Past projects 55
Creative Coding!
Funded Feb 1, 2020We are incredibly grateful for your generous donations to our project! The students are absolutely loving the coding materials. From opening the box, to exploring the Kinderbot and Rocktopus... they are filled with excitement! The addition of Bopper and the other Coding Critters Pair-A-Pets have been such a gift to all the students as they work together in play based speech therapy. I can already tell you that the initial impact has already generated so much joy and that will be shared among all the students and classrooms that I get to be a part of. We work as a team and often have fun speech labs that classes rotate to and from. I am so excited to get to add these materials into the rotations. These items can be used in so many ways to not only facilitate coding and beginning problem solving, but the language development is such an important aspect as well. From social communication, to making choices, to sequencing, and so much more... these materials provide all of that and then some! As an educator, it is the best feeling to be able to provide engaging and motivating activities for all of our students. You all helped make that possible! Thank you for sharing our projects, continuing your support, and being such an important role in our students' education. We will always think of you as we utilize these materials now and in the years to come.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Haney's Heroes
This classroom project was brought to life by Endless and 4 other donors.SmART Speech!
Funded Jan 23, 2020We will always have a need for art supplies to help us create meaningful communication lessons for our students. I am slowly starting to build up my supplies, so my students can have a fun and motivating way to express themselves. For so many of our lessons, we love to incorporate an extension project that helps to further vocabulary and comprehension development. These materials allow us to do just that! Thanks to you my students will be able to stamp ocean animals for summer themes, use adapted paint bushes and foam to practice grasp and create hand art, and so many other hands on activities. Tactile exploration through creating is such a wonderful way to help students communicate. Incorporating a core board with the art supplies vocabulary will allow students to request specific colors and items. The possibilities are endless. Thank you for giving us a SmART way to communicate!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Haney's Heroes
This classroom project was brought to life by Anonymous Arts Supporter and 2 other donors.Communicating Through Coding!
Funded Jan 14, 2020Wow! Thank you all so much for funding this incredible project! Normally, one wouldn't put communication and coding together, but there are so many unique ways these coding materials are helping our students facilitate language development. Thank you for making that possible. Motivating doesn't even being to describe how beneficial these materials have been. The students are so excited to push the buttons in order to get the caterpillar, dinosaur, cat, and dog to interact. They are making the important connection between cause and effect and are realizing that they can control their environment by inputting certain "codes" for each item. This is such a powerful tool to help them understand that they are able to control aspects of their communication via cause and effect (examples: asking and receiving and/or handing a picture icon). The students are just beginning to explore these materials and I know they will continue to enjoy discovering more. Thank you for your generosity with bringing this project to life!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Haney's Heroes
This classroom project was brought to life by Endless and 6 other donors.Sensory Speech
Funded Dec 18, 2019We have received the sensory materials and have been putting them to great use! Today we used the snow and water beads in a water bottle, so my visually impaired students could compare the different sounds each material makes. They also enjoyed shaking the bottles to feel the weight and speed of movement for each bottle. This was a very motivating activity because the students would complete other tasks in order to earn their sensory bottles. The wax craft sticks, glue sticks, and sand will help modify materials and provide much needed sensory texture for my students to explore. In addition, we are also grateful for other goodies such as the kinetic sand and play-doh, which will be used for many fun themes. Your generous donation has helped me provide a more sensory learning experience and my students love learning through hands on activities. I can't thank you enough for helping us start the new year off in a creative way! We appreciate the support and will think of you and your kindness as we continue to incorporate these materials throughout the year!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Haney's Heroes
Connecting Communication at School and Home
Funded Oct 16, 2019Thank you for your generous donations to my students. We received the materials quickly and got to work right away implementing the technology and adapting the materials. The VODs were distributed to the classrooms I support and were immediately used for functional communication. For example, we programmed one VOD to say ''open" and secured it by the door. Two are grouped together and allow the students to say "more" and "all done." Another student is able to activate a VOD to request attention and then select the person to engage with from laminated pictures of the classroom staff and peers.
Books that support the curriculum are continuously being laminated, Velcro has been added to secure icons, and students are matching pictures to the story during structured language activities. This helps develop vocabulary and comprehension among other literacy and communication skills. The extension cord has been extremely helpful because when we create PowerPoints to support the stories, all students can access the switch to advance slides because it can now reach everyone.
"Lucas the Lion Loves the Tiny Talker" has been such a helpful introduction to using a communication device. It is portable and easy for the students to access core words needed for basic communication. The textures and prepositions have been a great way for everyone to understand concepts in a tactile and hands on way. This has increased student motivation and engagement in the lessons because they want to explore the items. The sensory peapods have been such a help for those who need a little fidget to stay focused and on task.
We are so excited to keep implementing these materials throughout this year and into the years to come!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Haney's Heroes
This classroom project was brought to life by Chevron Fuel Your School.iPad Communication
Funded Oct 11, 2013Thank you so much for funding our DonorsChoose project! We were very excited to receive the package in the mail and have been using the iPad all the time to help facilitate communication. We are eager to share with you just how much your donation has positively impacted our learning. This device is not only a great learning tool, but is motivating as well. The students are successful because they are engaged with this new technology.
One of our favorite ways of incorporating this device into a lesson is by having the students use the program SoundingBoard to record their voices and select an image to correlate with their given passage from a story. Then, the story can be read back to them and they can hear their own voices. This allows them to hear what they actually sound like and helps them recognize their own prosody when speaking. Another benefit of this strategy is that the students work as a team to complete the reading, practice turn taking skills and direction following, and they get immediate feedback.
The ability to give the students immediate feedback is important because they are able to follow through with the whole process and see the results without having to wait and corrections can be made right then if needed. For example, if a student thinks they sound too quite it is simple to rerecord their passage. This allows them to self-monitor and be active learners. At the end of the lesson, they have a completed project and have been able to go through the whole process to get the end result.
Another way to reach the students I work with is to use SoundingBoard as a method for students to communicate their wants, needs, and choices. With this program, I am able to create boards for the students and they are able to use different methods of accessing the iPad to make a selection. They will pick the icon they want and, when selected, it will say the item. This allows nonverbal students a method of communication and more independence.
There are so many other applications that are helpful and promote language development. The students have really responded well to using this device and it is a great way to incorporate technology into the classroom and learning experience. The students are already great at manipulating the iPad to their desired application and this device is allowing them to stay current with today's society and implementation of technology in the classroom.
The iPad has shown to be both an intrinsic and extrinsic motivator and the students love seeing the results of the projects they have been creating. They are engaged in their learning process and growth is taking place that they are able to see. They are not just getting verbal praise, but they are able to actually see and hear their success and they are able to recognize when they are doing their best work.
Thank you for being a part of their success and for providing us with a tool that can be used for many years to benefit many students. We greatly appreciate the support you have give to us and to others.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Haney's Heroes