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
My students have significant emotional behavior disorders stemming from trauma and missing skills.
Let's just say social concepts do not come easy to my students.
While many children naturally pick up on social skills like having a filter, accepting defeat, being flexible and waiting, my students require explicit instruction on these areas so we can develop the skills necessary.
Julia Cook is a fabulous author who has written and illustrated a variety of exceptional books for children just like the ones in my classroom! The books Cook writes are about topics like losing games, not letting one bad thing ruin your entire day, accepting the word "no", accepting feedback from others, interrupting, and more.
We are requesting a variety of books written by Julia Cook to enhance our classroom library and our social skills lessons. I plan to directly teach each skill by reading her book and working with my students to create anchor charts and helpful reminders on how we can use these skills in and out of our classroom.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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.
