This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
My Students
Stating our mantra of, "We are kind; we are problem-solvers; we are learners," is how we start each day. As problem solvers, students have noticed that their peers don't always show kindness and empathy towards others. We'd like to spread the word about being open-minded towards others' differences.
Each day, my room plays host to a different age group of students who show great thinking and academic skills in their regular classrooms.
When they hit my doors, I intend to stretch those skills, make them think creatively, and engage them in problem solving tasks. Through project-based learning, I try to stretch their reading, writing, and problem solving skills. Though my students come from a variety of backgrounds in our urban neighborhood, they are all striving to be kind learners and problem-solvers. They like to use technology and I'd love for them to put their growing skills toward a real-world use.
Our school also plays host to two special needs classes of learners. These students, who have moderate to severe disabilities, love being included in our classroom activities and I try to plan interactions between the groups to build open-mindedness, acceptance of differences, and reflective thinking.
My Project
One of the special needs teachers and I have envisioned a project in which our students will work together to create videos and digital stories that help other children understand differences.My students need iPads with digital writing and photography tools to collaborate with special needs learners. We plan on using apps such as Screen Chomp and Story Kit to build collaboration between our different levels of learners, ultimately producing products that we can share with our classrooms, students at our school and our community.
This long-term project will build social-emotional skills for all learners and will also target standards that we each need to cover in our instruction such as narrative and informational text, the writing process, text features, and presentation skills. By combining learners into several different groups and having lots of adult support, each group will be able to create a unique finished product that will support our idea of teaching others about differences.
Technology, at its best, can unite us.
In this project, two seemingly separate groups will collaborate to create original projects with a strong message of caring, consideration and empathy, mindsets that we want all students to have. Students will build technology and writing skills, but, most importantly, students will develop understandings that will help them work with all different types of learners in their futures.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
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. Kraften and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
