Classroom Laptop for ELD
Donation protected
Hello
My name is Carrie and I teach elementary aged English Language Learners in Aurora, Colorado.
My students are fighters and they are learners. Their families, some of whom are refugees, come from Iraq, Honduras, Vietnam, the Congo, El Salvador, Mexico, and Ethiopia. Their families have made sacrifices to relocate to our country for a variety of reasons, including that of personal safety, and so that their children may have access to a high-quality education.
The language instruction in Aurora Public Schools is technology based. In English Language Development (ELD) class, we use a Promethean Board and a program called ActivInspire to present sentence frames ("mortar") that our language learners can use across language domains and content areas.
For example, during a unit about the language of comparing and contrasting, students might see:
"While ___ and ___ are both ___ and have some things in common, they also have many differences. In this ___ , I will compare and contrast the similarities and differences between ___ and ___ ."
Students should then be able to use the available technology to drag and drop illustrated academic vocabulary ("bricks") into the blanks to create meaningful phrases. They should be able to orally rehearse the language and practice writing it. Once they've internalized and owned the language structure, they can use it across content areas and in their day-to-day lives: by comparing and contrasting characters or genres of text in language arts, operations in math, plant and animal cells in science, tribes or revolutions from the social studies curriculum, charter vs. public education programs in secondary education, or healthcare plans in adulthood.
My students should be able not olnly to gain the reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills necessary in order to deepen their understandings about academic content and the world, but to also communicate those understandings with others. In our classroom, we call this academic discourse our "language power."
I am starting this campaign because, while general education classrooms have been issued new teacher and student laptops and ChromeBooks, we have one laptop that no longer works. The Dell laptop that I've been issued is no longer compatible with the newer technologies that our school district is working with.
We still have a Dell model that, due to its obsolescence, has been repurposed in gen ed classrooms strictly as a student word processing machine, yet, in these classrooms, these laptops sit unused for that single student purpose, because they're no longer capable of operating Microsoft Word.
Please consider the message that this sends to our Culturally and Linguistically Diverse students. Much is said in this silence: about what our priorities are, and about whose learning we value most highly. This is an issue of equity. It is an issue of social justice.
A functioning classroom computer is an essential tool that is necessary in order for me to be an effective English Language Development teacher. With a working laptop, I could:
-consult student data to plan for instruction;
-contact parents who are not accessible via phone or are unable to come into school to discuss their students' progress and learning needs;
-plan for and deliver high-quality, targeted instruction to my Culturally and Linguistically Diverse students.
I am not seeking a computer that has bells and whistles; the purpose of this campaign is to raise funds to purchase a classroom computer that can be used to successfully create and present engaging content and instructional materials without freezing or crashing. Through my research, I have found that at a price point of $599.99, the 13.3" HP Pavilion laptop is a highly rated, mid-range laptop that would suit these teaching and learning needs. The 360 feature would support the coplanning and collaboration work that I do on the ELD teacher leadership end. A link to the laptop's Best Buy page can be found here: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-pavilion-x360-2-in-1-13-3-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-128gb-solid-state-drive-gold/5618119.p?skuId=5618119.
We are often told that as ELD teachers, one of our roles is that of advocate for the students and the families that we serve. It is for that reason that I write this campaign. During this season of giving, your contribution toward a new classroom computer would have a positive impact on our students' academic English development, as it would reduce the amount of valuable and limited instructional time is currently being lost each time that we must wait for our computer to unfreeze or reboot mid-lesson due to a system crash.
I am incredibly fortunate and grateful to have found my calling in ESL and bilingual education. I am passionate about the mission to help young learners find and develop their academic voices, yet without a computer to effectively plan lessons, deliver instruction, and communicate with families and colleagues, I am currently underserving my students.
This is not acceptable.
Our ELD students' futures depend on the language that they take on and own today, and for that reason, I urge you to please consider supporting this fund.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Carrie Meyer
English Language Development Teacher Leader
Aurora, Colorado
My name is Carrie and I teach elementary aged English Language Learners in Aurora, Colorado.
My students are fighters and they are learners. Their families, some of whom are refugees, come from Iraq, Honduras, Vietnam, the Congo, El Salvador, Mexico, and Ethiopia. Their families have made sacrifices to relocate to our country for a variety of reasons, including that of personal safety, and so that their children may have access to a high-quality education.
The language instruction in Aurora Public Schools is technology based. In English Language Development (ELD) class, we use a Promethean Board and a program called ActivInspire to present sentence frames ("mortar") that our language learners can use across language domains and content areas.
For example, during a unit about the language of comparing and contrasting, students might see:
"While ___ and ___ are both ___ and have some things in common, they also have many differences. In this ___ , I will compare and contrast the similarities and differences between ___ and ___ ."
Students should then be able to use the available technology to drag and drop illustrated academic vocabulary ("bricks") into the blanks to create meaningful phrases. They should be able to orally rehearse the language and practice writing it. Once they've internalized and owned the language structure, they can use it across content areas and in their day-to-day lives: by comparing and contrasting characters or genres of text in language arts, operations in math, plant and animal cells in science, tribes or revolutions from the social studies curriculum, charter vs. public education programs in secondary education, or healthcare plans in adulthood.
My students should be able not olnly to gain the reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills necessary in order to deepen their understandings about academic content and the world, but to also communicate those understandings with others. In our classroom, we call this academic discourse our "language power."
I am starting this campaign because, while general education classrooms have been issued new teacher and student laptops and ChromeBooks, we have one laptop that no longer works. The Dell laptop that I've been issued is no longer compatible with the newer technologies that our school district is working with.
We still have a Dell model that, due to its obsolescence, has been repurposed in gen ed classrooms strictly as a student word processing machine, yet, in these classrooms, these laptops sit unused for that single student purpose, because they're no longer capable of operating Microsoft Word.
Please consider the message that this sends to our Culturally and Linguistically Diverse students. Much is said in this silence: about what our priorities are, and about whose learning we value most highly. This is an issue of equity. It is an issue of social justice.
A functioning classroom computer is an essential tool that is necessary in order for me to be an effective English Language Development teacher. With a working laptop, I could:
-consult student data to plan for instruction;
-contact parents who are not accessible via phone or are unable to come into school to discuss their students' progress and learning needs;
-plan for and deliver high-quality, targeted instruction to my Culturally and Linguistically Diverse students.
I am not seeking a computer that has bells and whistles; the purpose of this campaign is to raise funds to purchase a classroom computer that can be used to successfully create and present engaging content and instructional materials without freezing or crashing. Through my research, I have found that at a price point of $599.99, the 13.3" HP Pavilion laptop is a highly rated, mid-range laptop that would suit these teaching and learning needs. The 360 feature would support the coplanning and collaboration work that I do on the ELD teacher leadership end. A link to the laptop's Best Buy page can be found here: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-pavilion-x360-2-in-1-13-3-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-128gb-solid-state-drive-gold/5618119.p?skuId=5618119.
We are often told that as ELD teachers, one of our roles is that of advocate for the students and the families that we serve. It is for that reason that I write this campaign. During this season of giving, your contribution toward a new classroom computer would have a positive impact on our students' academic English development, as it would reduce the amount of valuable and limited instructional time is currently being lost each time that we must wait for our computer to unfreeze or reboot mid-lesson due to a system crash.
I am incredibly fortunate and grateful to have found my calling in ESL and bilingual education. I am passionate about the mission to help young learners find and develop their academic voices, yet without a computer to effectively plan lessons, deliver instruction, and communicate with families and colleagues, I am currently underserving my students.
This is not acceptable.
Our ELD students' futures depend on the language that they take on and own today, and for that reason, I urge you to please consider supporting this fund.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Carrie Meyer
English Language Development Teacher Leader
Aurora, Colorado
Organizer
Carrie Jo
Organizer
Aurora, CO
