Published on February 27th, 2016

Bombarded in a world filled with technology zipping all around, not everyone has equal access to the equipment necessary to be successful to meet 21st century competencies. My dream is to give my students the skills, abundance of access, and equal opportunities to strive and be college and career ready. My name is Dante Palmieri and I want to continue to inspire my students with technology and give them as much hands on experience as possible in the classroom. Earlier this year, I taught my gifted and high achieving 3rd grade students a core literature unit focused on Charlotte’s Web. Incorporating project-based learning, the students read, collaboratively investigated data that I brought in, and created oral presentations. We only have two desktop computers for the students, so they had only a few opportunities to access them for research. I helped bring in my own laptop for presenting on the overhead images and connected texts to help make our discussions deeper and learning richer. When the students were given an at home extension assignment about the book, not everyone was able to research, type out their products, or do Power Points because they did not have computers at home! If we have more computers in the classroom, then I can be assured that my students would gain the skills they need for their futures. My proposed project would be for my students to engulf themselves into our next core literature unit focusing on The Sign of the Beaver. We will be using the technology to research more in depth about the relations of settlers and Native Americans in the past, and do project based group presentations. Please help our dreams come true with technology and support our third graders’ life experiences with hands on research, word processing programs, and interactive presentations.