In Kalamazoo we are lucky enough to have the Kalamazoo Promise which will pay for college tuition to graduates who attend a Michigan public (and some private) college or university. This fabulous gift has drawn many people into the community and has helped our enrollment to increase. My school is made up of 840 students who come from all sorts of backgrounds. My team has 158 hard working students who are eager to learn. Several languages are spoken at home by my students including Arabic, Spanish, Korean and English.
My sixth grade classes are made up of students with special needs, students who are refugees from other countries, students who are here on student visas during their parents course of study, students in single parent households, students living in foster care, students who qualify for free and/or reduced lunch and students who are struggling readers and mathematicians.
I work hard every day to make sure everyone is included and learning to their full potential. Students transition between warm up activities, computer learning, direct instruction and group work on a regular basis to keep them engaged in the learning.
My Project
Our district has faced increasing enrollment for the past 11 years years. We have access to technology but not enough for our large class sizes. If we are able to get six more Chromebooks we will be closer to having enough for a full classroom set. This will allow large classes to get closer to the desired 1:1 ratio of students to Chromebooks.
Chromebooks are used in my classroom for writing, learning activities, checks for understanding, remediation for students who are below grade level, differentiation for students who are above grade level, translating between the many languages students use in my classroom as well as district and state testing.
With the ever increasing needs for students to be technologically literate and ready for college, we need to be able to have all students using technology as much as possible. Our district curricula have been realigned to include many technology activities and these extra Chromebooks would allow us to include those activities more frequently than we are currently able.
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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 Mrs. Sowle and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
