Innovative Teaching Grants 2009-10
With grants for the 2009-10 school year totaling more than $71,000, the Foundation continues to support new teaching strategies, innovative ideas and other initiatives to enhance instruction. The 20 grants awarded for this cycle range in scope and size from $590 (for a specific classroom project involving video conferencing) to $26,320 (for summertime staff development for the district’s PreAP teachers):
Multi-Sensory Handwriting
Cedar Creek Elementary School
Grant recipients: Teachers Olga Zapata-Hallamek and Elaine Bullard
Pre-K students at Cedar Creek Elementary will take a “hands-on” approach to learning the alphabet and forming letters with Handwriting Without Tears. This letter recognition program introduces the alphabet tactilely as well as visually as a pathway to letter recognition and reconstruction.
Hands-On Investigation of the Sun
Cedar Creek Elementary School
Grant recipients: Teachers Elaine Bullard and Marie Hamblen
Fourth grade students at Cedar Creek Elementary will have the opportunity to research and create a solar oven while conducting experiments that show how solar energy heats and affects substances. Students will work in collaborative learning groups formed around student learning styles and embracing each child’s special needs and talents.
Multicultural Musical Instruments
Lost Pines Elementary School
Grant recipient: Teacher Staci Gideon
Students at Lost Pines Elementary will experience various cultures around the world through their music and instruments—ranging from a Cajon box drum (Peru) to wooden frog rasps (Southeast Asia). With the 20 instruments purchased through by the grant, students will participate in rhythm, singing, improvisation, games and movement activities from other countries.
“BookFlix”
Mina Elementary School
Grant recipients; Teachers Brenda Gravitt, Rosalinda O'Donnell and Sara Franco
Mina Elementary students will access—at school and at home—BookFlix, an interactive website that pairs classic fictional video storybooks with nonfiction eBooks to reinforce reading skills and develop essential knowledge and understanding. Each pair—translated as well into Spanish for use with bilingual instructions—includes activities such as vocabulary match, sequencing, and distinguishing fiction from fact.
Connecting to the World Through Video Conferencing
Mina Elementary School
Grant recipient: Teacher Peggy Perkins
Through Mina Elementary’s video conferencing system, Ms. Perkins and her Gifted/Talented students will expand the walls of their classroom to encompass three worldwide video conferencing services. The services will provide interactive learning about simple machines and the McDonald Observatory.
Bilingual Reading Improvement: “Esperanza”
Mina Elementary School
Grant recipients: Teachers Melanie Kovar, Shirley Thornton, Michele Stahl, Mary Parker, Maria Tuttrup, Michelle Reyes, Rosalinda O'Donnell and Cindy Eddy-Rodriguez
Mina Elementary will have a new tool to help English-Language Learners improve reading and language skills. For use in Pre-K through fourth grade, the Esperanza Spanish reading program provides a multisensory, sequential, and systematic approach toward achieving literacy.
“The Leader in Me”
Mina Elementary School
Grant recipients: Teachers Melanie Kovar, Amy Kasiske, Pam Burchett, Heather Stidham, Michele Stahl and John Kadura
This grant enables Mina Elementary to implement The Leader in Me program, integrating essential life skills and characteristics that students need to thrive in the 21st century. The program emphasizes creativity, analytical and interpersonal skills and promotes strong academic skill growth.
Keeping the Garden Green
Red Rock Elementary School
Grant recipient: Teacher Deborrah Gauntlett
The Red Rock Elementary garden will be turning over a new leaf....with the replacement of garden bed timbers that have begun to rot. The reworked garden will nourish student minds—an awareness of how food grows, knowledge of local trees and plants, the effect of weather on plants, etc.—and their bodies as well—students will grow vegetables that will be used in the school’s Earth Day soup, feeding approximately 600 people.
Getting Real With Art
All elementary schools, Bastrop Intermediate School and Bastrop High School
Grant recipients: Teachers Roy Anthony, Hilary Bach, Vicki Barker- Taylor, Max Butler, Michele Daugherty, Kim Deviney, Virginia Johnson and Lynette Philpot
Getting real with Art will allow district elementary students and Bastrop Intermediate students to learn about artists living and creating within the community— providing a real life learning experience. Bastrop High School juniors and seniors will benefit as well—interviewing and producing biographical videos about local artists and their works. The videos will be shared between schools through the BISD portal and with the community through public broadcast stations. Students will use language arts, math, social studies and technology to express and demonstrate the ideas and skills observed.
World Percussion Education
Cedar Creek Intermediate and Middle Schools
Grant recipient: Teacher Jeff Hefler
The World Percussion Education Program will introduce Cedar Creek Intermediate and Middle School students to the basics of rhythm and percussion music of Brazil, West Africa, Cuba, Trinidad and New Orleans. The 11 instruments purchased through this grant are characteristic of their cultures and for the basis for instruction on musical technique and the cultural impact of music.
One Act Play Contest Set
Bastrop Middle School
Grant recipient: Teacher Kathryn Manley
The stage is set and Bastrop Middle School is one step closer to representing the district in the University Scholastic League One Act Play contest for middle school students. This grant will allow the BMS Theater department to build the required basic set—flats and risers—for use in Theater Arts classes, performances and competition.
Eighth Grade Reading Improvement: “Study Island”
Bastrop Middle School
Grant recipient: Teacher Alan Laurent
Bastrop Intermediate School will implement Study Island, a web-based learning environment that focuses on skill building and assessment in the various subject areas. The user-friendly self-paced solution allows the individual student to choose his or her style of learning and provides immediate feedback on positive gains and on trouble spots that need further assistance.
Learning By Death
Bastrop Middle School
Grant recipients: Teachers Denise Miles, Chris Kincaid, Patty Wedding and Dayna Bradford
Teaching “across the curriculum”—intertwining learning in math, science, social studies, reading, etc.—drives this innovative strategy. Eighth grade students at Bastrop Middle School will take a day trip to Texas State Cemetery in Austin to collect data concerning historical figures and others buried in this historic cemetery, about tombstone construction and the effects of weathering. Presentations and essays will report findings.
Planting for Success
Bastrop Middle School
Grant recipients: Teachers Billy Castleberry, Carmene Harman and Lucy Matocha
The Planting for Success program will help provide Bastrop Middle School students in several special education programs—Grand Central Station, Focus, Life Skills—with the necessary equipment to create a functional greenhouse. After assisting with the initial setup, students will work in the greenhouse, caring for plants that will be sold to fund the program on an ongoing basis and developing daily responsibility for actions, interpersonal skills, money, time and resource management and other employability skills.
Read It Forward
Cedar Creek Middle School
Grant recipients: Assistant Principle Sherri Schwab and Dean of Instruction Mary Hernandez
The Cedar Creek Middle School community will discover the joy of sharing literature through the Read it Forward project. CCMS will receive 30 copies of two different book titles that will be distributed to 30 chosen seventh and eighth grade students. As students read the selection, they will write comments expressing their thoughts and opinions on the inside cover of the book, discuss the work with their friends and family, and then choose the next recipient.
Literature Circles
Cedar Creek Middle School
Grant recipients: Assistant Principal Sherri Schwab and Dean of Instruction Mary Hernandez
The grant will provide seventh and eighth grade Language Arts classes with sets of 20 book titles that will be used for literature circles. Literature circles, facilitated by a teacher, will provide students with the opportunity to share perceptions regarding novels with their peers and explore characterization, setting, theme, conflict, figurative language, tone, mood, main idea, summarization and basic comprehension.
Building a Business, Becoming Self-Employed
Bastrop High School
Grant recipients: Teachers Kathy Ivey, Susan Henderson and Michele Tagliabue
Special Education students in the Pre-Vocational program at Bastrop High will be “taking care of business”—receiving the necessary equipment to operate a button making business. While the buttons will fill a spirit need at the high school, the students running the business will be learning a variety of small business skills (marketing, business documents, inventory management, customer service, etc.) that will help the students move towards independence and employability.
ESL Summer Reading
Bastrop High School
Grant recipients: Teachers Barbara Harris, Jana Allen and Terry McFadden
Funded in part by a Foundation grant, the BHS ESL Summer Reading program will put bags filled with three to four books into students’ hands before the end of the school year. Over the summer, students will track their reading progress, express opinions, preferences and connections to the reading material through written and oral reviews, and informal discussions with peers and teachers.
Gateway to Success - Mentoring Beginning Teachers
Grant recipient: Bastrop ISD Human Resources Department
To enhance the district’s efforts to attract talented teachers and get them off to a great start, the Foundation has again awarded the district a grant to strengthen the district’s 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, supplies and resources for mentoring teachers.
PreAP Summer Institute
Grant recipient: Bastrop ISD Curriculum and Instruction Department
The district will offer this summer a three-day staff development institute for Pre-AP teachers in grades 5-10. Jointly funded by the district and the Foundation, the institute will allow teachers to collaboratively plan and vertically align Pre-AP courses in English, math, science, and social studies.