Help me give my students access to printed materials on the spot, without having to request photo copies in advance, as it is crucial to be able to print scaffolds and differentiated materials at a moment's notice!
FULLY FUNDED! Mrs. S.'s classroom raised $599
This project is fully funded
My Students
I work in a self-contained classroom setting, supporting middle schoolers scoring anywhere from the first to seventh grade math level. My goal year after year is to successfully teach all of the required math standards, while also finding ways to fully support my students who are not quite at grade level. My students love to use technology, so I try to incorporate instructional videos and other online components into my students' learning. I absolutely love what I do, and constantly strive to better my teaching ability by attending professional development tailored to special education and mathematics.
My students are incredibly kind, hardworking, respectful, and have a thirst for knowledge that motivates me to go above and beyond to make their learning environment the best it could be.
I have found over the years that collaboration and the incorporation of technology are both the most motivating factors that drive learning in the classroom. I find that this is especially accurate in the special education setting, as many of my students are visual and kinesthetic learners. This year, I want to make it easier for my students to have quick access to this technology.
My Project
In my special education classroom, I work on differentiating and scaffolding as many of my lessons as possible. I typically request photocopies a week ahead for my guided notes, in-class examples, and homework sheets, as my students benefit in math from less note-taking, and more printed notes. In math, I believe students learn by DOING, and not by simply writing down the notes. Because of this, alot of what I plan requires many handouts and photocopy requests!
Teaching in a special education classroom requires a lot of forward thinking, pre-planning, and predicting outcomes of my students for that lesson.
However, what I put together for my classes does not always go as planned. Often times, I run into situations where my class requires more guidance. A simple printout of a guided example, or a diagram is exactly what they need to be successful. There are also times in which I have created a color-coded guided note sheet for my students, but our copy room prints black and white copies only. Additionally, math is a "messy" subject. Students are encouraged to make mistakes, let their work get a little sloppy, and struggle a bit while obtaining their solutions. Because of this, I run into situations where students would like an extra copy of their worksheets to organize their work better. Those are the moments I wish I had a color laser printer readily available for my classroom.
Having my own printer in my classroom will help me to be able to meet the needs of my diverse learners IN THE MOMENT, when I know they could benefit from something else that I may not have thought of when I originally planned out my lesson.
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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