Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

In just three short weeks, I will happily continue to be a fourth grade teacher in the Bronx. As I begin my eleventh and most challenging year, I am excited and ready to meet and greet all of those apprehensive and eager little faces! Unfortunately, these children continue to be underserved in a community that will probably suffer more than most because of the recent budget cuts. In those eleven years, I've learned that technology in the classroom is a most important teaching and learning tool. In other, more affluent communities, computers are more readily available and helping to prepare those children to become some of the most literate adults. Having had the exposure to technology in their classrooms, they will be better prepared to enter institutions of higher learning and the demanding world of work. Accordingly, while traditional print-based literacy is still an important piece in educating our children, computers introduce and maximize a larger set of skills needed to survive and flourish in the 21st century. We know for a fact that our children see and/or use computers in some way each day; the supermarket, the library, the movies; and for those lucky enough to have access at home, paying bills, and communicating with friends and relatives. Each year in our classroom, we participate in several author studies. This past year, one of the authors we studied was R.L. Stine, writer of the "Goosebump" series. My boys read them all!! My girls seemed to lean more towards Charles Dickens, so they read "Oliver Twist", "Great Expectations", and "David Copperfield". In their literature circles, the children discussed and researched the time in which the stories were set (on the computer). They read about the authors' childhoods (on the computer). Naturally, this kind of active engagement sparked their curiosity and augmented their learning, which led to "linking" with and exploring other/related websites. In addition, as part of our social studies curriculum, we studied the Great Depression. This was very time consuming and much research was required. The children searched for and found appropriate and interesting websites, where they listened to and read narratives of the people who lived during that harsh time. Over the past several years, I have found that some of the hardest mathematical concepts to teach third and fourth graders are: elasped time, multiplication and division as inverse operations, place value past one thousand, percents and fractions. However, with the assistance of various repeat-practice and game websites, I noticed my kids were beginning to comprehend better because they were literally getting a clearer picture of certain concepts. Not only did my kids improve their skills, but they gained confidence, and some even overcame their fear of mathematics! Accordingly, I've seen negative attitudes towards mathematics change over time, when the children were exposed to computers and the varied resources it provided. They were more relaxed when away from the intimidation and embarrassment some suffered from "not knowing, not understanding" or "being confused". My children would get so caught up in the math games, they would forget they were actually learning. After comparing tests scores, overtime, I noticed a marked improvement overall. For my students who had trouble concentrating or focusing during a lesson, utilizing the computer meant having a chance to review using a particular practice website or game. This was invaluable! This coming year, I'd like to start a Pen-Pal Writing Project (as I was inspired by our bi-lingual 4th grade teacher). The children would connect, via the Internet, with children in other states, if not other countries. As many of my children are Spanish-speaking, and some from various countries in Africa, how awesome it might be for them to connect with their home country and get the latest news! All in all, for my children, the act of interacting with something that responds with video, animation and/or audio explanations, etc., has proven significant in raising their comprehension in all subject areas, as well as raising their test scores.