"If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow." Advances in technology are creating educational opportunities that are greater than ever before. This can be especially true when teaching children with autism. Technology can help to give these students a voice.
I am the teacher of a special education classroom for students with autism.
Our school is located in a low-income urban area of northern California. Our students are third, fourth, and fifth graders. Our students all face challenges with communication, socialization, and understanding their world.
My Project
We are requesting a set of iPads for our classroom. An iPad is multi-touch tablet computer. It runs a wide variety of applications that are designed specifically to assist people with autism. It’s cheaper, faster, more versatile, more user-friendly, more portable, and much more engaging. My students will be able to use the iPads on a daily basis for a wide variety or exercises and tasks that will help them improve their skills. The iPads will serve as a full-featured augmentative and alternative communication solution. It will allow us
to create visual schedules that provide positive behavior support through the use of images that show daily events. The iPad will also create personalized social stories using photos, text, and audio messages for autistic kids having communication difficulties who need support with excursions, routings, or transitions. These are just a few of the many uses for the iPad in our classroom.
By providing my students this new technology, we will be helping to provide them with a voice and a method of interacting with the world around them.
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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 Mr. Monteen and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.