Twenty-three eager learners walk through the classroom door each day. They come from different homes and different families, with their own unique stories to tell.
The spirit of the five- and six-year-olds in my classroom is apparent, as shown through their love and joy for one another.
Our school community continues to grow its diverse population. My classroom is one of the ELL (English Language Learner) cluster classrooms. Our school is home to Hmong, Vietnamese, African, Mexican and other families. We are fortunate at our school to house two early childhood preschool classrooms. Not all incoming kindergarten students, however, have the opportunity for preschool.
My Project
As an EL cluster teacher I welcome students whose first language is not English. Academic language (e.g. general instruction words like "summarize," math words like "estimate" or science words like "predict") are especially hard for EL learners. Without knowing academic language, all learners can quickly fall behind in their progress.
As a kindergarten teacher I must help my students transition from social English to academic English.
While I strongly believe in class discussions and my whole and small group instruction, there is a learning component lacking in my classroom. Currently, my 23 students are having to share the only four working, very old iPads in our classroom. A dream come true would be for me to be able to place a working iPad into each pair of learners' hands. My EL students would have access to their Imagine Learning online curriculum. My hope would be for my EL learners to be able to teach their classmates what their lessons are on the Imagine Learning App. In addition, students would have more access to our RAZ Kids reading program and several wonderful math apps.
The appeal of using iPads in school is obvious. While I hold true to the idea of learning through play in kindergarten, I recognize the impact technology has on the lives of my students. I believe that having an iPad for every two students will increase the academic language and the social language skills necessary to be successful as my students move beyond the doors of my classroom.
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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. Gonko and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.