Help me give my students sturdy headphones with a mic attached so I can give individualized instruction and allow more access to creative, digital projects.
My students are risk-takers, innovators, care-takers, and adventure-seekers. I teach four sections of 6th grade Language Arts and I have four different communities of learners from all different backgrounds. Every class has their own personality.
I have a wonderful mix of students who are creative thinkers, analyzers, outgoing, shy, kind, sensitive, organized, and messy!
1st period is the class that also has their lockers in my room and I get to see them the most out of the day, which I love! They think I have super strength when I open their lockers on the first try.
2nd period is my energetic, social class who love to share ideas and work collaboratively.
My 3rd period push and challenge each other's thinking (and mine!) but are supportive at the same time.
4th period is a fun group and are always a little more relaxed...maybe because lunch comes next? Or they get me after I've practiced teaching 3 classes already and I've perfected the lesson flow?
I want students to own their environment and be involved in how the classroom should run. If something is not working, we have a class discussion on how to improve.
My Project
My 128 sixth graders come to me with reading and writing skills ranging from 1st to 9th grade level. In order to meet the individual needs of each student, I will be creating learning stations for students to listen to and practice the skills they need in order to grow as readers and writers in life. We have one-to-one iPads that allow this to happen but there is a struggle to have all students bring their own headphones as some cannot afford them, some forget them, or they've been lost forever.
With a classroom set of headphones with a mic, students can listen to their personalized learning video I've created, be able to record themselves reading, give verbal feedback to others and create projects.
This ultimately reaches all of the goals I have as a Language Arts teacher in meeting students where they are and building them up as continuously growing readers and writers.
To reach their interests with the skills and strategies they need to practice, I will make videos of how to practice these in the books they have chosen to read. By using the books they've chosen, it instantly becomes a true application of learning as opposed to practicing in a story or article I've forced them to read that some may have no interest in.
As for use of a microphone, we do a lot of peer conferencing, projects involving voice-recording (like iMovie for book reviews, podcasts, etc.), and simply recording themselves reading. These headphones will serve so many purposes and help students gain confidence in learning in all facets of life.
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