Sadie Trumpet has always hated school. She loved her friends, she liked learning, and her teacher was alright. However, she kept getting in trouble at school. Sadie could not sit down and work "independently". Sadie could not understand why. Neither could her parents.
One day, Sadie dragged herself to school after the usual pep-talk from her parents. She was met at the door to her classroom by her teacher, Ms. Paraffin. Ms. Paraffin was beaming. She informed Sadie that she had a surprise for her. The expression on Sadie's face remained unenthusiastic and generally droopy. "Oh good a neon pencil eraser as an incentive to stay in my seat. Just what I have been waiting for", thought Sadie to herself. She stowed her belongings away and then came back to Ms. Paraffin for the so-called surprise.
A quizzical look spread across Sadie's face. What she saw was a little boom box, some books, headphones, and some CDS on a little rug. Ms. Paraffin asked Sadie to put on a pair of headphones and pick up the book Miss Nelson is Missing. "Great", Sadie thought, "She's trying to tether me to the rug with headphones. That ought to do the trick". Sadie slouched lower. She knew she couldn't sit still and read, even if the book had best pictures in the world, even if she was tethered to the ground. She would space out, her thoughts would trail off, and she'd be up in a heartbeat, looking for some good conversation, or humming loudly, or speaking to herself, or or...
Just as Sadie's thoughts were trailing off, she heard, "The kids in Room 207 were misbehaving again." The words from Sadie's book were jumping out at her! " Spitballs stuck to the ceiling." Sadie started giggling. " Paper planes whizzed through the air." Sadie cackled. She was sucked into the story, and remained sucked in for the entire length of the book. Sadie had never realized that Miss Nelson is Missing was such an exhilarating book! She couldn't wait to read Miss Nelson is Back, as well as Miss Nelson Has a Field Day!
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Too often, the academic progress of the "behavior problems" of our class is overlooked, and the focus becomes their behavior. Too often, we are happy when these "behavior problems" are doing anything aside from disrupting the rest of the class. Too often, these "behavior problems" fall through the cracks.
I teach in a low-income, inner-city public school. I have a wide range of students in my classroom, in terms of levels within different subject areas, as well as of learning styles. Some of my students are more of a tactile / kinesthetic learner, and benefit from movement around the classroom, and from concrete objects that they can manipulate. Some of my students are visual learners, who learn from observation, graphic organizers and impressive illustrations.
The group of students that this project is targeting is my group of auditory learners. They have brilliant minds, capable of higher level thinking. However, they experience difficulty in staying focused during independent reading. These students remain completely engaged during read-alouds and one-on-one instruction. Despite my wishes, one-on-one instruction is possible for a very small portion of the day.
Your donation will enable my students to have access to literature across a variety of content areas, available on CD. They will have a "listening center" including a CD/cassette player, a DVD player, multiple headphones and a variety of sets of books with corresponding CDs. They will be able to listen to the text while reading. This will not only benefit my auditory group. It will benefit my kinesthetic group by allowing movement around the classroom, while groups move from one "center" to another. I have already seen this work when I tested out the listening center by borrowing a cassette player, headphones and a book with audiobook from a colleague. Your donation will allow my students to have their own listening center, and a library of audiobooks with corresponding books. They will gain confidence in themselves, and thus they will be motivated to seek positive attention. They will not fall through the cracks.
Nearly all 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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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. Arafin and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.