Hello. I teach self-contained special education in the Mississippi Delta. I teach mainly ninth and tenth graders. The state of Mississippi was recently found out of compliance with No Child Left Behind, as they did not test Special Education students at all. As an immediate solution, the state decided to give all students subject area tests in Biology I, Algebra I, and English II. Because of this change, I have been working with the Algebra I, English II, and Biology I standards in my Employment English, Life Skills Math, and Life Skills Science classes. Obviously, my students have never been exposed to this kind of rigor in the classroom. Teaching biology is especially hard since we have no textbooks and my students' scientific vocabularies are so low.
Today for instance, we are going over the prokaryotic cell. You can imagine how uninvested students are who can not (a) pronounce prokaryotic, (b) understand what a cell is, and (c) see pictures of prokaryotic cells. I am hoping that by using pictures, for instance a picture of e coli bacteria or an up-close examination of the flagella, I can entertain them without boring them with tears and having them clock out for the day. Since so many of my students are not verbal learners, the pictures will really help to make the material stick in their minds.
I really believe that having an LCD projector (I already have a laptop), will put some razzle and dazzle back into biology for my students. Currently the only way of introducing razzle and dazzle to my students is the weekly experiments we do on Fridays after our weekly examinations.
This LCD projector would also be used extensively in my English and Math classes as well. I really hope that this technology will help my students forget what they do not know and how far behind they are, and instead create curious learners capable of critical thinking.
You can help make curious, critical thinking students by helping to make science (and math and English) “pop” for the students society likes to forget about. Thanks so much for your time and consideration.
Nearly all students from low‑income households
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