SPECIAL ED STUDENTS- SCIENCE BUFFS

Hello!! First I must thank the "gofundme" site for allowing us to use this service!! I am a special education teacher in Georgia with a class of wonderful students with various dissabiities. My students cognitive levels are much lower than their peers and they learn differently, but what I have found is that once you incorporate the technology component in their lives it opened up their minds. Earlier this year I decided that I needed to incorporate more technology in my classroom to foster learning in the areas of science and social studies....Thanks to many of you, I did and I cant put into words the difference it has made for my students. We adopted an aquatic turtle "JoJo" after doing much research on different animals with our Ipads. Since, my 1st grade students have been actively taking data on most every aspect of her life and environment. They are in the process now of planning and creating the perfect environment for her to live in based on the data collected.  My 3rd grade students are researching the different environments in Georgia, the species that occupy them and the effects of "human" interference within those environments. I am working closely with another teacher who is building our website, making sure that we are able to showcase our students work and allow others to contribute.  The student participation is overwhelming and their desire to conduct research and experiments is AWESOME and far outweighed my expectations. Now, I have many more students and a need for 2 more Ipads and keyboards thus allowing me to expand to my upper grade students. My hope is to have our site up by March, and with the addition of the technology more students will have the opportunity to experience science virtually as well as physically!! Thank you for taking the time to read about us!!