Innovative Teaching Grants 2006-07

Creativity, energy, initiative, and a commitment to enhancing student learning combined to prompt teachers and administrators throughout the district to conceptualize imaginative approaches to the curriculum....and to submit Innovative Teaching Grant proposals.  The Foundation approved funding 21 of these proposals—distributing a total of $55,000—as follows:

Fall 2006

Cutting Edge Technology Increases Academics  - Cindy Matthews’ fifth graders saw the world of science unfold interactively and “up close and personal” by means of a 3D camera projecting digital images to her students, images of documents, live science experiments, and Internet resources.

Gourmet Curriculum - fifth-grade Language Arts teachers (D’Les Moreno, Jane Sanders, Rachael Cox and Martha Gardner) served up a tasty menu—instructional courseware—of “appetizers” (daily skills reinforcement), “main dishes” (model lesson plans cued to different learning styles), “desserts” (enrichment and assessment activities) and “doggie bags” (fun games and activities reinforcing reading and library skills).

Reading With Cubby - first grade team teachers Kimberly Namken, Kimberly A lsbrooks, Rhonda Hinote, Veronica Sanchez, Susan Tucker, Denise Schneider and A nna Benavides built reading activities around an Internet-based collection of 455 appropriate books. The strategy including teacher-designed online activity templates that students and parents can access.

Higher Education Exploration - college and continuing education was demystified for high school special education students through teacher Michele Tagliabue’s efforts to provide her students information and tours regarding continuing education opportunities. The initiative enhanced the Bastrop High School—Austin Community College “College Connection” program.

Authors’ Showcase - second grade teachers Shannon Boatright and Christine Havens took student writing one step further—into “authoring” work for a public audience—to build writing skills and increase confidence. The students’ work was presented in an “Authors’ Showcase”, in the Bastrop Opera House, for proud parents and other members of the community.

Digital Storytelling in the Classroom - translating concepts into visual image, then into storyboards, and then into narratives was the pathway teachers Peggy Perkins, Amy Kasiske, Jennifer Leisure, Marilyn Cox and John Kadura blazed for their fourth grade students as a means of strengthening the quality of student writing.  Using 25 digital cameras, students were challenged to express abstract concepts in concrete visual images and thereafter in writing.

BMS Reads - a “community of readers” was the focus of a seventh and eighth grade project undertaken by teachers Jan Taylor, Dayna Bradford, Deana Seidel, Celia Mercer, Kathy Cheshire, Kathy Kincheloe and Bruce Mercer. Students read and studied Seedfolks, a Newberry A ward winning novel by Paul Fleischman. From this study students gain a sense of community and further their love of reading.

Spring 2007

Digital Books for Intermediate Students - librarians Dixie West and Brenda

Wallace received funding for a cross-curricular project through which approximately 1200 fifth and sixth grade students will have Internet access to more than 6000 downloadable electronic books—readable by laptops or audio players.

“Ready Bodies, Learning Minds” Motor Lab - students at one of the district’s elementary schools now have access to a “motor lab” to strengthen the mind-body connection—such as hand-eye coordination—that underpins a student’s development and readiness to learn and that factors prominently in the student’s ability to develop the skills necessary for success in reading, writing, math and other core subjects. The project was created by teachers Mary Voelker, Robin Lucio, Joan Crawford, Candace Harris and Christine Havens.

Integrating Science and Math with Technology - fifth and sixth grade students throughout the district are beneficiaries of eight grants providing each campus with software integrating science and math learning at each grade level and centering on data collection, analysis, interpretation, and projection. The software will reside on the laptops that fifth and sixth grade students will be issued beginning with the 2007-08 school year. Teams of intermediate school teachers joined energies to identify the courseware and develop strategies to integrate it into the curriculum. They include, from Bastrop Intermediate School, Loretta Dickson, Cherie Oltman, Walter Arnold, Graceanna Holder, Carole Steindorff, Angela King, Dianne McArtchen, Heather Frank, Bill Burchett, Misty Waneck, Gaye Cave, Vincent Messina, Beth Sanders and Cynthia Matthews. Participating from Cedar Creek Intermediate School teachers are Mark Collins, Laura Haynes, Dave Nations, J. Taylor, Desti Patton, Wendy Hernandez, Michelle Wright, Wendy Cox, Harold Owen, Kristi Roberts, Jon Kirk, Michelle Yanes, Ursula Parker, Michelle Kubiak and Sheree Goebel.

Bring The World To Students Using Video Conferencing - teacher Michele Stahl received funding allowing students in her Gifted / Talented classes to extend—by video conferencing—the walls of her classroom to embrace expert presentations offered by other entities, such as the Botanical Research Institute of Texas and the St. Louis Zoo. The programs offered were selected from a menu of high-quality content correlated with the K-4 curriculum for Gifted and Talented students and will encompass interaction among presenters and participants, in similar classrooms across the U.S.

Audio Books for English Language Learners - teacher Juan Sanchez received funding to acquire audio books suitable for English Language Learners as a way to reinforce reading and comprehension in the English language and to serve as a springboard to speaking and writing as well. Fourth grade students in the Bilingual Education program are the primary audience.

Dyeing to Knit - Teacher Missy Schuelke received funding for supplies and demonstration to “weave” instruction in her high school Textiles class around a thread—from harvesting wool, to spinning and dyeing the fiber, to fabricating clothes.

P-16 Partnership for Post Secondary Readiness, Participation and Success for ALL Students - The Foundation joins the Texas Pioneer Foundation of San Marcos and the Bastrop ISD in funding a district wide, all-campus initiative to foster college and career readiness and planning. Its functions include increasing student and family awareness of higher education opportunities, assisting students in navigating the key steps along the path to college and career, and increasing Bastrop ISD graduates’ participation and success in postsecondary education. This program affects all levels and includes enhanced student career and college counseling and will sustain Bastrop ISD’s three-year-old collaboration with Austin Community College whereby students earn concurrent college and high school credit. It will work toward increasing the percentage of college-bound students to a level that would place Bastrop’s college participation rate in the top quarter of all Texas high schools.