My middle school is in a culturally-diverse, high-poverty area in Durham, NC. We are a Title I school and more than 80% of our students participate in the free and reduced price lunch program.
Many of our students do not have access to the supplies and safe environment that students do elsewhere.
We are working to ensure that the Media Center is a place for students to know that they are safe and welcome. Our mission is to act as a community gathering space for students and staff to support their goals.
My Project
Our students will become global citizens in a world increasingly reliant on our technology. As educators, we have a responsibility to incorporate technology into instruction to develop our students' digital literacy, increase engagement, and enhance our lesson plans. Many children at our school do not have access to technology at home, and providing these tools in our Media Center is one way we can bridge the gap for disadvantaged populations. Our Media Center would benefit from having an iPad on hand for independent student use and to incorporate into small group instruction.
Students need to develop the skills to find and access information independently- an iPad would be the perfect tool to allow them to quickly and easily search the catalog and conduct basic research.
We would like to use the tablet primarily as a way to search the library catalog to see what books are available and where to find them on our shelves. Tablets are a great option for this because they are light and portable, easy for students to use, and provide strong processing capabilities at a lower price point than laptops. Additionally, we plan to incorporate a tablet in small group instruction, which helps to differentiate lesson plans so that a wide variety of learners can access content more easily. Tablets offer a wide range of affordable applications that were specifically designed for educational use, and once we connect teachers and students to this resource, the potential uses are innumerable.
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