All of my students are diagnosed with emotional disabilities, which affects their behavior, social skills, and access to academics. They are making progress, but continue to need support to control their feelings and behavior, to maintain a calm demeanor while they try to navigate through their school day to learn. Often, they are easily frustrated during routine academic demands, miscues during social interactions, and internal stimuli that they are often unable to express verbally.
Several of my students also have a dual diagnosis of autism, health and or developmental delay, which further hinders their academic, emotional, behavioral, and social growth: They have needs that cannot be met in the regular education classroom.
Several of my students cannot tolerate other people to look at them, speak to them, or to touch them, they struggle to be accepted and to accept others. It takes a lot of consistent effort, creativity and patience to help my students to feel safe in their surroundings, and with each other. This year they will be spending more time learning in pairs and small groups of 3 or 4; working on projects that encourage movement, participation, peer trust, tolerance, and enduring friendships.
My Project
I have literally bought headphones 4 times this school year. I have bought them from stores and online, and they never last. They say you get what you pay for and it has to be true.
Dependable, heavy duty headphones will last for a long time in my classroom; students will not get so frustrated when they grab their headphones and learn that they are no longer working, once again.
This has been a problem so many times, often interfering with another group of student's lesson. It will really save a lot of heartbreak and frustration to have dependable headphones available for my students to use.
My students will use the headphones to participate in iReady, Zearn, ABCYa and other academic programs. They will also be able to use them while listening to relaxing music. I have several relaxation CD's that I use for the whole classroom, but having a CD player would allow a student to listen privately when he/she is struggling with his/her emotions.
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