Saline Area Schools is dedicated to developing 21st-century learners who can collaborate, think critically, communicate, and be creative. Students who have difficulty reading, who have a challenge with focus, who can’t see, and are English language learners have a difficult time keeping up in school. When collaboration and being self-directed is expected to occur and reading is involved the challenge is magnified tenfold. Capti Voice is the award-winning reading tool that will dramatically reduce this imbalance.
Using Games to Enhance Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
As a department, the math teachers at SMS are working to implement critical thinking activities into our lessons. We are helping students identify strategies for problem solving that will carry into other courses and beyond the school walls. By allowing students time to play games, these skills can be reinforced in a fun and creative way. These games will also help to foster positive communication skills and cooperation amongst peers, as students put away their electronic devices and work together to play board and card games.
Compass Connected Classroom Library
In an effort to promote understanding of Social Justice and help students learn how to positively contribute to the lives of others while demonstrating empathy for differences in peers and community, it is essential for our Saline Middle School students to be exposed to texts that showcase diversity and include individuals acting with empathy in situations where social issues, or conflicts due to inequity/unfair treatment, occur. While many 8th grade students at SMS have heard examples of Social Injustice in the news, due to our demographics, it is not common for these teenagers to have deeper personal experiences that help them build empathy about differences in peers. Bringing in novels and non-fiction texts that explicitly show how Social Justice situations impact characters, both real and imagined, and affect the world (outside of Saline/Michigan/the US) will help our students develop greater understanding of social issues which will lead to more empathy being shown and an increase of positive contributions to the lives of others.
German Voluntary Reading Library
A second language, German in my case, is best attained by learners when the language is presented in a holistic and natural way, personalized to learnersÛª interests, and differentiated to their abilities. Rather than textbooks, the most valuable tool in a language classroom is comprehensible input in the language: content which can be heard, viewed, or read. My project seeks to assemble a variety of German-language texts in a variety of genres, so that students are able to successfully engage with a variety of cultural perspectives while also growing their vocabulary inference skills. These will include both published books and self-published texts from a variety of domestic and global sources.
Increasing Student Motivation for Learning Science 2018/19
This grant request funds to conduct activities to engage middle school Science Olympiad participants in deep learning of science through field trips and to boost team morale. We plan on taking a least 5 field trips to places like the planetarium, natural history museum, and university labs for herpetology, genetics, and engineering. Team t-shirts and sweatshirts will boost team spirit and confidence.
Classroom Calculators
We are in need of a classroom set of calculators. Students are encouraged to have their own, but that is not always possible for families. Also, 8th graders may forget their personal calculator at home and need one for that day’s class period.
