Past projects 2
Differentiation Station
Funded Dec 30, 2018With your donations we now always have technology at our hands every day. We are scheduled to have laptops once a week which sometimes is not enough. Your donation has impacted my classroom in so many ways. With your donation's students can practice and become self-learners. When they need clarification or guidance with a topic we can research and watch various videos to help the learning process without stopping the whole class learning. Many videos use more visuals than I have access to in class. Having access to the internet can sometimes bring in the real-world aspect of math problems in which they can relate to.
Another way that your donation has impacted my classroom is for interventions. I use an internet-based math program that I can individualized for each student and the concept they are struggling on. Having use of technology daily in the classroom has enhanced the effectiveness of the program which results in closing educational gaps. Students can work at their own pace and the program which has tutorials and hints to help them be successful. Having this technology allows me to group students together and work with them in small groups and assist in clarifying misunderstandings.
Lastly, the impact the tablets have had in my class is by creating an incentive in the class. Many students that are successful can earn game time in class. I have created a system to where students can earn game time in increments of 5 minutes based on their scores and growth in my class. This has increased the focus and motivation within the class. Students are doing strategies and taking their time to earn game time in class.
To know that there are people who understand the needs and struggles of the classrooms is very heart warming and words cannot express my gratitude.”
With gratitude,
Ms. L.
This classroom project was brought to life by Verizon and 4 other donors.Positive Attitudes = Positive Slopes
Funded Dec 3, 2014When I told my students that someone donated their own money to help make sure that we had the materials that we needed for class, their responses caught me off guard. A few students responded with "Thank you", while one student asked me why? To ensure I understood what they were asking I asked her to clarify her question. She then asked "why strangers gave to our class?" I explained the process and how the program worked and then stated that many people donated to make sure that you have every opportunity to succeed. She then replied, "People are really nice to care that we have school supplies and are learning". I never realized how many could not afford the basic materials. Each week I would often go to Office Depot or Walmart to purchase pencils and paper for the class to use.
I teach 8th grade math, so we need and use pencils every day in class. There is a bucket that students can borrow a pencil from without having to ask. Having basic materials is an obstacle that I choose to remove from my students. Having the pencils ready for use is very convenient and does not interrupt class time. I also got large chart paper that I usually write content notes that helps them during assignments. I also have the students creating graphic organizers as class projects with the chart paper. This helps them remember steps to solving problems. We recently started using a program that the camera grades their test and quizzes, which is great because they get immediate feedback on their work. I had their answer sheets laminated and they use the same one over and over. We are using the dry erase markers for every quiz and tests. The students like using the dry erase markers because they can use different colors to bubble in their work. Since the TEKS have changed we are doing more graphing in 8th grade math. The graph paper helps them practice graphing slopes, and equations. We are currently working on transformations, and the graph paper allows them to translate, rotate, dilate and rotate on the grid.
With the materials donated to the class I am able to have students participating and engaging in the lesson. I provide 90% of my students' supplies and it creates a learning environment. When everyone have what they need no one is left out and no one is disrupting the class by asking for a pencil. With the materials I am able to differentiate and test students in various ways. One assessment I did was having them work in pairs and create a flow map of how to solve surface area. Each group received a large chart paper and markers to use, I was able to clearly see as they presented their work if they had an understanding of the objective. With the large posters I am able to put up reminders and key notes that helps train them in solving the right answers. With examples around the room they can quickly look up and get help. I have really enjoyed and appreciate having these materials available for my class.”
With gratitude,
Ms. L.
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose.org Team and 7 other donors.