RAFT Hands-On Education

By Courtney Hunter, Resource Specialist Three percent of students in every classroom need some accommodations or assistance to achieve proficiency in academic subject areas. Not only are students not getting accommodations, many aren’t making significant progress either. Using minor technology devices in the classroom can help students meet their needs. In addition, the assistive technology can help other students be involved in the classroom discussions, participation and environment.   Communication, beyond all else, is the most critical component of education and survival. For children with no means of communication, the world is a difficult place. They cannot tell you how to meet their basic needs. Something as simple as wanting a drink of water is out of their reach, as well as academic need such as instructions or new information. Assistive technology is one of the keys to open up a world for the educational classroom. Sheets and Wirkus (1997) state, "When aug...

Rita Mercado, First Grade Teacher, Serendipity School The idea of having parents come into the classroom can be overwhelming at times, but it is an important step in having them gain an understanding of the learning that happens throughout the day that isn’t able to be sent home in the form of checked work or a neat looking project. As I began to incorporate more STEM and STEAM projects into my curriculum, I started thinking about how I could paint a clear picture for the parents about just what it was that we were doing. Of course the idea was introduced at Back to School Night and written about in newsletters, but what else could I do. I invited the parents in for a STEAM Night. After giving a brief introduction on the acronyms and examples of what this looks like in the classroom, the parents were able to move around the room and participate in activities designed for exploration. Once they had a few minutes to play, I posed some questions and challenges...

By Ashley Estes, First Grade Teacher, St. Elizabeth Seton The school year is in full swing and I cannot believe I have started my fourth year a 1 st grade teacher. Over the past few years I have been involved with RAFT and have been lucky enough to have taken classes and have had the opportunity to use many of their Activity Kits. RAFT has such an abundance of kits and idea sheets to choose from I have decided to tell you about some of my favorite kits. I have used these kits in my classroom for years and I would love to explain and show how I apply the kits to the first grade curriculum. Add It Up kit The Add It Up kit is a great math tool for my first graders. This kit includes a game board, two different types of dice, and game markers. Students roll two dice and they add the two numbers together. Once they figured out the sum, they use a game marker and place it on the number on the board. For example, if the student rolls a two and a four, they place a marker on...

By Courtney Hunter, Resource Specialist As Common Core is being integrated in every classroom amongst all grade levels, it is leaving some parents and children feeling baffled, perplexed, and many times, lost. With the new California Common Core methods students have yet to learn the techniques of looking at Math as a puzzle or unique contraption. Instead students are seeing it as a one-way path to unravel the one-way arithmetic explanation to resolve the only solution.   As we, educators, continue to build the minds of our students in our classroom, we embrace the complex problems with intriguing ways of solving them.   We lead our students to the understanding that Math can be messy and its okay to have a spider web of intercut pathways leading to a variety of correct answers.  For example, my fourth grade students were learning fractions. To many it was a number with lines keeping them separated. To others it was a circle with the same number of pie...