Mrs. Schwinmann's Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 21

• Zooming Into the New School Year

  Funded Aug 11, 2020

  It has been a great first semester thanks to your generosity! My students have been learning to write and share their responses with me everyday. This has been so helpful for me in tracking student progress and participation. More importantly, seeing my grow and become proud of themselves is the best gift!

  Teaching students virtually has been difficult to maintain engagement but my students are enjoying playing with me over the screen. Although they think they are playing, they are actually building their hand strength with the theraputty allowing them to become stronger writers!

  Thank you for supporting learning!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Schwinmann

  This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 5 other donors.

• Sensory Therapy

  Funded May 13, 2019

  The materials from the Sensory Therapy has transformed how my classroom runs this year. Due to staffing issues, we are slightly bigger groups than usual. The sensory fidgets provide my students with the necessary input they need to be able to access their curriculum while I work one to one with another student. This input allows my students to calm down and focus for just enough time to observe and participate in our lessons. My students LOVE the monkey noodles, and I LOVE how quiet my classroom is without noisy toys. I know our inclusion teachers are going to be so grateful for such quiet fidgets as well! Thanks for helping us access our curriculum and enjoy learning time!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Schwinmann

  This classroom project was brought to life by Craig Newmark Philanthropies and 4 other donors.

• We Are Family

  Funded Apr 17, 2019

  Thank you so much for your support! Last year, we finished the year with group activities at our new wonderful table including cooking and teamwork games. This year, we are starting our days with a writing activity during breakfast followed by morning meeting. It is so wonderful to have a space for all my students to sit and work at the same time. My students love sitting next to each and giving high fives as they complete a task. It is a blessing to be able to watch my students build a community together! Thank you !!!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Schwinmann

  This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose.org Community and 5 other donors.

• Help! I Can't Hear!

  Funded Jan 11, 2019

  Thank you so much for investing in our classroom! My students have been so grateful to have the headphones to access learning online. Now that we are beginning readers, we are able to participate in blending activities online to hear the sounds of a simple word and read it with fluency!! I am so blessed to see my students finding success and enjoying learning.

  Our headphones have withstood tantrums, snacks and good old-fashioned wear and tear so far. Thank you for all that you have done to support public education!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Schwinmann

  This classroom project was brought to life by Betterment.

• Money Madness

  Funded Sep 14, 2018

  As you can tell from the photos, my students have been THRILLED with the new resources. To start off, we began with sorting coins in the cash register as we learned the coin names. We then moved on to practicing paying for items in the classroom, taking turns as the cashier and using politeness to give and receive items. All these steps have helped my students understand the process of buying and selling. We moved on to the puzzle by connecting coins to numeric value. It was amazing to see our non-verbal students participating and interacting with materials and peers.

  I am so excited by my students success in the first part of our project. Our closing lesson with these materials will conclude with a field trip to a local restaurant for students to practice shopping and exchanging actual money. This real life experience is going to be an invaluable lesson that will help them become productive members of society. Thank you for your commitment to education. We are so grateful for your support!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Schwinmann

  This classroom project was brought to life by Charles Schwab Foundation and one other donor.

• Small Groups, Big Dreams

  Funded Aug 23, 2018

  When our headphones did not work the first week of school, we were unable to use iPad's and tablets because of the noise impact. Thankfully, with your support our technology center is up and running wonderfully. When writing the proposal for our headphones, I was focused on learning through technology with educational apps. To my surprise, the students and I spent a chunk of time working on plugging in the headphones, discovering volume settings and making connections between the plug and plug-in spot. These are concepts most students innately understand, but for me it was truly eye opening to discover my students needed support. Together, we have helped them become slightly more independent in this fast-growing technology world we live in.

  In addition, I had asked for Velcro dots. Most people don't understand how important visuals are to students with autism. The velcro dots have been used to make math support visuals, behavior management visuals and more! When you have students who have limited verbal skills, it is so important we give them choices and other ways to communicate.

  Thank you again for helping my students become even more independent!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Schwinmann

  This classroom project was brought to life by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and 6 other donors.

• Sensory Seeking Solutions

  Funded Dec 1, 2017

  Thank you so much for your support. These supplies have been even more tremendous than I have could have imagined. We have learned patience and perseverance. I never thought teaching Kinderg�rtners to wait their turn could be so exciting! I have truly enjoyed watching their eyes light up when they unlock the code with the number match or when the marbles race and the one we've chosen wins. We are so grateful to have friends and families who support our academic and social/emotional learning. Thank you from all of us!!!!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Schwinmann

• Learning Never Stops

  Funded Apr 20, 2017

  I am beyond grateful that you have decided to contribute to my classroom. Your kindness and compassion to allow my students to reach their potential is so heartwarming. With the materials you have supplied, I was able to prepare individualized student binders for my students to learn their own phone numbers and address as well as prepare individualized binders for students to work on their specific academic goals.

  Some of the most amazing materials I was able to create were assistive communication pieces for my students to allow them to communicate with staff and peers. They now have help cards, all done cards, schedule pieces and reward boards to make their education more meaningful. I was also able to create products that allows them to receptively express themselves despite speech difficulties.

  Thank you so much!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Schwinmann

• Bringing WiFi Into the Jungle

  Funded Dec 13, 2016

  I can't begin to describe the impact our new tablets have had in the classroom. Not only are students learning math concepts above their grade level, they are enjoying in! I have also used the tablets to assess student knowledge through different games and apps. It is incredible to see the focus and success of the students.

  Just a few weeks ago, we gave the students the opportunity to film each other displayed expected behaviors. We teamed with a kindergarten general education classroom and were able to have 8 small learning groups! That meant that everyone got a chance to act and film. It was so much fun to see the kids learning and working in groups with each other. I look forward to many more teaching opportunities!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Schwinmann

• No Pencil, No Problem

  Funded Sep 2, 2016

  Hi Donors!

  Thank you so much for your donation to our project, "No Pencils, No Problem." With your generosity, we received 3 different types of materials: a light timer, 2 magnetic alphabet kits, and 4 different science kits pertaining to our curriculum. When the students first saw the package, some were so curious as to what was inside! We played a guessing game and talked about different ideas.

  The students are beyond fascinated by the timer and made connections to the real world (stoplights) with the color coding!! The timer has been wonderful to help us with signaling and managing transitions. Before we had the science materials, science was difficult to gain student buy-in. With these kits, we have hands-on stations that allow for more student discovery and engagement.

  Lastly, the alphabet magnets have been a huge hit for spelling practice and as a free time activity! The students have spelled some incredibly long words when given the opportunity to manipulate the letters. In addition, the color coding has been helpful for helping students identify and recognize the vowels. These letters are a huge step up from our dollar store materials whose magnets were falling off.

  Thanks again for all your support. Your kindness fills our classroom with success!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Schwinmann