One great way to ensure student participation and success is to put tools in the hands of each student. These markers are low tech tools. While we teachers do our best to address all supply needs in our classroom, some small items can make a big difference (but also a big dent in our wallet!).
We are a Title 1 school in a rural area.
A strong sense of community bands students of many backgrounds together. They are awkward, loving, silly, middle schoolers. I teach approximately 120 different students each day in 4 different classes of about 30 students. I teach all levels of Language Arts, from the extremely low students in my grade to the highly gifted.
My Project
I'm requesting 2 sets of markers with a specific plan in mind for each. I have a class set of whiteboards that I made out of showerboard from Lowe's. I bought a set of dry erase markers several years ago, but they have all dried out or been used up. We use dry erase boards for a number of activities, from small group instruction to class participation/polls to brainstorming our writing and thinking.
My district recently purchased a program that allows us teachers to print bubble sheets (like ScanTron or standardized tests) and grade electronically assignments that will determine our students' mastery levels. I'm planning on precoding and laminating a sheet for each student that can be reused throughout the year so that I don't have to waste paper. However, the students will need to fill in the bubbles with wet erase markers. These markers will not come off (like dry erase) if I stacked pages together or if a student accidentally swiped their finger on it. We can clean these and reuse.
Many students are reluctant to speak their answers out loud in front of a class, for whatever reason.
Using dry erase markers/boards give them a safe, secure way to share their answers and input with everyone else.
The wet erase markers will aid me in quickly assessing my students and then being able to address weak areas for individuals and groups of students.
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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. Walker and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.