LOUDER for the Friends in the Back!

Funded Feb 3, 2019

Thank you so much for donating to my students and our classroom. We have enjoyed getting active within our conversations. The throwable microphone has aloud all of my student's voices to be heard which is exactly its purpose. Those students that love the spotlight have been able to have their moment, and the others that love to stay behind the scenes have been able to have others listen.

When we first opened the package, the students were so perplexed as to what it was! They were so curious as to what it felt like and how it was going to work. They were nervous at first because they didn't want to break it. After the first few shares, we established some procedures for sharing- like standing to share and pass. They even came up with a name for our ball, "Mike"- like Michael Jordan.

One lesson where this really took off was after reading about how much waste a school cafeteria can produce. We decided to be problem solvers and come up with reasonable solutions that we could employ. One of the students who speaks another language, who is often shy to speak, raised their hand to have the ball passed to them. With one pass and one cheer for sharing the student that has been working closely to help acclimate her to the classroom and school in America started to cry and said "I am so proud of you ________, I knew you could share!"

Thank you again for all of your contributions to our classroom, it is with your help that my students are free to take risks and have become stronger communicators.”

With gratitude,

Ms. PB