Reading, writing, science, social studies, and math! Oh my! So many amazing subjects to teach and even more inspiring topics to learn in a 4th grade classroom. The secret to engaging kids, integrate the subjects with dynamic themes and strategically incorporate the skills needed to be learned.
The students in my class this year respond incredibly well to creative and collaborative learning opportunities.
They enjoy class discussions around a heavy topic, like making conjectures in math, debating the north and south pole of a magnet, or claiming who made more money during the Gold Rush. All of these discussions require clear learning goals, an essential question to envelop the skills being learned, and time to experience the content. The students experience the content by having individual learning goals based on assessment, class goals based on formal and informal assessments, whole class lessons, small group lessons, and small group explorations in Centers. The students use classic resources like resource books and textbooks or hands-on materials like experiments or artifacts or online resources like virtual museum tours, videos, and blogs. The variety of tools engages the students and applies to the diverse learning styles in my room.
My Project
Funding this project will turn my classroom into a 1:1, device to student, blended learning classroom. With the regular use of Google Drive, project based learning assignments, online standards based tools like Lexia and Study Island, and the online assessments like the NWEA Measured Academic Progress or the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium, access to these devices is critical for my students. Presently my students have regular access to 10 devices for 30 students and we can get more devices when they are not being used by other classrooms. The students have been successful with the use of the devices and by getting more involved with their academic goals and their projects, they are using the devices for a variety of uses. It seems like the wait time is more often and the rest of the school is also voraciously using the devices. The learning needs are changing for 21st Century students and providing structured access to technology is valuable for accessing 21st Century skills.
I am incredibly fortunate to have a PTA and administrator who support the visions I have for my classroom.
As a site every classroom will be at a 1:3 ratio, however because of my previously funded projects and the recent PTA purchase, these final 5 Chromebooks will bring my class up to the 1:1 ratio. My students are so close to experiencing this blended learning environment to the fullest. Support this project today so my kids can be part of this vision!
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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. Lunde and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.