I'll admit it - math class can sometimes be boring and reading lecture can seem to go on forever if the teacher merely lectures at the board. How can you get students more actively engaged in what you are teaching while also checking their understanding for concepts you teach? With white boards!
My students are energetic, fascinating, and eager to learn.
I am a sixth year teacher in a K to 8 urban, public school. We serve a student population that is 98% African American and 2% Anglo-American. 86.3% of the student population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, and about 10% receive Special Education Services.
I myself am a Special Education Teacher, providing Learning Support services to students in grades 4 through 8. It is a high needs area of instruction in a high needs school.
As a self-contained teacher, I am responsible for students who have learning disabilities, and I provide them academic support for reading and math, subjects which they can find very challenging. When faced with challenges like this, my students unfortunately often either shut down or give up. They need a way to get invested in what they are learning. Tools that get them actively participating in class will help with this.
My Project
Picture this: a classroom where all the students sit motionlessly in their seats while the teacher drones on at the board in the front of the room. How engaged are these students? How much learning is really happening in this class? How can the teacher assess this? Now imagine a scene where the students each have a white board at their desk, and they simultaneously solve the problems the teacher writes on the board, even racing to see who can find the answer fastest. Children can work together, in pairs, to answer reading comprehension questions and hold their responses up on display. Students can correct grammatical errors on their boards at their seats. In all of these scenarios, the children are all participating and all of them are able to demonstrate their understanding for their teacher to assess at a glance while leading the class. To make this possible in my classroom I will need a class set of white boards and dry erase markers, as well as Expo cleaning supplies.
Research shows that active participation in class in key to success in application of knowledge in the short term and retention of information in the long term.
I want my children to be engaged in the lessons I teach, and I also want them to be able to show me what we are learning. I want to see that light of understanding shining through as they race to write out their answers on their white boards. I believe having these tools will help enrich the educational experience of my students.
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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. Harrison and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.