Innovative Teaching Grants 2008-09
The bright ideas range from preschool learning strategies to utilizing new technologies to enhance instruction in high school math and science. Creativity and initiative abound as teachers and administrators throughout the district seek ways to strengthen student learning. The Foundation will give these efforts a substantial boost by funding 18 imaginative strategies for learning during the 2008-09 school year. Those grants, totaling more than $65,000, are as follows:
Digital Books for Middle School Students
The almost 1,400 seventh and eighth graders at Bastrop Middle School and Cedar Creek Middle School are in line to be issued laptop computers this fall as the district continues its drive to integrate technology into instruction…and, thanks to the Foundation, the implementation will include a wider range of instructional resources. Specifically, the Foundation has awarded the two schools $5,000 to acquire a collection of audio digital books that students can download from the campus networks to their laptops and access independently or in small tutorial groups. The collection will start with 79 grade-appropriate titles to be chosen by campus teachers this summer and is intended to strengthen the students’ reading skills and vocabulary. BMS librarians Ginni Smith and Roxalyn Davis originated the grant.
Mentoring Beginning Teachers
One of the keys to high quality education is attracting talented teachers and getting them off to a great start. For this purpose, the Bastrop Education Foundation has awarded Bastrop Independent School District a grant of $8,000 to bolster the district’s efforts to enhance its induction and mentoring program for new teachers. Aimed primarily at beginning teachers in their first two years of service, the grant complements a grant the district recently received from the Texas Education Agency to provide training and resources for mentoring teachers. The grant request was the work of Lacey Padgett, director of human resources.
Technology and Physical Fitness
While use of technology typically builds great right-hand “mouse” skills, students in grades one through four at Lost Pines Elementary School will be going after whole body involvement under an innovative $1,000 grant submitted by physical education teacher Carrie Mouser. The strategy uses Nintendo Wii technology—and students’ keen interest in that technology—to simulate physically challenging games and get all students “off the bench and playing” within a virtual game or other activity. The grant will provide for the purchase of two Wii consoles and controls; each console will be able to engage up to four students at a time in virtual tennis, golf, bowling, boxing and baseball. The software also includes a fitness assessment and training lessons.
Role Playing Costumes for PreK Students
It’s a lot more than “dress-up”: preK students at Cedar Creek Elementary School will be playing it to the hilt by dramatizing the roles of medical providers, police, firefighters, pilots, etc. in learning about safety, science, and social studies. A $500 grant will fund two sets of costumes—one for the regular preK classroom and another for the bilingual preK classroom—that teachers Elaine Bullard and Olga Zapata-Hamlamek will use to improve their student’s social and emotional skills by learning to share and by modeling adult responsibilities.
Instructional Software Keyed to TEKS
As Cedar Creek Middle School eighth graders are issued laptop computers next year, they will be able to access yet another software tool to gain content mastery in key subject areas. Eighth grade English teacher Amanda McCormick-Richason will receive a $1,501 grant for Study Island—TAKS, a paperless instructional resource focusing on language arts, science, math, and history activities correlated with eighth grade Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) with check tests in a format compatible with that of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS).
A version of this same TEKS-aligned software—appropriate for third grades—will be put through its paces at Emile Elementary School. Third grade teacher Reba Tucker, who developed the proposal, envisions using Study Island for reinforcement and enhancement of student learning and for diminishing student anxiety over the TAKS, a state mandated test that factors into decisions regarding promotion or retention of students at this grade level.
Both projects are essentially pilot projects as the district evaluations the usefulness of the Study Island software as a supplemental tool to build content mastery.
‘Babies and Books’ Take-Home Library
A collaborative effort between Lost Pines Elementary School library and district administrators to narrow the learning gap of limited English proficient students has generated a “Babies and Books” pilot program to serve children from birth to age 5. The Foundation has weighed in with a $4,000 grant to help advance the effort. According to the proposal, the pilot will entail weekly sessions, for a period of 29 weeks, for 50 Spanish and English speaking children and their caregivers. Each week, participants will gather for a program of reading, songs, fingerplays and other activities centering on a weekly theme. Weekly as well, each child will be given an age appropriate paperback book to take home to be read with his or her caregiver and to build a home library for such books. The grant proposal is the work of a large team—librarian Fran Pitts; preK teachers Lorena Macias and Betsy Valbracht; kindergarten teachers Angela Alvarado, Kari Dyess, Elizabeth Gonzales, Rhonda Hinote, Norma Longoria, Sharon Wachsmann, and Judy Wolff; Migrant Education coordinator Claudia Munoz, and Migrant Education parent liaison Reina Delgado-Gallegos.
A Life Experiences Library
Fourth graders at Emile Elementary School will now have ready access to a classroom set of eight novels, carefully selected for the manner in which they portray life experiences and reinforce positive character traits. Experiences range from overcoming fears to relationships with others. The library will be assembled with a $1,186 Foundation grant and is the work of fourth grade teachers Heather Aaron and Jaime Williams.
Outdoor Learning Center for ‘Wiggle Worm Gardeners’
With $2,752 in “seed money” from the Foundation, Cedar Creek Elementary School kindergarten students will pull Mother Nature into the classroom. The grant will fund an outdoor learning area where children will experience science first-hand in a garden of their making. Kindergarten teachers Ashleigh Collins and Deborah Morrow, the proposal’s authors, envision using the garden to teach across the curriculum. Lessons will encompass math, art, reading, writing, and technology—built around such activities as devising a garden calendar, maintaining journals, studying nutrition, etc.
Family Literacy Project
Lost Pines Elementary School’s strategic efforts to narrow the learning gap for limited English proficient students has gained another dimension with an initiative to increase parent involvement of Hispanic/Latino families and to increase literacy by fostering the establishing of family reading routines in the home. With the Foundation providing $2,200, the program will be implemented in conjunction with the school’s existing ESL classes and with the school’s Migrant Parent sessions. Collaborating in this grant proposal were Bilingual teachers Shirley Thornton (first grade), Norma Longoria (kindergarten), Denise Guerrero (second grade), and Russell Baker (fourth grade), along with Migrant Education coordinator Claudia Munoz and Migrant Education parent liaison Reina Delgado-Gallegos.
Science and Math ‘Probeware’ for the Middle School Students
Seventh and eighth graders at Bastrop Middle School should have an easier time wrapping their hands and heads around science and math, thanks to a Foundation grant underwriting a new electronic device. Termed “probeware,” these handheld devices integrate with the students laptops—newly issued to seventh and eighth graders this year—to collect, analyze, and interpret data. The $4,710 grant will be used to purchase 15 of these devices and will be used in small group settings in science and math classes. Collaborating on the proposal were seventh grade science teachers Bao Le, Denise Miles, and Christianne Plummer; seventh and eighth grade math teacher Chris Kincaid; eighth grade science teacher Celia Mercer, and Special Education teacher Bruce Mercer.
Interactive Technology for High School Classrooms
Bastrop High School students and teachers are blazing an electronic trail with InterWrite Pads, a new interactive teaching and learning tool that works much like an electronic table and electronic pen that permits students and teachers to query and respond, open files and applications, and annotate images. A successful trial run this year with a couple of such devices prompted teachers to request broader access and the district to apply for a $18.900 Foundation grant to purchase 50 more for use in high school math and science classrooms. Each math and science teacher will receive two and—according to the proposal submitted by Lori Gracey, the district’s director of technology in education—extensive training in their use this fall.
Jazz Project for Middle School Students
Things are about to get jazzy for the district’s music program as Cedar Creek Middle School assistant band director Jeff Hefler launches a jazz study and performance group for seventh and eighth graders. The after-school program is expected to attract as many as 30 students and will focus on the history of jazz, music theory—scales, chords, melody, vamps, rhythm—as well as improvisational skills and repertoire. The results will be showcased in school concerts in December, February, and May and in UIL solo and ensemble competition, also in May. The $2,105 Foundation grant will fund equipment and a course text.
Sensory-Motor Skills Playground
With a Foundation grant of $5,000 and a lot of sweat equity by PTA and staff, Lost Pines Elementary School will be building a playground for all students…not just any playground but one that builds upon sensory and motor skills fundamental to learning. The playground will be configured to look like a river (“The Lost Pines River”) complete with an island and shipwreck, river crossing stones, even an step-on crocodile, an alphabet snake, and a rain forest “escape” path. This imaginative learning environment is the brainchild of Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities teacher Judith Talbot and Special Education therapist Mary Voelker.
Hand Chimes for Elementary Students
Bells will definitely be ringing around Mina Elementary School as students throughout the school will learn handchiming. As conceptualized by music teacher Diane Marie Seider, the $3005 Foundation grant will be used to purchase two sets of four-octave, 49-note choir chimes and resource materials. The handchimes will be used as a springboard for teaching rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, dynamics, timbre, duration, pitch and form—consistent with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills requirements—and will used in individual, small group, and large group setting. Along the way, students will experience the developmental plus that comes from individual and team success.
On-Line Instructional Resources
Expect to see “explosions” in learning at Mina Elementary School, thanks to teacher initiative and “BrainPOP,” an Internet-based instructional resource encompassing virtually all elementary school subject areas—reading, math, science, language arts, social studies, technology, health, art and music. Aligned with the Texas Educational Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curriculum standards, the courseware was successfully used last year at Bluebonnet Elementary, a project also funded by the Foundation. The Mina deployment—under a $1395 Foundation grant—will be implemented at all grade levels and will include access to BrainPOP Spanish (a version aimed at limited English proficient students). The proposal is the collaborative brainwork of teachers Julie Barron (second grade), Heather Hutchton-Stidham (first grade), Melissa Nevares (third grade), Vicki Oates (kindergarten), and Peggy Perkins (fourth grade).
Job Preparedness for Special Education Students
“Job boxes”—containing everyday materials that students may encounter in a specific occupations—are a pre-vocational tool that Bastrop High School Special Education staff will put to good use next year in preparing their Life Skills students for the world of work. Funded by a $838 Foundation grant, boxes will be prepared for entry level jobs in offices and restaurants. Contents will include everything from staple removers to shredders—for office jobs—and from silverware to plastic cups—for food service jobs. Collaborating in the development of the proposal were Special Education teacher Suzanne Holt, diagnostician Michele Tagliabue, and STARS employee Gay Gaskey.
Preschool Speech Language Intervention
Sharpen your PENSLS! A Foundation grant of $1250 will fund a Lost Pines Elementary School project helping three- to five-year olds in overcoming speech language difficulties while still a preschooler. PENSLS—Preschoolers Exploring New Speech and Language Skills—will serve up to 10 students annually when fully implemented. Participating children will attend class two hours per week. The class will resemble typical preschool classes but will feature a specific sound each week as the focus of that week’s instruction. The grant will fund teaching aids and activity centers; the proposal is the work of speech-language pathologist Melinda Anderson.