"Failure is not an option" is one of my favorite quotes to use in my classroom. My students face an uphill struggle with learning and face adversity each day. I want my students to see that they are not alone in their struggles and that others have faced adversity head-on and made it through.
I teach middle school special education students in a high poverty school (>66% poverty) in a low social-economic community with a high unemployment rate.
More than 90% of my students in my classroom qualify for the free and reduced-price breakfast/lunch program. Starting out the year with remote instruction has been extremely difficult for many of my students.
My students that I work with are diagnosed with a myriad of handicapping conditions. The students face adversity in their everyday lives and struggle to learn, as most are performing several years below grade-level expectations. Even though they struggle greatly, most still have a positive outlook on life and learning.
My Project
Scholastic DynaMath magazines get skill appropriate math lessons into the hands of my students. They are real-life based applied problems where students are familiar with the situations that the problems focus on. The students can picture themselves as being part of the "problem".
Using these magazines will enable our remote learners to be active participants in class, focusing all on the same skill while having fun.
Having a physical copy of the magazine at home will increase student engagement during class, as well as family engagement as they work through the problems together (there is a family engagement piece in each issue of the magazine). Each issue has creative ideas that will spark mathematical interest in my students.
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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 Ms. vanSon and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
