Past projects 13
Selfie Confidence
Funded Sep 1, 2015It seems like such a simple, silly idea. Take some pictures of students reading and share them in a hallway display. But the addition of the instant camera to our classroom has sparked a much larger community-wide conversation about reading.
Creating a display of students reading their independent reading novels was just the start of a much larger conversation about reading in our community. Two years ago, our school library was quiet. Students were not checking out books in the numbers they are today. Students weren't talking about what they were reading for pleasure much at all. We were not a community of readers. But that has started to change. Our hallway display with pictures and book titles has been the start of many great conversations and book recommendations.
In addition to the hallway display, we used the hashtag #IoniaReads to share our recommendations and reads. As a result, we see ourselves as a community of readers. We talk about pleasure reading, trade book recommendations, and get excited about books. And you have helped us create this conversation through by helping us add an instant camera to our toolbox.
Words cannot express how truly thankful we are. Please know that your donation has helped students and staff in our community dive into reading.
Thank you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward
Take My Picture
Funded Oct 27, 2015It seems like such a simple, silly idea. Take some pictures of students reading and share them in a hallway display. But the addition of the instant camera to our classroom has sparked a much larger community-wide conversation about reading.
Creating a display of students reading their independent reading novels was just the start of a much larger conversation about reading in our community. Two years ago, our school library was quiet. Students were not checking out books in the numbers they are today. Students weren't talking about what they were reading for pleasure much at all. We were not a community of readers. But that has started to change. Our hallway display with pictures and book titles has been the start of many great conversations and book recommendations.
In addition to the hallway display, we used the hashtag #IoniaReads to share our recommendations and reads. As a result, we see ourselves as a community of readers. We talk about pleasure reading, trade book recommendations, and get excited about books. And you have helped us create this conversation through by helping us add an instant camera to our toolbox.
Words cannot express how truly thankful we are. Please know that your donation has helped students and staff in our community dive into reading.
Thank you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward
We're Flipping For Flipped Learning
Funded Aug 23, 2014What a busy and exciting few months it has been. Within the first few weeks of our school year, we received our Swivl unit and immediately set it up to record our daily notebook writing prompts, which was our initial plan for how we would be using the unit in my creative writing courses. My students and I set up a live streaming channel to share our daily writing activities with other interested writers, community members, parents, and students. However, we quickly expanded that original idea to include not only using the unit to live stream our prompts, but we have also established a live streaming channel to share our 10th grade English classes.
Students, parents, and community members can join our classes virtually each day, tuning into our live streaming channel, but they can also access recordings of our class. And this has been an invaluable resource in a couple of ways. First, when students are absent from class, they can either join us from home or watch a recording of our classes, making it much easier for students to stay caught up on the work we are doing in class. It has also been a fantastic review resource for students who want to go back and rewatch a class for content they may have missed the first time through. This has been a helpful tool in differentiating instruction to meet the needs of different learners in my courses.
But perhaps one of the most exciting ways that we have been able to use the Swivl unit is to share with our community the various speakers and presenters that have joined our class. We have been fortunate in being able to host a Holocaust survivor and three YA authors this semester, in addition using Skype to virtually connect with magazine editors and book publishers. And each time we have used our Swivl unit to both live stream video for our parents and community members to join us as well as to record each special presentation so that students and community members can watch and rewatch these at their leisure.
The Swivl unit makes such recordings more dynamic in that the camera follows the presenter, whether that presenter is the teacher, a special guest, or a student. In the coming months my students will take on a greater leadership role in our class videos and live streams. These opportunities would not be possible without your generous support. Thank you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Ward
This classroom project was brought to life by Gates Foundation Back To School and 5 other donors.