November 2015 Grant Recipients

This Soundfield FM system would not only benefit the three students with hearing loss, but would also be beneficial to all those within my classroom. It helps amplify my voice and allows students to better hear the content that I am teaching over some of the day to day background noise that is inherent in all classrooms. Some of the background noises that make it hard to focus are feet shuffling on carpet, peers writing or tapping with pencils, students getting in and out of their seats. I cannot stop all the background noise, but I can make the content more accessible through visuals on the board, hands on activities, small group work, and sound through a speaker system that allows students to discern what is supposed to be heard versus background noise.

We want to implement the use of SnapWords - a sight word program that uses visuals, movement, and language to help students move sight words into long-term memory through a multi-sensory approach. The teaching cards are bright and colorful with a symbolic picture through the sight word to help connect meaning to the word. Then, students are shown a kinesthetic movement to go along with the sight word, and finally, students repeat a sentence that uses the SnapWord.

Daily book bags are important in many ways. Some of the obvious are building fluency and reinforcing skills learned at school. Of course we all recall hearing... "the more you read, the more you know". It is also true that the more you read, the better reader you will be. For young children, reading aloud with an adult can build confidence, encourage the use of decoding skills and build an interest in reading as a pasttime. Children do not always have home access to books at their reading level.

The Solar System Science Kit will be an interactive kit, that will engage students and enhance their learning experience. My kit would include several classroom visual aids, such as posters and models. A "stay-cation" field trip to a planetarium. I have asked for enough funding to pay for the planetarium for this year and for next.

Mission to the Moon, Mars, and Beyond is a project-based learning activity designed to help students understand the issues of settlement on the moon, Mars, and beyond. My 5th grade students will design and build an extraterrestrial base using the PCS Edventures BrickLAB I hope to fund through this grant. I developed and implemented the lessons for this project with a former class, so I know first hand how much FUN students can have while developing important teamwork, critical thinking, and problem solving skills! Every student in my previous class was completely engaged throughout the various phases of this project.

Many of the practice activities we do are game-like in nature and require the use of many different kinds of manipulatives including Unifix cubes, dice, dominoes, game pieces, spinners, playing cards, and pattern blocks. It has been a challenge to find enough of these items to use when intervention for all students in a grade level takes place at the same time. In addition to student manipulatives, it would also be helpful to have additional copies of the resource books that are used on a daily basis and larger models of the manipulatives that teachers can use when they are modeling and explaining activities for students.

We are looking to get calculators for our fifth grade students to aid them in higher level, mathematically complicated problems. My students are getting into higher level math problems that could go much easier with the use of a calculator, but the only calculators we have are ones that I have bought from Walmart. Using a calculator is a skill that can further a child's math education and prepare them for their future careers. Of course students need to learn how to work multiplication and division problems with a pencil and paper, but if they don't become familiar with how a calculator can aid them, they will lack skills necessary for future classes and jobs.

The expected outcome is my middle school students will be enriched and transformed with this meaningful process of using microscopes in science class. This technology will positively alter the learning environment. As opposed to distracting, inhibiting, and confusing as many newer technologies are, the digital microscope is a technology that engages users.