I am the library media specialist at a rural public high school serving more than 500 students. While we focus on guiding our students to become college and career-ready graduates, we are mindful to provide outlets for creativity and collaboration for all of our students, regardless of academic, physical, or social abilities.
Our special education students will be learning to create digital designs on laptops and tablets together with other classmates, and they want to be able to produce their work.
It is important for all of our students to have access to easy-to-use modern materials that allow them to participate in creatively producing a variety of items that are meaningful to them and in which they can take pride.
As a Title I school, many of our students and families have very limited financial means. Our school budgets are stretched to provide the daily basics. This DonorsChoose project will provide our students with visual arts production materials that would otherwise be outside the scope of our traditional budget.
My Project
We want to add a Cricut Maker to our STEAM Design area. While this will be available for all students, we especially want to focus on providing STEAM opportunities for our students who may face academic, physical, or social challenges in the traditional classroom. The librarian, visual arts teacher, and computer applications teacher will collaborate with the special education teachers to guide the students in using laptops and tablets with the Cricut Maker.
Imagine the pride, excitement, and confidence on the faces of these students when they say to their classmates, teachers, and parents, "I designed that; I produced that!"
Students of all academic, social, and physical abilities can express their creativity as they successfully brainstorm, design, and produce their own visual creations. Students will learn valuable computer skills and digital production skills while using computers, tablets, and other electronic devices to produce digital images to upload for production. Students will learn teamwork skills as they collaborate with classmates on a project. If they choose to work independently, they can learn to manage their time and to see a project through to successful completion. Special education students can be peer tutors, showing other students how to design and produce items with our new Cricut Maker in our STEAM Design Area. These many skills will serve them well in school and for many years afterwards. We are excited about the possibilities with this all-inclusive project.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted 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 Mrs. Egeler and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
