My students need quick access to the web, reading quizzes, e-books and databases in the library media center. Tablets will allow them to work in any part of the room.
This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My Students
I serve as the librarian to 775 students in grades K-8 in a charter school. Our funding is low so I raise my own monies for resources. I currently have 2 old and outdated laptops for library usage. I need my students to have access to the web and digital sources for literacy and research work.
We are located downtown in the capital of Georgia so we have a diverse student population.
Our students range from 5-14 years old and come from many different backgrounds. I am lucky to have a school of readers and scholars. Our students are great thinkers, always inquiring and striving to be their best. We are an IB World School so we also focus our efforts on rigorous academics, research, literacy and developing the whole child. Every student studies Mandarin Chinese for an hour a day and we have single gender classrooms. Our school is young, we are in our 9th year and we have solidified our place in the community. I took over the library 5 years ago and have transformed it from a small classroom with books on the floor to a proper functioning library in an actual library space. We raise 90% of the funds for library resources through book fairs and fundraising. We have come a long way but my vision for our library goes much further and obtaining resources is a big part of my goals.
My Project
Tablets would be used on a daily basis independently, in small groups and in a whole class setting. Many students come to the library independently daily to research, take reading quizzes, read online, search our database for books and work on personal interest projects. With the laptops we have now it is hard for students to get anything done without technical difficulties. Having tablets would allow students to work independently at ease. In a whole group lesson setting we could use the tablets for fact checking while I teach. Students could follow along on a web quest while I lead which would help them to learn the path and skills. I could break the class into 3 groups and have them each research different strands of the topic we are learning and then disseminate the information. The tablets would allow my literacy and research lessons to be interactive instead of lectures. When students do after they watch they learn more. I also intend to download apps for education.
Having access to information is the key to education in the library.
By having tablets all my students ages 4-14 will be able to independently access databases, search engines, web pages and more. The tablets will allow me to have a inquiry investigator in each class that looks up the classes questions about our topic of study. I have tried this with a class that has tablets and it is great; it maximizes my instructional time, puts research in the students hands and encourages inquiry.
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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. Tomlin and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.