Jeannine - Two Wearable Techs and Ways to Get Them

• (1) Virtual Reality Headsets - taking kids places they may never visit themselves in real life.

• Before I came to Downingtown to teach, I taught six years in Philadelphia, exactly where I was born and raised. As a young teacher, I would always ask students what they knew about airplanes, about the beach or the boardwalk being that we're only an hour and a half from Atlantic City. I was always so shocked at how the majority of these students have never left the city. Describing scenes and showing pictures never really worked in building the background knowledge they would need. Now working in Downingtown, I work with 99% of learning support students and again find myself using videos and manipulatives to bring these places to them.

• Having virtual reality headsets has changed this for educators and students alike. It allows the teachers to take students to places across the globe and even under the sea. Giving the students an opportunity to "see" what it's like in all parts of our world would not only build background knowledge for our reading classes but would also make them feel as if they took a journey out of the classroom. 

• I did a little digging by asking around my school building about where I could find funding for such equipment. I had no idea that right in our district there is the Downingtown Community Education Foundation, where you can fill out an application in order to have them fund your project. 

• (2) Fitbit - I really loved the idea of being able to have the idea of making it into a schoolwide game using Strides; monitoring heart rate and steps are taken.

• Here's another piece of technology I couldn't wrap my head around, the Fitbit! Why are all of my colleagues so obsessed with tapping their new watches? Who seriously needs to be counting their steps every day? What else are they always looking at while we're having a conversation during lunch? Then enters my 72-year-old father's heart going in and out of AFib. His doctor recommended that he purchase a Fitbit to help him self monitor his heart rate. This small piece of equipment has allowed my father to keep daily track of how his heart rate fluctuates so much throughout the day. Now, my mother wears one too!  

• I thought that when I would look up some educational resources for the Fitbit the typical physical education recommendations would be all over this and that was about it. I was wrong. The Fitbit could be linked to programs where the students can keep daily track of their accomplishments in school. I did a write up about Strides in my article summary, but wouldn't it be great if students could earn points for simply attending school each day. I know my students are obsessed with the streaks they have with their friends on Snapchat. Streaks are when they and a peer will communicate on so many consecutive days via Snapchat, then Snapchat will reward them with some kind of new emoji to use in the app. I bet if the kids would buy into the Strides program, many would participate to keep their daily successes high without realizing they are actually benefiting themselves.

• One way I thought about funding a project like this, would be to use the DonorsChoose website. This is a website where you explain your students, explain your project, and how it will benefit the students' education, and donors from all over can sign into DonorsChoose and choose whether or not to contribute toward your project. A friend of mine who teaches in Delaware County has had a woman contributor pretty much purchase everything she's put up on Donors Choose.