Our school is a Title 1 school, meaning that the majority of our kids come from households with earnings below the identified poverty line. The COVID Pandemic has affected our district significantly and my virtual students are pretty typical of those in every medium-sized rural middle school across the southeast. I have a great mix of students: athletes, academics, gamers, artists, techies, and musicians - and this is what makes my classes great! But these varying interests, along with social media, technology, athletics, and sleep, provide strong competition for the attention of our students - especially in the virtual English/Language Arts setting.
My virtual kiddos are missing the social aspects of going to school each day, but are also missing out on relevant and meaningful learning experiences typically provided in the traditional, Face-to-Face environment.
My Project
During the COVID pandemic, our Title One district (50% or more below the poverty level) turned to a "canned" instructional platform in which our virtual and distance learning (quarantined) students progressed through predesigned modules provided by the platform and the teachers of record were responsible for supplementing the program's instruction, managing the grading, and offering tutoring and one-on-one interventions. This virtual program will continue for the foreseeable future, but we will no longer be utilizing the "canned" instructional platform.
Teachers, even those teaching virtually, desperately want to teach students in ways that are relevant and tangible to their world.
The issue that we have run into is that it is not financially feasible nor practical for the district to provide each virtual teacher with a Dry-Erase, SMART, or Promethean board to use when teaching from home.
After much research, I have found that a Waycom One - Digital writing pad with a built-in screen will allow me to almost everything that a Promethean board will allow me to do, at a fraction of the price. With this device, I will be able to access a variety of stories, articles, plays, and informational texts electronically, display them to my students, and annotate and provide notes to my students in real-time during my synchronous lessons as well as my recorded lessons. Additionally, this will allow me to take student work samples and provide meaningful feedback during real-time tutoring and conferencing sessions.
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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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 Mrs. Jessica Coffey and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
