My students need electronic books and life skills curricular pieces to meet their needs and to help complete a life and social skills curricula to prepare for adulthood.
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
Oh the Places We'll Go this year in our self contained special education classroom. In addition to developing basic academic skills, they are working on developing life and social skills to better prepare them to be autonomous adults and need a structured curriculum to help them do this.
We are faced with the challenges of being youth in a large city with the added challenge of having added developmental disabilities.
Some of us do not speak, but that doesn't mean we don't have a voice. Some of us do not read, but that doesn't mean we can't learn to love and appreciate literature. We have physical and metacognitive limitations but it doesn't mean we don't dream and do not achieve. Having access to the items on our list gives us tangible means to learn in the way that is appropriate for our needs.
My Project
In an era of standardized testing, the true measure of whether or not I am effective teacher to my students will be observed by how independent and empowered they grow up to be. Having access to resources that will help them develop their life skills, receptive and expressive language skills, and fine motor skills will prepare them to have qualitative and successful lives. They will be able to identify and appropriately express emotions, exert their independence with the help of manipulatives that allow them to learn academic tasks while strengthening their fingers. The items on our list helps us develop these skills. Audio books such as Interactive reading and Electronic Story Subscription about Feelings allows us learn about expressing feelings in a medium we can access. Having Crayola finger Paint and Peta Mini tip scissors allows us to creatively express ourselves with adaptive equipment that meet our developmental needs and build our motor skills at the same time.
We live in a place where educational options for students with significant disabilities are limited.
I have worked to make the education of students within such a population to be less esoteric a concept by trying to develop a program that is as structured as a more typical school experience is for the general education peers.
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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. O'Neil and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.