I am the school counselor at H. E. in Collinsville, Oklahoma. I work with approximately 600 students. Our students are great, our teachers are top notch and truly love their students, and our parents are very supportive of our school in working with their children. We have Grades 1, 2, and 3 and our population is diverse in its make-up of student needs.
We have 24 regular classrooms, grades 1-3, and four special education teachers who work with students with special needs served on IEPs, along with specials teachers and a reading specialist.
We also have 2 speech/language pathologists who work with those students with language and speech development needs. Our principal has early childhood background and is very supportive in our endeavors with our kids. Our students present a wide variety of learning skills and behaviors that they bring to the classroom daily. Our teachers meet our students at THEIR level of learning and present curriculum materials in various ways that will work best for each individual student.
We have a great school system and a great family of students, teachers, and parents at Herald Elementary. I love working with all my colleagues, students, and parents.
My Project
In our school, we have approximately 600 students who are all their own individuals; they bring their own learning and behavioral styles to the classroom. Some of our students have difficulty sitting for any period of time in a regular desk chair to complete their work, whether it be for sensory processing or attention reasons. If you can't sit and listen for very long, it makes it really difficult for you to learn, right?
One of our school librarians brought over a wobble chair that she has in her other library setting and I was truly amazed at how well it worked with students who struggle with sitting and learning.
It really helped some of her students self-regulate their bodies and listen attentively. "How great would it be to have some of these chairs in the classroom to help those students with the same struggle?" I thought to myself. Thus began my journey to raise funds to purchase some wobble chairs for those students. My plan is to have classroom teachers "check out a chair", like one would check out a library book, to use for a student who needs that self-regulation to help him or her listen and learn.
I'm hoping to raise enough money to purchase 10 of these wobble chairs to allow our teachers to use them in their classrooms for those students for whom they could benefit. If they are used with students successfully, I'm hoping to purchase more later as funds become available. If you've watched the news or read a newspaper, you know how funding is in Oklahoma for buying books and supplies. We just don't have the money to buy things like wobble chairs. Hopefully, with the help of donors, we can purchase these chairs to help those students in need.
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 Ms. Due and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
