Example of math lesson

Here's an example of a math lesson that I could use for individualized instruction.  The student could pull out his or her iPad and play the video lesson to remind them how to do fact families.  This way if I'm on the other side of the room helping another student and I can't get to them they can get some help.

Raising the money for the iPad mini

As mentioned above the reason for this site is to raise money so I can get each student in my class an iPad mini or have one for every two students.   I want this technology not only for my class, but also for the community.  I want to be able to use them during the summer for an early reading program.

I want to share just a little bit about the impact that these iPad minis could have on my class.  I've been using an app called doceri on my teacher iPad.  What doceri allows me to do is create custom designed lessons for my kids on the iPad and then play them back during class while walking around the room.  The biggest advantage to this program has been something that I discovered just recently.  I discovered   that I can create a lesson and then record my voice over that lesson to create a video.  I've been using this in my class to help a few of my children take tests.  Each week they sit down with the iPad or iPod touch and they watch a video for each question on their test and they work at their own pace.  The impact of this has been a huge improvement in performance for those students.  My vision for using this app when I get every student an iPad is that I can create a customized lesson for my students depending on their need.  If each student had an iPad they could pull it out and get a mini lesson to remind them of the lesson that was just taught.  I will post an example of what this looks like soon.

If you are interested in donating  to this cause,  I have posted a link that will take you to Paypal and you can donate to a Paypal account directly.  I will keep you up to date on how much we have raised.  When we have raised enough I will post the project to donors choose and fund the project.  If you choose to donate $50 or more you will get a customized book created by me and my class.  We will create and publish a book using an app called scribble press.   I appreciate your support and look forward to sharing updates.

Welcome

        Welcome to the digital chalkboard support site.  This is a site dedicated to raising money for the children in my classroom. I'll tell you a little bit of my story.
        This is my second year teaching in Everman ISD. This year I have 22 awesome students. Last year when I began teaching I was able to get 1 iPad and used a few old iPhones for my kids. They loved it and I saw some awesome growth coming from them using the technology and discovering new things. This year I have 2 iPads and 2 iPod touches. I'm continuing to see growth through the use of technology.  It's so great to see these children having fun and enjoying their learning.  There's research that shows if students don't have fun and enjoy school in the beginning years that they likely never will.    There's also research that shows that if we are not having fun we don't retain the information.  My goal as a teacher in 1st grade is to foster a love for learning at an early age.  It's so much fun for me to see my students having fun and laughing and then they come up to me and show me something that they found that we learned that week.
          The reason for this blog is to raise money for more technology for my students.  I've had this vision since I started teaching that I would be able to get an iPad for everyone of my students.  I believe that this goal will be reached by the end of this school year.  The more I teach the more I realize how much this technology is needed for our kids.  This year I have 22 kids and they are all at various levels in there learning and they have different learning styles.  As the classroom sizes continue to grow larger the need for this technology is going to increase.  I can't meet the needs of all of my students on my own, but God's given me a gift to use and understand technology.  I want to use this gift to impact the live of 22 precious children.  In my next post I'll tell you a little more about how I think we can do this and how you can impact children's lives.  Thanks