This year, I have 10 students in grades 6th-8th in my special education extended resource room. My students have a variety of disabilities including those that are cognitive, physical and sensory. In our classroom, we learn through a life skills lens. My students are preparing to become more independent as they approach high school. They are beginning to think about post-high school opportunities and how they want to be involved in their community.
My students are kind, hilarious, resilient and curious.
They love to learn and make progress in all of their individual goals whether they are academic, social, or behavioral. My students work with each other to create a strong classroom culture where we support one another, cheer each other other on, and laugh together.
My Project
As my first year of teaching ended, I started thinking about what could be done differently next year in order to improve my students' learning.
A few areas that stuck out to me were organization, writing, financial literacy and time-telling.
If my project was to be funded, we would first use hanging book files to attach to our desks to give us a place to organize our materials. Currently, my students do not have a way to organize themselves and this product will help teach them how to be responsible for keeping their workspace clean.
Second, my students are working to improve their writing skills, but would be able to improve at a faster pace with the following items. With the Early Process Writing Folder, they would be able to visualize the progress of their writing, in addition to learning strong organizational skills within writing. With the Giant Magnetic Lined Page, they would be able to follow along while we learn how to format proper letters and paragraphs.
Lastly, financial literacy and time-telling are strong needs for our classroom, in which my students learn best through direct engagement. The Roll & Solve Money Game, The Allowance Game, the Elapsed Time Instant Learning Center, and Time Bingo will help facilitate the learning of these essential life skills.
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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. Snyder and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.