Our school is a therapeutic day school program, the task of which is to provide emotional support and academic opportunities to children who have been unable to succeed in community school settings due to emotional, learning, and behavioral difficulties.
The majority of our students live at a residential children's home and are wards of the state.
Our school runs as a trauma-informed program, aiming to help our students grow from their pasts and learn how to cope in effective ways.
Despite the challenges that our students face, they are incredible children. Their resiliency, love for learning, and curiosity are truly inspiring. I strive to make my classroom a welcoming and safe community and to help my students explore learning and grow into independent and productive citizens.
My Project
An Amazon Echo? In a classroom? You bet!
My students are hard to engage.
Technology can drastically help with student buy in, and I KNOW the Amazon Alexa Echo will do the trick!
The Echo is a "smart speaker", named Alexa, with several microphones that can hear you across the room. Students would be able to ask Alexa questions like how to spell a word or what the weather will be like today. This can often be a huge frustration for my students, not knowing the answer or having to ask for help. Alexa would step in and offer a motivating way to ask for help.
Alexa can answer research questions for students, and can play games. After downloading games to the Echo, students can play riddle games, number games, and listen to stories and answer listening comprehension questions all from Alexa. I see this being a great way to engage students in their learning and that the games will be really fun reward opportunities and activities to play during snack time.
Alexa also plays music, which will be another great reward for my students - asking Echo to play their favorite jam when they earn it!
More than a third of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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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. Szczecinski and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
