Tech is motivating for almost every sixth grade writer. Writers appreciate the efficiency and easy access to their pieces from any computer, home or school. With 6 more chrome books, we will have one computer for every three students.
These 64 California kids look like the United Nations, sound like prepubescent John Waynes and Jodie Fosters, and plan to become Hollywood's next team of script writers and the world's engineer's, lawyers, inventors, business owners and teachers.
They attend a public middle school that serves an economically diverse community which has suffered with the economic downturn of the entire state. This was a community who provided for their own children and sent extra to help the children who couldn't afford the field trips, PE clothes, books, or tech learning requires. Now we must ask for the support of the larger community to help where our own cannot.
Recently, our school became a Google school and every student has an account where they can create or co-create documents, forms, and presentations. As a staff, we have attended tech conferences to learn about collaborative writing and problem solving work students can do with partners across classrooms, school, and the world.
My Project
These six additional computers will bring our class technology resource to ten Chrome books. We write daily, developing fluency and understanding of several genres: memoir, argument, response to literature primarily. Computers are a tool to support the writing and rewriting of several drafts. A piece is almost always polished to final draft on computer.
In addition, teams of three or four students will have Internet access for their group problem solving and research. Finally, students use the computers during our Socratic Seminars, a version of discussion circles. The inner circle of fifteen discusses a text,while the outer circle conducts a written discussion on a shared document. Those without computers serve as coaches for the inner circle, offering ideas that the inner circle can add to the discussion. After 20 minutes, students switch roles. The new Chrome Books will allow more students access to the written discussion during each seminar.
Technology is a tool.
Every student needs facility with the tools of learning and life to become the most capable citizens and employees of the future. We cannot teach them the ethics or mechanics of these tools, or open the world of tech creation without the tools themselves. Please help me open the opportunities for my students by providing the tools everyone of us needs.
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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. Taylor and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.