Frankie Puckett
Snapshot
Traveling Student Totes
I am concerned about my kids losing the play and exploration that comes with being inside an elementary classroom. As you walk into my resource classroom, you will see the tables arranged in collaborative groups with endless supplies for the children to share while they are working creatively with their small groups. Unfortunately, this will not be able to be the case this year for the safety of our classes and to ensure each child has the necessary at home during distance learning instruction. My district has made the decision to utilize remote learning to begin school. Even though our children won’t be working side by side with their classmates this school year, we still need to make sure they know we believe in them, they have the necessary materials, and that they will be successful in everything they attempt! This year I will be teaching a special group of K-6th grade students that will face a school year like no other. They are going to be learning in a mixture of ways and I need to make sure they have all of the materials they will need to experience success. My students need to be able to access a variety of resources each day even though they do not have an in person teacher! My students want to learn how to read independently and discuss books, they will learn to successfully multiply and divide challenging problems and many other math concepts, they will conduct meaningful science experiments, and they will learn about what is happening in their neighborhoods and world and what they can do to make them both a better place. This will not be possible if they do not have the authentic physical supplies that they will need to be engaged learners while participating in distance learning/blended learning. They are going to need items such as pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers, crayons, markers, colored pencils, pencil cases, glue, folders, scissors, highlighters, dry erase markers, lanyards, tote bags, and stress balls to use while socially distancing at their home. They also need copies of the story books we will be reading for fluency and comprehension. While using these story books, I will be asking my students to find story evidence to respond to higher level questions, to solve math problems with their dry erase boards, to illustrate story elements and enhance science and social studies lessons with their art supplies. We will help them stay organized by sorting these supplies into their cases and safely delivering them in their own bags ensuring no transmission of germs to their homes.
My objective for my Traveling Student Totes (TST Program) is to be able to engage students and parents in their house, with a assortment of tools that will reach the different learners- whether they are learners that just need enrichment, or learners that need extra support. Each TST is a tote bag will contains directions, various reading material from books for Reading A-Z, poems and/or songs Teachers Pay Teachers, along with hands-on activities, manipulatives and/or games. Each TST will focus on the particular area of study (examples: fractions, multiplication…). Even though each bag centers on one key subject matter, each bag will be cross-curricular. After 20 years, I have found that parents love to be involved in their child’s academics but with work schedules, are unable to do so as much as they’d like to. With this program, not only will the children be able to experience academic engagement, but they’ll be able to do so at home, bringing together the home-to-school connection. The students will be given a pre-test and post over basic math facts, high frequency words and reading comprehension relative to the materials sent home and being used over remote learning.
These will be hands-on activities to immerse themselves in the academic content. There are many āimportant mattersā concerning education. Two of which that I consider far above the ground the rest are what I base most of my thinking of education around. To pull off a successful education for each child, I feel that all teachers have to take into concern two pieces that I believe very important: each student is a different learner, and that studentās need learning support outside of the classroom. My Traveling Student Tote program does exactly that. It benefits studentās at all scholastic levels by focusing on the content they are expected to learn, by including a variety of activities to get to all students, and by offering the parents a platform to assist them.
Help me give my students the tools promote educational advancement and resources they need to be successful remotely and in the classroom and fun while at home! Again the items I would like to purchase are individual books and hands on activities and games from various stories for home use. These items will be able to last the students throughout the years.
2020 Teacher Are You Ready?
We will begin with a blended (virtual and at school) model for the beginning of this school year. During this uncertain and unprecedented time, several of my Resource students will be embarking on Distance Learning for the beginning of the fall school 2020 year. Some of students will be learning from home via assigned Chromebooks. Because my K-6th students will be learning at home, they will not have daily access to the shared and hands-on multisensory materials in our classroom that they would need for their everyday learning. My students are very energetic when it comes to hands on activities and they love our interaction we create as a learning environment. These materials are used for reading and math daily lessons.
The goal of this project is to increase my studentsā foundational literacy and numeracy skills through the use of multisensory manipulatives and activities. Will this project lead to increased literacy and numeracy skills at home with the use of individual independent learning task boxes?
In this season of distance learning, we’ve came together to ensure our students remain connected, supported, challenged, and loved and I would love your help to bring the magic of my classrooms to their homes with distance learning kits! I hope is to fill each of the task boxes with a whiteboard for virtual classes, various math/reading manipulatives and pre-made learning aids printed and laminated on card stock from Teachers Pay Teachers as well as open ended supplies for various projects and creative thinking!
As a Special Education learning environment, my students benefit from the Reading, Math and Writing Center with Tubs because of its functionality. It will allow us to interact with one another by me modeling the activities, having materials on hand, and the cart will be mobile. Although learning is done in our homes, teaching is still implemented. The reading and writing center will also be used to to help the students see structure sentences we create, copy alphabets correctly, and complete their morning messages right at home. Students can be accountable for their learning by using the Reading and Writing virtual and take home task boxes and will be more motivated and encouraged to work in small groups once weāre able to return back to our classroom!
Each student will receive a personalized task box focused on achieving their educational goals. Please support the independence, learning and wonder of my students that try so hard. These kits will contain hands-on learning materials that will make learning exciting and engaging! These materials will be mailed directly to me so that I can make kits and deliver them to the studentsā homes. The materials that I am asking for will be used for online learning in the areas of Language Arts and Math. My students will be better able to understand word families, blends and digraphs, and vowels by seeing these abstract concepts in physical form. The ten frames will be easily displayed with the help of my easel. My students tend to struggle with ten frames, and having a physical visual will also better help them with addition and subtraction, which are big concepts that are covered in K-6 grade levels. They will also have all of their subjects labeled in folders so they continue to be organized and each student will have their own individual headphones to not distract them while we are on our online class meetings. The Teachers Pay Teachers gift card will allow me to purchase specifically created distance learning resources that will supplement our curriculum. These items will provide my students with the resources needed to participate in multisensory instruction at home just like at school that involves more than one sense at a time. Using sight, hearing, movement, and touch gives students more than one way to connect with what they are learning.
Under “normal” circumstances in our classroom, my students would see colorful alphabet and number charts as well as other anchor charts to use as a reference during whole group lessons and independent work. I want to provide the same colorful visuals at home to help them learn these concepts. While some of these items may look like toys, they are and will be used as fun tactics to get students keyed up about learning and fascinated in engineering, where their innovative and critical thinking skills come into play. If and when we return to school, students will continue using these materials in the classroom as I can only assume we will not be able to have community supplies or share anything to help ensure sanitary conditions during this time. Even though, this pandemic has stopped the world from moving forward, we cannot let it stop us from teaching and learning!
Play Based Learning
As an educator, I am committed to providing optimal learning experiences to all my students. This year the plan is to combine traditional ways of teaching, face-to-face time with teachers and guided support with technology while the student is at home. Teachers and parents understand that what works for one student or child does not necessarily work for another. To take full advantage of the potential of all students, we are committed to engaging and empowering students through an educational experience that focuses on each childās unique strengths, needs and interests. This is a multi-sensory approach that includes, technology, hands on activities and paper pencil tasks. My classroom needs materials and activities that enhance instruction, including classroom demonstrations or student projects.
Aristotle says for the things we must learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. Handsāon Learning isn’t just for sewing, cooking or painting; it can be a part of any subject. All students do not learn the same way and in the same time. My students struggle with paper pencil activities. My students are diverse group of visual, auditory and tactile learners and paper pencil worksheets do not always work with all students. As a Resource Teacher, I wonder how I can better serve all my students and meet their diverse learning needs. Since I began teaching in a resource room setting, I continually think about how I can help my struggling students. I have noticed over the years that my students are more engaged and focused when they are working on handsāon projects/activities. In other words the best way to engage my studentsā brains are to have them moves their hands. They have deficits in basic reading, writing and math skills. Most of my students also receive occupational therapy for issues related to fine motor skills and attention and focusing issues. We do individual conferencing, intervention programs, and flash cards continually just to name a few but most are paper pencil based. Iām always trying to come up with creative ways to help them, but I see the disappointment in their faces when they donāt get understand or grasp the concept we are working on. So, my problem is how I can provide fun enrichment activities for all my students and closes the gap between where they are and where they should be.
In order to provide enrichment activities for all my students, I will implement the use of hands on educational games/activities in small group and individual settings. I will also be able to use most of the games and activities with students who are participating digitally. This will improve and strengthen students reading, writing, and cognitive reasoning skills in a fun and creative way. Students will use the handsāon materials along with other educational āappsā to improve their ability to perform educational objectives. Each day, students will be actively engaged in educational activities using the class hands on games, activities and educational tools. There are basic benefits of handsāon learning: increases a childās memory capacity, develops hand eye coordination, beneficial especially for children with attention disorders and are skill building such as adding, counting money and blending letters to make words. This year we will purchase the various educational games and creative tool sets. These programs will develop logical reasoning and fine motor skills for my students. This will be especially helpful and fun for my students with severe fine motor skills disabilities. In addition to this, students will also be able to use the devices for other educational āappsā. Using tools such as game pieces, scissors, and glue for projects and activities also builds fine motor skills that is needed for realāworld activities through their lives. By having activities that require talking, listening and movement, I am hoping it will engage several areas of their brain so they can attain and retain the information for extended periods of time. My students learn best when the learning is active, when they are engaged in handsāon classroom games and activities and involved in what they are learning. It is thought that when children use all their senses it helps the brain create paths that make it easier and faster to remember information.
The goal is for my students will carry out physical activities, rather than listening to a lecture or watching demonstrations. A few materials I would like to purchase are Tell me a Story which allows students to arrange picture cards into stories and tell a story. Boggle Jr. will help with letter identification skills, matching letters to sounds and common short vowel words. My preschoolers will enjoy Raccoon Rumpus which helps with colors, matching and counting. Another game for students to engage them in computer science and Logo programming is Robot Turtles: The Game for Little Programmers. Connect Four to help students who are working on sums to 20 in addition and subtraction using numbers or subtizing dots. It can also be used to create CVC and CVCe words or use it with task cards they must answer or complete before adding their coin. For my first and up students Scrabble Jr. will work on letter matching, spelling and basic reading. To help with reading fluency the game Spot It will be a great addition to the choices for students. Sequencing numbers is a game that engages students in addition, subtraction and strategy skills. Letter Sounds Tic Tac Toe will be used for students to listen for, match, and strategize with beginning/middle/ending letter sounds. I want to use these handsāon learning activities to help my students with visual/ motor/perceptual skills, fine motor coordination/strength, cognitive perceptual skills, daily living skills, social emotional skills and motor planning skills. I want to use an assortment of tools that are fun and are academic therapeutic activities across a variety of settings. These materials will lend themselves to differentiation at the various stations/set up in my classroom. All of my items are reusable from year to year so my future students will be able to enjoy and learn from them as well with the only exception being the glue sticks but I will have grade level teachers provide them at the beginning of future school years.
On a larger scale, I intend to evaluate students overall progress using Math and Reading baseline, monthly fluency check data to monitor student progress. All in addition to beginning year, middle year, and end year MAP testing our district is beginning. Measurable data from assessments will be inputted into a graph that shows beginning, middle, and ending progress. If awarded the grant I will create a power point presentation that most importantly looks at growth and success of the project. Additionally, I will include highlights from student presentations, enrichment applications, and student work. I will discuss successes and failures and how we fixed those failures with other participants, so they are able to create similar projects. My goal is that it will give my students meaningful opportunities to apply their learning to make learning fun. Having fun while learning also help students retain material better because the process is entertaining and unforgettable.
I believe that this project has the potential to touch the lives of all my students. It is imperative to get my students excited about and proficient in math and reading early will spark a lifetime of confidence and success. By sharing the success and failures of my project I think that I could encourage more of my fellow teachers to see that while paper pencil tasks are necessary, it is not the only way to help our students soar. It will help my students with fine motor development; learn control, communication between peers, concentration and dedication to finishing tasks and problemāsolving skills. The goal is to help my students build a lifelong love of learning. This grant will give me the opportunity to provide more learning materials for my students. These materials will be used for each new and upcoming class in the future. Your grant for active and engaging manipulatives will provide my students the opportunity to learn in new and exciting ways for several years to come!