The cost of an LCD projector is $2105, including shipping and <a target="new" href="http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm" onclick="g_openWindow('http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm', 300, 800, 'fulfillwindow');return false;">fulfillment</a>.
For students to be engaged and learn, they must build on their experiences and background and share their discoveries with their classmates. As accomplished teachers, we set up lessons that allow them to explore, share and synthesize new material. Therefore, we must be prepared to follow a child's discoveries (with teacher guidance). For example, as we begin to investigate dialogue usage by the author in Nate the Great, a child mentions she notices the author used a comma to indicate continued talking. Sharing a child's analysis of a new concept with her classmates is the crux of a successful lesson. Yet, this opportunity will be lost to a teacher who has not prepared an overhead to show the class a discovery this child has made in her investigations.
Technology has made a device called a document camera that allows teachers' to seize every teachable moment. With this equipment, a teacher can make any book, student's writing or an article come alive on the blackboard. The teacher simply positions the material under the lamp to be projected. It allows the teacher to guide students' through the standard course of study, but with input and direction from the children as they share their own interpretations and understandings with each other.
I co-teach a multi age 1st /2nd grade class at E.K. Powe Elementary, which serves a diverse community of 456 kindergarteners through 5th grade students from five urban neighborhoods in Durham, North Carolina. Eighty-six percent of our students receive a free or reduced lunch, 65% of our students are African American, 5% are multi-racial, 20% speak Spanish as their primary language and 10% are of European descent. In our school, we own one LCD that is shared by thirty-two teachers and 456 students. Consequently, it is extremely difficult to schedule and use as a regular tool in your classroom.
With a document camera and an LCD projector, my classroom can come alive with the students' discoveries. It will allow the classroom to be student-directed, therefore engaging and meaningful. In addition, it will allow more equity and accessibility for all students with various learning styles.
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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. Goodhand and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
