Help My Survivors Keep Up With 21st Century Learning!

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

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

My students of varying special learning needs have really made some great strides in reading and math with the addition of the I-Pad acquired. However, they are in need of expanding with the changing times of the district goal of one-to-one technology.

The district recently announced that all students will be taking assessments and eventually have their own Goggle accounts.

Additionally, our school has purchased web-based reading intervention programs such as Smarty Ants while continuing the web-based ST Math. The most effective times my students of varying learning disabilities and grade levels (k-3) to utilize these programs is during independent centers times when we have spelling or math group rotations. We currently have one I-Pad and one computer that is compatible with these programs. We are in need of at least one more device, such as the I-Pad mini, along with some headphones (so it is not so noisy during group work) and cases for the I-Pads to have some damage control for the I-Pads.

My Project

My students will primarily use the I-Pad mini to have a better chance at access to the school's web-based intervention reading and math computer programs. Currently, they typically get 2 times per week for 45 minute periods in the computer lab for ST Math, SBAC practice, typing practice, and/or taking computer-based assessments, plus 2 to 3 times for 15 to 20-minute times periods of taking turns on the I-Pad or computer in the classroom. If they had the addition of the I-Pad mini, three students could be advancing on those reading and math programs at a time allowing them an increase of 15 extra minutes a day on constructive centers/computer time. The adjustable headphones with microphone would be an added bonus because the students will hear better while my aide and I are instructing the other groups in the class. Plus, the new Smarty Ants program has a feature that allows the student to speak as they read words and play back the audio which helps reading fluency.

This project will help my students, who are in a self-contained class for most of the day, gain access to the core curriculum while improving their reading, math, and computer skills in the short run.

In the long run, it will give them an extra boost in overcoming their learning disabilities and give them as much of a chance to be "college and career ready" as their "typically developing" peers.