I'm sure you've heard that people remember 90% of what they teach. If my students had a class set of dry erase boards to show each other what we do in class, they'll retain so much more! When I get a group at the SmartBoard, they learn so fast! Let's extend it to every student.
My students go to a title I school near Louisville, Kentucky.
They come from a mixture of apartments clustered in the town and homes out in the country. My school works very hard at establishing a positive learning environment. We are a PBIS school, which means we focus on the positives that we see in our students. We are also a Leader In Me school. Starting in 2014, we taught our students the seven habits of highly effective people. We are barely into 2015 and we are already seeing the benefits- our students are taking ownership of their actions, both in the classroom and out. They set goals for themselves- then work hard to meet them. Our students are seeing doors open for them because they are the ones reaching for the doorknobs.
My Project
Having a set of white boards will help my students explain their ideas. A big focus of my math class is explaining their reasoning. This can get very tedious and resource heavy when we rely on pencil and paper. However, dry erase boards will allow quick and easy access to materials to write out thinking. Since one side of the board is gridded, students will have the option of graphing their work, or creating orderly tables. The boards will be useful in language arts as well, where students can quickly write responses to literature and hold them up so I can see them.
I've already seen the benefits of students being able to easily write out their thinking in a way they prefer. When I have a small group at the SmartBoard, they do a great job explaining math problems to each other. It would be nice to have 5 or 6 SmartBoards so all students could have that chance at the same time- but 30 dry-erase boards is much more feasible! And students find dry-erase boards and markers irresistible.
Right now my biggest struggle with math class is getting students to show their work.
When students show their work, they provide themselves with the opportunity to correct their own mistakes. It lets me help them, too, in case they don't see their mistake. Students much prefer dry erase to paper and pencil. Plus, this will cut down on paper use and help my school be more Eco-friendly.
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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. Korby and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.