And the winner is: Donor’s Choose Project Funded!

The voting is finished and the winner is (drum roll please) Gerard Dypiangco and his students are receiving Tag Readers!  In November I took the Change the world Challenge.  For every unique visitor to iLearn Technology I vowed to donate a penny to a worthy charity.  I settled on funding a Donor’s Choose project and had you all help me out by voting for the project that should be funded.  Voting ended today (it was close!)  Please take a look at the project below.  I am happy that I could help fund this project, as you can see from the comments on this post, Gerard is not only an incredible teacher himself, his mother created a legacy of incredible teaching.  Thank you Gerard (and all of you teachers out there) for the ways you impact the world each and every day.  What you do matters.

Want to have some fun this holiday season? Hunt for and fund a Donor’s Choose project with your family.  You won’t believe how good it feels to change education one classroom at a time!  Need a suggestion?  Start by funding the projects featured in this post.  Linda Yollis and her class came a close second place.  I would love to help Mrs. Yollis to purchase microphones for her classroom.  Through the end of this year, purchase anything from the iLearn Technology Store and 100% of that purchase will be donated to this project.  Or if you are feeling extra generous, you can head directly to Donor’s Choose and help complete funding…only $172 to go!

My Students: What do you do when you are reading a book and come across a word that you do not know? You might crack open a dictionary or try to look up the word online. But what if a devi…

My Project: Many of my third graders are reading at or near grade level, which is great. But I still have a sizable number of students who are reading one to two years below grade level. … more»

My Students: What do you do when you are reading a book and come across a word that you do not know? You might crack open a dictionary or try to look up the word online. But what if a device could read the unknown word for you? What an amazing thing that would be!

I teach third grade in a primarily immigrant and working class neighborhood in southern California. Most of my students are learning English as a second language, a couple of them are receiving special education services, a group of students are identified Gifted, and ALL of them love to learn.

My Project: Many of my third graders are reading at or near grade level, which is great. But I still have a sizable number of students who are reading one to two years below grade level. They want to become fluent readers but have not yet acquired the skills necessary to become good readers. What they need right now is more practice reading and listening to stories.

One way to accomplish this added exposure to reading and listening is through the Tag School Reader System, which includes four Tag Readers and four copies of six different books, including Arthur Writes a Story and Honey Saves the Day!: A Story of Young Abe Lincoln. The Tag Reader is a handheld learning tool that provides audio feedback to a student. The device can read the story, pronounce a particularly troublesome word, or provide story context and background information. The Tag Reader can also provide a student with practice of necessary skills such as compare and contrast, cause and effect and sequencing.

With these Tag Readers my students will be provided with on-demand reading assistance when needed. Gradually my less fluent readers will begin to become confident readers as they work at their own pace. Eventually these students will become independent readers, able to read on grade level with their peers. These once struggling students can become readers for life. Thank you.