
Next, we will be investigating the plant cycle and will be observing plants leaves to observe chloroplasts under the microscope. My class is very excited!! Thank you so much for your donation and support!!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Speight
Developing 21st Century Technology Writing Scholars
Funded Apr 3, 2015The use of the iPad for instruction greatly enhanced the writing skills of my students as well as how to videotape. My students were able to create a collection of their own narratives. They also learn various ways to research different types of informational sources and to distinguish between fact and opinion. Some of my students were able to create trailers for their projects using iMovie.
During our science presentations, students videotaped their presentations detailing their projects steps. Most of the students who's projects did not end the way they expected were able to go back and review the videotapes and make changes that resulted helping them meet their project outcome. During the typing phase of our projects, student used the Internet to research as well as email to send information and pictures. They also learned how to use the cut and paste option to gather information for their projects. Students also used email to send pictures and video clips. Lastly, students used Pages to type their reports.
The use of iPads during instruction has greatly enhanced instruction by sparking students interest in learning using technology for multimedia. Students were highly engaged during the science presentations when sharing their projects as well as the videos they created.
Thank you so much for donating and supporting instruction in our classroom!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Speight