Real Interactive Learning for Really Amazing Learners!
My students need a portable interactive whiteboard (and laptop to connect to it) to provide interactive and simulated situations to increase life skills abilities.
Imagine a classroom of 16 enthusiastic learners with intellectual disabilities who are eager to learn and become productive adults. My goal each year is to provide these amazing students with meaningful real-life learning situations to prepare them for life beyond the doors of my classroom.
I work with a wonderful group of students.
Each of them are working towards a special diploma within the self-contained academic setting of a Mild Intellectual Disability (MID) classroom. Most of my students are identified as MID, however I have two Autistic students, one severely Learning Disabled student, and one student with a Traumatic Brain Injury. Some of my students have physical disabilities as well, but in my classroom it is as if we are one big family and we cherish our differences. Each of them have difficulty with life skills such as working with money, telling time, measuring, reading comprehension, written language skills, and retaining learned information. Some of my students receive speech and language services. They are kind, generous, care for each other fiercely, and look to me as a role model...which I take very seriously. Our high school is home to 2800+ students just outside of Orlando. Although the school is highly regarded, funding is sadly limited.
My Project
If I were to have an interactive whiteboard (Now! Board) in my classroom there are a variety of real-life learning opportunities I could provide for my students. An example would be a lesson focusing on kitchen skills, measuring, setting the oven to the correct temperature etc. At this time I am only able to explain and draw pictures on my whiteboard, but with a Now! Board I can use web-based programming that truly simulates the experience. While I can explain how the earth rotates and how it relates to the seasons and day & night, with a Now!Board I will be able to demonstrate this with all of the elements in a realistic simulation. I envision using it for map skills, money skills, measuring as well as more academic activities such as reading comprehension using cloze reading and highlighted passages. With the use of a Now! Board there are literally endless learning opportunities available to my students. A laptop is necessary to work in the proximity of the Now! Board set-up.
A Now!
Board will improve my classroom by providing learning opportunities that correlate with my students' Individualized Education Plan goals and objectives, particularly with real-life simulations. My classroom will become more aligned with current technology as well as more interactive with student participation in the lessons through the Now! Board. My students' lives will improve through real-life learning opportunities that will prepare them to be productive adults in the community.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Hoffman and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.