Past projects 9
One Laptop For Every Student!
Funded Aug 23, 2018The role technology plays in our classroom this year is incredible to see. Having a class set of chromebooks has completely changed the way we interact with technology. By the end of every school day, each student has logged onto a chromebook independently and spent time learning online.
Students log in to Newsela during Reading Workshop and read about what's going on in the world, then take online quizzes to practice their reading comprehension strategies. During Writing Workshop, students log in to Google Drive to type their writing, share their writing with one another and conduct shared writing projects. In math, students use online resources like Zearn and MobyMax to practice math computation skills and learn about new concepts and strategies. Students spend research hour reading National Geographic online, watching educational videos and learning about the topics that truly interest them.
As a teacher, I have always tried to teach students how to use technology efficiently, appropriately and with purpose. This year, with a full class set of chromebooks, I finally feel able to do this. Thank you so much for your support and helping me work toward this goal.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Myers
This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 20 other donors.24 Cool Kids Need 10 Chromebooks!
Funded Oct 24, 2017Thank you so much for donating to our Donors Choose project and helping us get 10 more chromebooks for our classroom. Now that we have close to a class set of laptops, students are able to use them throughout the day in a variety of ways. Learning how to be technologically savvy in a safe and productive way is an important part of school these days, and students need the time and resources to learn how to navigate the internet and learn from online sources.
During literacy workshops, students are practicing reading skills through interactive reading websites that are at their level, they are reading about the world through student news sites like Newsela and they are typing their personal writing using Google Docs. During independent research hour, they are searching the internet for information about animals, famous people, monuments, geography and more. Together we are finding new ways to use the laptops and Google Classroom to share information and work collaboratively on projects related to our reading and research. During math, students are logging into math practice sites and playing math-related games.
As the year progresses, I'm sure we will find even more engaging and worthwhile ways to use these phenomenal resources. Thank you so much!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Myers
Sharing Learning Through Podcasting!
Funded Jul 21, 2016Thank you so much for donating to our project and supporting our podcasting adventure!
We have already created three 20 minute episodes full of students sharing writing and research, interviewing one another and having discussions. We voted on a name ("One Cool Class Doing Podcasts"), created artwork and have an area of our classroom where we organize our materials, record our segments and do basic editing.
In order to publish the podcast, we collaborate, brainstorm, develop topics and themes, research, write scripts, conduct interviews, do basic audio editing and work with sound and music files. Students are constantly trying to find ways to make all the work we do in our classroom double as a podcast project, including writing projects and independent research projects.
The technology is new to all of us and we are having a wonderful time learning how to use it efficiently and effectively. Thank you so much for making this project a reality and I hope you are enjoying the podcast so far! If you haven't listened, please do: search for "One Cool Class Doing Podcasts" on iTunes or Stitcher.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Myers
Chromebooks for Class Projects
Funded Dec 8, 2015Thank you so much for helping to fund "Chromebooks for Class Projects." We use these devices every day and are striving to use technology and the internet in intelligent, responsible and efficient ways.
These four chromebooks are used for a wide variety of activities. Students read about current events via newsela.com, research their personal interests during our Expert Hour program, learn about geography and play geography games during our Ninja Geography activities, engage in coding activities via code.org, practice their typing on typingclub.com, publish their writing using google docs and much, much more.
Students engage in online activities and practice their computer literacy skills throughout the day, alone, with partners and in small groups. Thank you for making that possible!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Myers
This classroom project was brought to life by Disney and 6 other donors.New Read Aloud Books
Funded Oct 13, 2015Thank you so much for contributing to our project from the fall, titled "New Read Aloud Books." Having these books has made a huge difference for our literacy workshops.
In our classroom, we spend literacy workshop doing a wide variety of activities including independent reading, literacy circles (book clubs), partner work, assigned writing projects, independent writing project and more. Students are rarely working on the same project as their neighbors. These short picture books and read alouds are integral to this system, as they are the shared texts we speak about and make connections with. They are what we all have in common.
Thanks to you, we have a great library of new read alouds. I tend to read them to the class in order to introduce a skill or concept. We read together and talk about making predictions or inferences, or identifying themes, connections, genre, character traits, setting or main idea and supporting details. Whenever these skills or concepts arise, we can connect it back to the initial read aloud. Students revisit these texts independently, especially reluctant readers and students who are struggling to transition into the world of chapter books.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Myers
Tools To Help Us Stay Engaged
Funded Sep 14, 2015Thank you so much for supporting our classroom and donating to our project "Tools To Help Us Stay Engaged" at the beginning of this school year. The students were so excited when these tools first arrived and everyone has had a chance to use them at some point this year. The tools help many students stay focused on their work and engaged in classroom activities, and they make our classroom a special place that values all kinds of learners.
The thinking putty and other hand fidgets are used almost constantly by groups of students who benefit from keeping their hands busy under their tables while they are working and learning together. The kinetic sand provides a great opportunity for a sensory break from the classroom for students who sometimes need a moment to themselves and to let out some physical energy. The hokki stools are shared by all students and everyone gets their turn moving and wiggling their way through our day.
So thank you again for helping us obtain these items, they are being used every single day!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Myers
Help Students Stay Focused With Hokki Stools
Funded Oct 26, 2014The students of Room 213 thank you for your contribution to our Donor's Choose project "Help Students Stay Focused With Hokki Stools." Without your help, we would not enjoy these learning tools on a daily basis. We try to move around the room and move our bodies throughout the school day, so that kinesthetic learners can access material and be successful alongside their peers with other learning styles. However, there are times when students are asked to sit still and work at a desk for a period of time. Hokki stools have helped the kinesthetic learners complete work that doesn't call upon physical activity.
In the beginning, all students were excited to try these new learning tools. However, as time has passed they have proven especially useful to a handful of learners who continue to use them every day.
Thank you so much!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Myers
Literacy Games!
Funded Mar 2, 2014Students have absolutely loved having sets of Bananagrams, Appletters and Pairs in Pears in the classroom this spring. Thank you so much for your contribution to our Donors Choose project and for helping me make spelling and word work interactive and fun in Room 209.
In our class, we are fascinated by words and language. We consistently dissect and investigate new terms, research greek and latin roots, and learn conversational bits of a variety of world languages. Adding a playful, hands-on and sometimes competitive component to our spelling and word work has made this part of our week even more exciting.
Our spelling program has evolved into something completely unique at our school and something that the students truly enjoy. Rather than the typical system where every student studies and tests with the same 20 words from the district curriculum, we take the district spelling test as a pre-test. Then students build a custom spelling list based on their pre-test. Some students use the district list, or something close to it, others 'test out' of that list and go on the hunt for their own words, using dictionaries, thesauruses, middle school word lists and the internet. Students choose words based on their personal interests, whether that's geographical place names, science terms or mathematical language, or they simply open to a page in a thesaurus or dictionary and seek unfamiliar and interesting words. Students have one week to study and practice their words before they have a partner deliver their personalized spelling test.
In order to familiarize themselves with all these exciting words and become more confident spellers, students build their words using the tools you helped us purchase, either alone, with a partner, or as part of a whole class competition. It's an exciting part of the school day and wouldn't be possible without your generous donation. Thanks again!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Myers
Teaching with an iPad
Funded Oct 15, 2013Thank you so much for your support in funding our project, and for the iPad 2 we now have in our fourth grade classroom! The students were ecstatic to have this resource available to them this year. They have organized a fair system so that the iPad is used each day for research or to play educational apps, and so that all students have an equal amount of screen time.
Our classroom has a special ongoing project we call Expert Hour (it is based on google's Genius Hour concept) and the iPad is especially helpful during this time. Expert Hour occurs at least once a week and is an opportunity for students to explore their own interests, pursue a personal project, conduct research and share their learning. The design of Expert Hour encourages creativity, choice and motivation in the classroom. Students choose a topic or driving question to investigate, and will investigate it for at least one month. By the end of their investigation, they will create an 'artifact' to share with the class that illustrates what they have learned through their research, reading and writing regarding that topic. I believe this kind of work encourages creativity, self-teaching practices and lifelong learning skills - and the iPad has proved invaluable to Expert Hour. Students have used the iPad to research on the web and to learn through specific apps.
Thanks to you, and the iPad we now have in the classroom, students are excited to explore google maps and learn about new places, to research topics during Expert Hour and take notes, to use apps like Hopscotch to learn basic coding, and to use educational games to practice math and spelling skills. Thank you so much!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Myers