At the age of 5, my students live in the moment! This is both a blessing and a challenge. It's difficult for students to recall specific details of interactions that happened 5 minutes ago. It's even more difficult when their families ask "What did you do at school today?"
My students are just beginning their school experiences at our brand new charter school in Maryland.
These students' families applied to our school and they were lucky enough to be chosen in lottery. Expeditionary Learning taps into our students' curiosities and helps them to develop inquiry skills and a wonder about the world that will propel them through a life filled with learning!
Hands-on fieldwork experiences and interactions with technical experts for our students are a budgetary priority in our learning model. Unfortunately with the large amount of overhead costs, we don't yet have access to all the technology and tools we'd love to have to maximize engagement and meaning in daily activities.
As a charter school, our students come from all over the county. As a result, parents are not always able to visit the school frequently due to work schedules and distance. This makes it harder for us to share our daily learning with them and keep them involved.
My Project
Seeing themselves on video from a new flip camera will reinforce the importance of our daily interactions with one another in our learning community. My students will be able to begin to understand another person's perspective when they see themselves on the screen. They will be able to highlight positives and areas for improvement, teaching them to be reflective. These videos taken over time will allow students to recognize the success that comes with hard work!
In addition to using the flip camera for taking video of social interactions, we will be able to video any celebratory learning activities. In kindergarten, my students also frequently perform as a way of demonstrating new learning. We would love to e-mail these videos to parents as a part of our weekly news so that they can actually see all that we're doing in school together. This will be a great way to strengthen our learning community!
Donations to this request will help support my students as they learn ways to have positive interactions with one another.
This, in turn, will allow them to be more successful in social interactions throughout their lives-not just in kindergarten! Additionally, shared videos will allow students to celebrate learning both at school and at home. This sharing will foster community and individual student's enthusiasm for future learning experiences.
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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. Rishar and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.