2020 TEACH Grants
Marion Community Foundation is pleased to announce the 2020 Teaching, Educating And Classroom Help (TEACH) Grants program, offering awards to local teachers who make their classrooms interesting, stimulating, and impactful for students. Among the grant recipients are teachers from Pleasant and River Valley Local Schools, Tri-Rivers Career Center, and the Marion City Schools.
“As a former teacher myself, I know how great ideas from classroom teachers can go unfunded by tight school budgets,” said Dean Jacob, President and CEO of Marion Community Foundation. “The TEACH Grant program is designed to give innovative, motivational, and impactful ideas a chance.”
Applications were open to Marion area teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade. Funding was made possible by the financial support of Pillar Credit Union, River Valley Teachers Fund and the Ray & Charlotte Baldauf Fund.
Six programs were selected for awards. They include the purchase of document cameras, equipment to record classroom instruction for online learning, STEAM classroom materials, music practice software, and expanded multicultural literature offerings.
Students at Marion City Schools’ Hayes Elementary will benefit from the expansion of multicultural literature in the school’s elementary classrooms. The project, “Recognizing Multiculturalism in an Elementary Classroom through Literature and by Building Classroom Community,” will be a team effort, including the building principal, classroom teachers, literacy coach, reading teachers, the school’s Educational Support Professional, the Marion City Schools’ Diversity and Equity Supervisor, and the students. Classroom teachers will be able to incorporate the multicultural literature during daily instruction, such as using the texts for interactive read alouds with their students, in social studies, math, science, and language arts.
As part of this effort, staff members such as Hayes’ Education Support Professional and the district’s Diversity and Equality Supervisor will assist with building classroom community by engaging students in discussions about diversity and multiculturalism. The program also intends to build relationships with pastors in the school neighborhood by inviting them into classrooms to work with students.
“Just in this year alone, there have been multiple examples of violence towards people of color with our little ones at Hayes seeing glimpses of this on TV, social media sites, in their streets, or overhearing conversations by adults in their homes,” explained teacher Allison Stanley. “In many of our classrooms at Hayes, our students simply do not have access to quality children’s literature that teaches about multicultural education or diversity. Multicultural literature and actively building community among students is a way to recognize the diversity that makes up our student body.”
According to Stanley, the students will be able to share what they have learned from the multicultural literature and apply it through projects such as dioramas, posters, poetry, and writing. “This not only teaches the students about diversity, but makes what is learned more impactful and meaningful to the students,” she said.
Pleasant Elementary School second graders will benefit from document cameras in their classrooms. The cameras will record lessons and demonstrations for use both by students in classrooms and those receiving instruction through online learning platforms. The project involves five Pleasant teachers, Heidi Carroll, Sarah Kirby, Tina Grills, Brandi Steele, Michele Rankin, and approximately 120 students.
According to Carroll, teachers and students will have the opportunity to record and share lessons, information, and learning focused on literacy and reading. As an example, Carroll points to interactive read alouds, which are what many picture when thinking of an elementary school classroom – students gathered on a carpet having a book read to them by their teacher and discussing the story.
“With social distancing restrictions, coming to the carpet for a story with 25 students will be impossible,” said Carroll. “The use of a document camera will enable this important piece to still happen. Additionally, if remote learning happens, recordings of these readings with the document camera can be uploaded to our online learning platform and viewed from home.”
“One of the most exciting elements is the ability for students to use the cameras to demonstrate learning and thinking. Students will use them to read books, give directions, or show classmates how to solve problems,” she said.
With a TEACH Grant, music teacher Jason Frank will bring the MusicFirst Classroom to Pleasant middle school band students. MusicFirst is a subscription service designed to help students hone their skills in performance proficiency, sight reading, and composition. The MusicFirst app can be downloaded for each of the 75 band students. They will then have access to the app for their at-home practice. Frank will use MusicFirst to monitor students’ practice quality, comprehension, and general progress over the school year.
“The logistics of managing large musical ensembles, combined with finite classroom time, often limit the ability to engage actively with each student’s individual needs,” said Frank. “With MusicFirst, students get immediate feedback and can help themselves improve.”
At Tri-Rivers Career Center, a grant will purchase a system called Swivl to integrate the school’s existing technology for live streaming, flipped classrooms, and the Canvas learning management system. The Swivl technology will allow Tri-Rivers’ instructors – both technical and academic – to record their lessons and upload them for students who are not in the building for a variety of reasons. Students can then access the lessons online.
“Swivl will help us give our students the full classroom experience, even in a remote/distance learning situation,” said teacher Heather Jenkins. “We are trying to be proactive to create more virtual events to be safe during the pandemic, but continue to provide the face-to-face interactions to build strong relationships with our students and their families.”
Third graders at both of the River Valley elementary schools will benefit from grants funded by the River Valley Teachers Fund. Both LaVone Novotny of Liberty Elementary and Sally Deem of Heritage Elementary will each receive $500 awards to implement STEAM activities for the third grade students.
STEAM education is an approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics as access points for guiding student inquiry and encouraging critical thinking.
According to Novotny, “As a district, we are attempting to implement more STEAM activities and to create Maker Spaces within our classrooms to extend student knowledge through problem solving and creativity.”
“This grant will allow me to develop activities that reinforce and extend classroom learning based on student interest,” said Novotny. “Activities and materials may include pre-developed STEAM kits, coding robots, basic crafting supplies, storage trays, motors/wiring, batteries, or Legos, among other things.”
At Heritage Elementary, Deem foresees her third graders using a STEAM approach to actively engage in higher level thinking across the curriculum, including science, technology, engineering, art, and math. STEAM lessons, according to Deem, are beneficial to students of all learning types and styles.
“These are skills kids are lacking these days,” she said. “The skills taught in these sessions will give students the opportunity to discover their strengths and interests and develop a plan for career readiness so they can become productive citizens in their communities.”
This is the first year of Marion Community Foundation’s TEACH Grants Program. It is supported by the Pillar Credit Union Teacher Fund, the River Valley Teacher Fund, and the Ray & Charlotte Baldauf Fund.
Vidya Iyengar, CEO and President of Pillar Credit Union, offered congratulations to this year’s TEACH Grant recipients explaining, “We established the fund to promote novel and creative teaching tools for teachers and most importantly, to benefit the students in our community.”
Similarly, Steve Dickerson, River Valley alum and superintendent of Hillsdale Local Schools, spearheaded the creation of the RV Teachers Fund because “School systems, and especially teachers, face many challenges to meet the needs of every child. These grants provide another tool for educators to bring a new learning experience to their students.”
Both Iyengar and Dickerson encourage donations to the TEACH Grants Program to increase the amounts and numbers of awards available in future years. Those interested in supporting the TEACH Grants program may visit the following links:
