Everyone who enters our school comments on what a lovely, positive, happy place it is. We have built a true community of learners, full of students from families that return year after year. The children in our school are bright, kind, engaged, respectful, and eager to learn.
In an educational world driven by high stakes testing results, we have recently embarked upon an endeavor to change our entire school culture around reading.
Our goal is to restore the joy. From kindergarten through grade 5 were are putting books in children's hands and helping them to discover the joy of reading.
I'm happy to report that it's working! Each day our readers grab their pillows, blankets, stuffed animals, favorite books, and head off to an area of the room where they can just read. If you were to walk into any classroom during independent reading time, you would see 26 children, strewn about the floor, smiling, laughing, and simply enjoying a good read. And they do it in two languages!
My Project
I imagine that, even under the best of circumstances, distance learning with young children is very, very hard. In our current situtation it's even harder, because we truly didn't see it coming. One Friday afternoon in mid-March, two hours before dismissal, we were told to send our kids home with their Chromebooks. We haven't seen them since.
Now we are trying to engage them in meaningful learning activities from the confines of their homes, under stressful circumstances, at best.
I can't imagine what it must be like - how hard it is - for nine year-olds to try and engage in learning in this disjointed, disconnected, stressful atmosphere. As imperfect as it is, I want to make it as successful for them as possible. Their actual teacher resigned in February, and I (the literacy coach) am just filling in, trying to give them some continuation of their learning in Spanish.
I am hoping to read the novel requested with my students in order to help them learn from the skilled craft of an accomplished author. It's truly difficult to do this kind of shared reading exclusively through Zoom, where some students aren't present, some can't hear, maybe the print is too small if I project it, etc. I want each and every one of them to have the book in their hands and be able to follow along. We have several copies in the school that I can distribute, but not enough for everyone to have their own.
If you donated to this project, you can sign in to leave a comment for Ms. Walker.
DonorsChoose is the #1 classroom funding site for teachers.
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. Walker and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
