More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education.
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I am asking for grant money to purchase more iPads for our first grade classroom. We currently have a few outdated laptops and iPads that students share. They often will not work with programs we use or will not take updates from the district. My hope is to gain funding for more iPads in the classroom to create a space where students have the ability to explore resources and use programs meant to push student achievement. The district requires all students take an online assessment. With each student's testing window being anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes it often takes 2-3 days to get all students tested; causing our classroom to lose out on valuable learning time. We have the ability to use this program as an intervention tool, but without the technology to do so students are losing out on exposure to the program and targeted instruction through the application. iPads are a valuable tool for reading and math centers. They allow students to explore resources and "games" that push their thinking and target skills needed to grow. For literacy students can access grade-level text via "read-alouds" even if they are not reading on grade level. This is a game changer in a student's educational journey- exposure is everything. Students can further their background knowledge by having a device to explore specific scientific topics, research authors, and access our class website. I post videos about what we are learning about (literacy, math, science, and social studies) on our class website, but without the means to access them it has little impact on students (many of my students have limited technology available at home). From increasing technology in our first grade classroom, via increasing the number of iPads accessible to students, we will continue to grow as 21st century learners.
About my class
I am asking for grant money to purchase more iPads for our first grade classroom. We currently have a few outdated laptops and iPads that students share. They often will not work with programs we use or will not take updates from the district. My hope is to gain funding for more iPads in the classroom to create a space where students have the ability to explore resources and use programs meant to push student achievement. The district requires all students take an online assessment. With each student's testing window being anywhere from 25 to 45 minutes it often takes 2-3 days to get all students tested; causing our classroom to lose out on valuable learning time. We have the ability to use this program as an intervention tool, but without the technology to do so students are losing out on exposure to the program and targeted instruction through the application. iPads are a valuable tool for reading and math centers. They allow students to explore resources and "games" that push their thinking and target skills needed to grow. For literacy students can access grade-level text via "read-alouds" even if they are not reading on grade level. This is a game changer in a student's educational journey- exposure is everything. Students can further their background knowledge by having a device to explore specific scientific topics, research authors, and access our class website. I post videos about what we are learning about (literacy, math, science, and social studies) on our class website, but without the means to access them it has little impact on students (many of my students have limited technology available at home). From increasing technology in our first grade classroom, via increasing the number of iPads accessible to students, we will continue to grow as 21st century learners.