Celebrate Black Teachers and Students
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.
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Ms. Forbes from Columbus OH is requesting technology through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
My students need two TAG readers, 2 TAG reading games, and two Didj gaming systems to improve their reading and spelling skills.
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.
I teach first grade in a high-poverty, inner city school. Many of my students come to school with limited literacy experiences, and many struggle with learning how to read. In first grade, the most important thing we do is LEARN HOW TO READ.
When children are learning to read, they all learn at a different pace. Yet we are given one curriculum to teach them from. One third of my class is ESL students, including one child with severe cognitive disabilities, and one who has been in this country for less than a year. They need a lot of extra help to learn how to read. On the other end of the spectrum, one third of my class has tested as gifted and is learning much faster than everyone else. They are quickly bored with the every day material. I find, as a teacher, that the most difficult part of my job is actually challenging the gifted students, and keeping them engaged in learning.
Students who are ahead of the curriculum and students who are behind it need something DIFFERENT to learn - this is called differentiated instruction. One means that I have discovered of successfully differentiating instruction in my first grade classroom is using technology. ALL children love anything that is related to computers - it makes learning fun for them. I have been using LeapPads in my classroom for several years, and have purchased one TAG and one DIDJ to replace them as they break down. However, I would like to make them available to more than one student at a time, since I have several students on each end of the learning spectrum (high and low) that need them. These devices allow students to work independently, at their own pace, at their own level, and to focus on the skills the individual child needs to master in order to be successful. Most importantly, they make learning fun!
Your help will make it possible for more students in my classroom to become fluent readers. Having additional TAG readers will enable struggling students to focus on improving their areas of weakness at their own pace, and work towards building reading fluency. Having additional DIDJ systems will enable the gifted students to be challenged to extend their learning to a higher level, and to remain engaged with the learning process. It will keep them "tuned in", and prevent them from "tuning out" due to boredom.
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