My students need a document camera for everyone in the classroom to see the same thing at the same time, right up-close, as if they were looking over the other persons shoulder, or through a magnifier.
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
My Students
We are the first public STEM school developed in our rural border county. We’ve had great success with enabling students to explore, apply, and test what they learn. We use combinations of project and problem based learning strategies, with collaborative and interactive learning activities. We have pioneered the introduction of engineering practices in elementary school, in our region.
We integrate the scientific method and the engineering design process into all that we do.
We apply a transdisciplinary approach to all subjects and make extensive use of models, simulations, and various hands-on experiences. We have great teachers, students, and technology, but we need the best tools we can find to maximize the effectiveness of all our resources.
My Project
We have many wonderful resources at our school. We are one-for-one with iPads for every student, wifi and AppleTV in every classroom, and much more. Even with our exceptional technology, and immediate access to the internet, there are still many important works that are only available to us in print, and many of those we cannot afford for everyone to have their own, and/or it would not be the best way to foster learning. Often the most effective technique with third grade students is to visually center them for a portion of their time so that everyone sees the same thing at the same time. Third grade is also when significant emphasis is placed on penmanship and students learn to write in cursive. Students being able to watch the teacher model correct writing procedures, and many other small scale fine motor tasks is very important.
This document camera will become a portal that will draw traditional materials and techniques into the 21st Century technology that engages students to generate learning faster and at greater depth than can be achieved by other means.
With this critical piece of equipment the teacher, or anyone else, can essentially be right beside every student in the classroom at the same time, with the students effectively, "looking over the shoulder," of the instructor or leader. The document camera can be used to demonstrate fine motor skills tasks such as writing; it can project printed materials so everyone literally, "reads from the same page at the same time;" and it can zoom into small objects so that important details in various structures can be examined and learned from.
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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. Cabanillas and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
