My students need me to create fun, exciting, and professional videos for their learning at home. Camstasia Studio is one of the best screencasting programs available.
FULLY FUNDED! Mr. Dunham's classroom raised $393
This project is fully funded
My Students
I have been a high school Social Studies teacher for the past 10 years in my hometown. I try, on a daily basis, to make my classes fun and exciting...as fun and exciting as world history can be to a 15-16 year old kid! My kids tell me that I missed my calling to be a comedian.
My classes are full of incredibly diverse and gifted students.
Our district is a small city school district and while we have city school issues, we also have a tight knit community of learners. Each day I have the opportunity to teach classes full of white, black, Hispanic, and Asian students. Each demographic brings their unique backgrounds to the classroom, which always keeps things interesting! While our community does house a college, hospital, and an agricultural research facility, it also has a large amount of poverty with many students receiving free and reduced lunch services. Our school is not technologically up to date and many of our computers are outdated and connect to the Internet sporadically. Connecting to students who are growing up in the 21st century is difficult when our school is outfitted for 20th century education.
My Project
I want to flip my classroom! I have spent much of the last 10 years up in front of my students lecturing about the history of the world. Then my students are expected to go home and complete assignments based on my lectures, which they may not have fully understood. I will use Camstasia to record a screencast of my lectures. My students will be able to learn at their own pace watching these videos from home. The videos will be posted to my school webpage and YouTube. Additionally, I will burn DVDs of these screencasts for students without Internet access.
This will also allow me greater flexibility inside the classroom. I will have considerably more time to work with my students on hands-on learning projects and critical thinking skills rather than lecture to them from the front of the room. It will also allow students to use me and classmates as a resource in their writing and analysis assignments. Basically, I will be able to better serve my students learning needs!
Students today are not operating in the same world that we did as kids.
The educational model is based on the industrial revolution. It is a one size fits all educational model. Teachers have difficulty differentiating their instruction to meet the needs of all of their students on a daily basis. This leads to a mass education approach where a teacher spouts out the content and tries to get as many kids through the tests as possible. I want to reach each student on an individual level.
Nearly all 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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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 Mr. Dunham and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.