"If you've met one person with Autism, you've met one person with Autism." Six of the seven students in my class have Autism and they each have different interests and needs. I would like an interactive whiteboard to help me reach them through their one common interest: interactive technology.
I teach 7 students who are between the ages of 8-12 years old.
Because we are in such a small district, I teach a special education class for students with moderate to severe disabilities for grades 3-7! My class last year had some very outgoing students who were intrinsically motivated to learn and had the ability to focus for 20-30 minutes. This year I have a very different group of students. It was apparent to me after the first day of school that I need to start from scratch designing activities that will maximize their learning potential. Each student is very unique. One of my 5th graders is not able to speak at all. He likes listening to songs about the alphabet and almost always has a smile on his face. My 7th grader has a history of severe behavioral issues, including self-injury. Two of my students can do double digit addition, while one struggles with the most basic math concepts. One thing they have in common is that they all love iPads!
My Project
I have 2 iPads in my class. They are loaded with educational apps that teach everything from handwriting to money skills and every single student is interested in them. An interactive whiteboard would be similar to having a giant iPad that we can all use together! Instead of playing a bingo game to learn coin identification, my students could take turns sorting coins using the whiteboard and a computer game. My students who struggle to pay attention to a math lesson for more than 3 minutes would, without a doubt, attend to what their peers are doing and actively participate. Just thinking about the gains they could make gets me super excited!
I think having an interactive whiteboard would completely transform my students' educational experience.
These are not kids who learn from worksheets or traditional learning activities. Last year I had a 6th grade student who started the year not being to read at all. He did not even know the letters of the alphabet. After watching reading videos that he liked daily, he was able to read a dozen sight words by June. That showed me the power of combining motivation, interests, and technology!
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