Raise Your Paddle if Your Sure

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

Each day third graders walk into my classroom asking with their eyes, ?What will I learn today?? You see, my students know they attend school somewhere special. We are a charter school, free and public, that is able to provide students with a school day two hours longer than most of our neighboring schools. The teachers at Chicago International Charter School are crazy for education! We take a lower salary than those at Chicago Public Schools to teach a longer day in a school that is more academically challenging to the students. This has proven effective as shown by our ranking 2nd citywide in growth on the ISAT (Illinois Standards Achievement Test). Eighty percent (80%) of our inner-city students are eligible for free lunch. I am asking for hand-held dry erase paddles and markers for my energetic learners. Using this ping-pong like paddle, the students could answer questions for drill, practice, or review. I could even divide the class into teams to play learning games. The paddles would lend themselves to ongoing assessment, allowng me to quickly check their learning so that I may tailor my lessons accordingly. I find that today's students need things they can do and touch. The change from pencil and paper to dry-erase paddles would help excite some of the reluctant students. Traditional teaching methods involving desk work and lectures are monotonous and do not capture the attention of all students. This tool would help me incorporate all learning styles: auditory, as I say aloud the question; visual, as the student writes the answer on the dry-erase paddle; and kinesthetic, as they hold up the paddle to show me the answer. Simply using the whiteboard at the front of the room, a mainly linguistic or auditory approach, may not engage all students since many are learning English as a second language or learn using their body and sense of touch. With hand-held, dry-erase paddles I would be able to engage all learning styles. Please help equip my students with the best educational resources. Let's give them the resources they need to be active learners!