My students are bright, eager, and excited. They are 5th graders entering 6th grade. They are a little nervous about entering middle school but are ready to take on the "more adult" challenges. At this point in their lives, school is a positive thing. I want to keep it that way. At this point in their lives, at this age, they may become disengaged with their learning environment. Technology is the way to connect. This is what they know and what they do well.
My students love and need to be engaged with 21st century skills in my classroom and they need the tools to be able to do so.
My school has done a great job of providing Chromebooks for students in every classroom, however, we need the precision tools to bring those computers and the corresponding software programs to life!
My Project
I try to use several innovative and up-to-date curriculum software programs with my science students. However, many of these programs require students to create drawings and diagrams, which are just not a possibility with the basic trackpad provided with the laptop style computers provided to students in my classroom. Thus, their full learning potential and engagement is hindered.
To engage in scientific discourse, students need to be able to communicate their findings through diagrams, charts, drawings, etc.
I cannot use these activities within my digital software curriculum with my students because they simply cannot do them with a basic trackpad. Their work becomes illegible and sloppy and not true to what they could do by hand. Thus, there is a disconnect. If I have them create their diagrams and drawings outside of the program, their learning and journals are no longer in one place; there is no longer one learning portfolio. Having work scattered from one place to another is very difficult for middle school (or any aged) students to manage.
Computer mice would give my students the tools to be able to express their learning, reflection, and development with our scientific classroom content and curriculum in one cohesive place. This class set of 30 mice would remain in my classroom to be shared among my 3-4 separate classes.
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