I am an ELL teacher who shares a classroom with one other ELL teacher. We work directly with over 40 students who are receiving services, along with other students who have progressed to the monitor stage or have exited the program. In the afternoons, I teach two small-group reading intervention and social studies classes. Our classroom is also used for smaller testing environments and one-on-one or small group language teaching.
Our goal is to create a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere that would encourage our students to excel in spite of their language barriers.
These students work very hard to make sense of the environment into which they are immersed. Ranging from having lived in the United States for one month to their entire lives, our students experience a wide array of challenges as they strive to reach proficiency in their second language.
My Project
My project "Listen and Learn" was fully funded in March. My students are LOVING the opportunity to collaborate and comfortably use computers in a quiet setting to maximize the technology available to us! Learning a new language is tough, but hearing good examples makes it easier. Our classes are utilizing educational websites and tools such as Screencastify and SeeSaw to record themselves speaking in all content areas. This allows students to listen to themselves speak and notice how they sound when they speak. Students can also share videos with each other and listen to each other "talk long" about math, science, literature, and evaluating writing.
To listen to speaking examples on the computer, we need to have comfortable headphones and headphone splitters available for our students.
Headphone splitters allow students to share a single Chromebook and both plug in headphones simultaneously. Using headphone splitters drastically reduces background noise in the classroom when students are sharing technology, which can also increase their ability to focus. The twenty comfortable headphones will be beneficial for our students who cannot afford good headphones. It goes without saying that required online testing can be very uncomfortable with itchy headphones!
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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. Marsh and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.