Creating Connections with Technology

School:: Immokalee Middle
Subject:: Social Studies
Teacher:: Jana Foraker
Students Impacted:: 150
Grade:: 7
Date:: August 12, 2022

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

Joseph Kemper - $194.88

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 141

I teach 7^th grade civics at Immokalee Middle School and I received a grant to purchase a year subscription to blooket and nearpod. Civics is a difficult course with challenging content, and a fast paced curriculum map. My six classes at IMS are on or below grade level readers, and many of them have IEPs (individualized education plans) which require more repetition to remember the information. My students also lack the background knowledge and experiences because of their home lives, which puts them at a severe disadvantage. My grants was for funding for Nearpod and Blooket, both these digital programs allow students to interact with content, review information, and create a competition environment which middle schoolers love. These online resources make learning fun, and they are able to learn and improve their civics knowledge.

Blooket and Nearpod both have amazing reports for teachers, and these reports can be used to look at the data for each student, or each question, or the lesson in general. Learning needs to have aspects of fun, and having the access to these sites make it enjoyable for the students. My students love a quick blooket game to review a lesson, unit, or benchmark. I then can use their scores to see which information they might need to be remediated in and which information they scored well on. Nearpod has so many great lessons are already created. Students can follow along on their laptops- as we are taking notes- and they can view it via the projector or on their computer screen. I can add in polls, they can draw their understanding, and I can add in checks of the comprehension throughout the lesson.

Both of these subscriptions have made my students retain information and be more successful their knowledge retention. My students take their state assessment, the End of Course Exam, which is worth 30% of their course grade and we will be using blooket and nearpod to continue to help them learn, review, and remember all about civics.

Thank you for this amazing grant opportunity!

grant photo

Original Grant Overview

Goal

My goal is to increase understanding and retention of civics knowledge through interactive, engaging, and cognitively complex lessons.

What will be done with my students

Nearpod has created and allows the creation of interactive slides, videos, and game-ified activities. Nearpod allows teachers to see student responses in real time, and gage students' level of comprehension.
Blooket allows students to review a variety of civics topics and practice mastery of content. Blooket plus would allow me to get detailed reports of students and scores. I would be able to determine which benchmarks and standards need additional review and remediation, and I would be able to determine which students may need additional differentiation.

Benefits to my students

Students in Immokalee, do not arrive to 7th grade with the background knowledge that other students in Collier Country have been exposed to. Since there is a lack of knowledge, students need to learn with highly engaging strategies that help them retain the content. Lessons in nearpod are able to be differentiated for each student, so the learning needs of all students are met. Blooket and Nearpod are two awesome programs that allow students to practice and gain civics knowledge.

Budget Narrative

A 1 year subscription to Blooket Plus and Nearpod Gold will be purchased with this grant.

Items

#	Item	Cost
1	Blooket Plus	$35.88
2	Nearpod Gold	$159.00
	Total:	$194.88

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