My students need and can greatly benefit from the use of 2 iPads to assist them and myself in helping them meet (even exceed) their IEP goals and objectives.
I am a Special Education teacher to seven 8th and 9th grade students who are cognitively impaired and who read at or below the second grade level. George Evan's said it best, "Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or in the same way." This is has become my personal mantra.
I provide special education services for seven students who are all at a variety of different levels academically, behaviorally and socially.
All of them have cognitive impairments, learning disabilities or other specific impairments that prevent them from participating fully in the general education classrooms 100% of the time. Primarily, my students are in a resource room setting with me for five class periods each day in a public school in MI.
My Project
My students need and can greatly benefit from the use of 2 iPads to assist them and myself in helping them meet (even exceed) their IEP goals and objectives. I have a personal iPad that I began bringing into my classroom in early January 2013. Initially, I introduced it to a student who was at the pre-primer reading level and who "shut down" at nearly every attempt to provide direct or group reading instruction. I installed a free reading app and he literally did NOT want to stop! A student that would normally put his head down on his desk, act out due to frustration or simply become non-responsive started to come out of his shell. Another example of the dynamic results an iPad can produce comes from a student who is both cognitively and hearing impaired. She is also at the pre-primer reading level; it's often difficult for her to hear me even with the use of an FM amplification system that accompanies her hearing aids. When used in conjunction with her FM, she could finally hear what she was supposed to hear via the iPad and the reading app. She has shown a marked improvement in her word recognition and reading fluency.
All students face different obstacles in their lives; there is no doubt about that.
All students deserve the best; frustratingly, the best can often be difficult to fund, especially in this day and age. Funding my project would help break down an obstacle in many of my students' lives in an unprecedented way. Thank you in advance for your consideration in funding my project.
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