Currently, my students only have old computers that survived the Jurassic period.
My students need 8 Chromebooks in order to access technology in the classroom.
Many of my students see my classroom as the place they come to gain support, guidance, and nurturing. I use inspirational phrases frequently. I do this while trying to bridge educational gaps of three more grade levels. This job is challenging with limited use of technology and hand-me-downs.
I teach students with multiple types of disabilities and varying needs.
What I've found is that very few students, including the students in a small group setting, respond to paper and pencil tasks these days. They need interactive lessons and respond well to fast-paced lessons. My school is pretty progressive, but regular-education classrooms do get technology first, so the resource classroom has historically borrowed laptops from elsewhere. My goal is to get students who are far below grade level up to par, so access to new technology and the ability to do more progressive things with them is essential to bridging the gap.
My Project
The sky is the limit when you begin to incorporate technology. I can begin putting students in small groups doing research online for independent study in order to increase their global awareness while increasing reading comprehension while I work one-on-one with another group of students on their math skills. I can use the Chromebooks to have students get on research-based math programs like MobyMax and Vmath while I work one-on-one with students on reading interventions. I can use Edmodo to interact with students online, assess them, and get them to interact with each other in a meaningful way. I plan to eventually put in another grant to get a projector and Mimio board so that I can increase interactive technology use even more.
Right now, my students don't get to use the same type of technology in my classroom that they would get in other classrooms.
This technology will allow the classroom to run more smoothly because they will be faster than the dinosaurs we're being given and would give my students the opportunity to gain more access to resources.
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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 Ms. Stebelton and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
