This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
My Students
I teach in a Title I public high school in Dallas, Texas. My students have backgrounds that vary from new to the country with very little English skills to middle class. Our school is Title I with 100% free and reduced lunch.
This year COVID-19 has knocked the wind out of our usually very hands-on classes.
The vast majority of our students are now remote learners from home using school issued Chromebooks. They really want to learn, they zoom in on time. Turn in virtual assignments, all while working around the frustration of trying to learning new web based programs, etc.
I teach 10th, 11th and 12th grade engineering students. Due to COVID-19 most of our students have remained at home and are working hard at remote learning. This is difficult at best for all involved. My remote students are all working hard on Chromebooks, but this brings many limitations as our classes are built on software programs that require tedious work us
My Project
My engineering students are such an inspiration to me. They dig in and really work hard to learn our new systems. We use Autodesk Inventor and Revit, and Multisim circuit simulation programs. These are not easy to learn in regular times.
When using a mouse rather than a touch pad in our modeling programs, student efficiency and learning increases by 30 percent.
However, our students are struggling with touch pads while learning tedious 3D modeling and circuit simulation software. My students are so polite and flexible with all of the crazy changes we have endured the past few months, I feel like we should give them every opportunity to learn and practice their skills without struggling with the frustration of a touchpad.
My plan is to check out a wired mouse to each student who turns in a signed parent agreement. These components can then be used over and over each year with new students.
More than three‑quarters of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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