I work in a specialized high school in an urban district. This year, I am working in an 8:1+1 setting, with students who are behaviorally challenged and students with autism, between the ages of 14 and 21. My school has recently departmentalized, so that students who would normally be self-contained in one room all day, now see 4 different teachers for their core subject areas. I teach Social Studies to 4 different classes. In total, I see 26 students throughout the day.
The students I work with daily have made incredible strides this year with the school's change to departmentalization.
My students have benefitted, both academically and socially, from seeing multiple teachers throughout the day, who are able to give them more focused instruction. In my Social Studies content area, writing has become a large part of teaching students the importance of advocating for themselves and knowing their social rights.
My Project
Last year, with the help of DonorsChoose, my classroom was equipped with a fantastic set of Chromebooks. The Chromebooks have given my students the opportunity to explore and research, but it also gave them the opportunity to move one step forward in their writing, turning written work, into typed final copies for presentation and submission. As some of my students are unable to physically write, this has become a crucial part of submitting work. Students who are unable to communicate through physical writing, can either dictate an entire paragraph through a speech to text function, or they can type words that they are not normally able to use a pencil to produce.
Although my students work has progressed tremendously through the "finalization" step of the writing process, what should be a triumphant moment of "Print and submit" has become a frustrating moment of fighting with an old classroom printer.
It has come to sound less like "I am done with my work" and more like, "ask the teacher to print from her computer, teacher plugs into printer, press print, paper jam, fix paper tray, press print again, two copies of the same product is printed, and so on... With the advancement of wireless printing, students should be able to print directly from their Chromebooks in order to submit a hard copy of their work.
Additionally, my class participates in a school wide program called "micro-business" in which they create coloring books to sell within the school and community. During classroom micro-business, students are earning imperative work hours towards their Skills and Achievement Diploma. Students would be able to take much more ownership in their micro-business work if they were able to print/copy inspiring ideas or their own work right from their Chromebooks.
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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. Rispoli and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
