As an NEA Foundation grant recipient, you understand the importance of securing outside resources to fund your great ideas. Aside from the NEA Foundation, where have you looked to secure funding? Have you been successful in receiving grants or in-kind donations from other sources?

Share your thoughts here.

Kovach was one of five finalists for the top honor; each received special recognition at the gala on February 10: the Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence, and $10,000.

Watch Kovach’s moving acceptance speech below.

Danielle Kovach (above) accepts The NEA Member Benefits Award for Teaching Excellence.

On Friday, February 10, at our Salute to Excellence in Education Gala, Danielle Kovach, a special education teacher at Tulsa Trail Elementary School in Hopatcong, NJ, received one of public education’s top honors: The NEA Member Benefits Award for Teaching Excellence and $25,000. Kovach was selected from five Horace Mann Awards for Teaching Excellence recipients, who received special recognition at the gala and $10,000 each.

During the gala, videos honoring each of the finalists premiered. The videos were created by their students, with digital arts training from the Pearson Foundation.

Kovach was nominated for the awards by the New Jersey Education Association. She was one of 35 public school educators nominated by their state education associations who were honored. Kovach’s award was the evening’s finale.

In addition to the outstanding educators, the NEA Foundation presented Will Allen, a former professional basketball player-turned urban agriculturalist and founder of Growing Power, Inc., with The Security Benefit Corporation Award for Outstanding Service to Public Education.

The NEA Foundation also presented the Ford Foundation with The NEA Foundation Award for Philanthropy in Public Education for its significant commitment to public education and ongoing support of public schools, students, and educators.

Dominique Dawes, the three-time Olympic gymnast and motivational speaker, emceed.

See photos from the event below:

Will Allen, Founder and CEO of Growing Power, Inc. accepts The Security Benefit Corporation Award for Outstanding Service to Public Education.

Jeannie Oakes, Director of the Educational Opportunity and Scholarship Programs, accepts The NEA Foundation Award for Philanthropy in Public Education on behalf of Ford Foundation.

Anaia Cayode, fifth grader at Rebecca M. Johnson Elementary School in Springfield, MA, performs an original dance.

Why is this important? If students become involved with technology at an early age, it is also more likely that their interest in technology will continue as they choose careers. Game-based learning could supply technological and communication competencies valued in the workplace and the 21st century economy.

Among the NEA Foundation initiatives for 2012, I am excited by our partnership with Microsoft—US Partners in Learning around the role of gaming in education. The NEA Foundation’s latest Challenge to Innovate invites educators to develop new ways to use game-based learning and interactive technology to help students learn. The NEA Foundation is offering up to 10 individual cash awards of $1,000 for educators who propose the most dynamic approaches to integrate gaming into classroom instruction.

Submit your idea on the U.S. Department of Education Open Innovation Portal. There, you will also be able to track the solutions being offered, grade those that you think would work best, and outline your idea. If your idea is selected, it becomes eligible for a $1,000 cash award. The challenge is open to anyone in public education.

If we change the classroom conversation from a one-way exercise to an engaging process that is constantly being renewed and refined, what would happen? Can gaming and education be combined in effective ways? You tell us.

Harriet Sanford, President and CEO

Want to learn something new? You're not alone...

Tomorrow, during Digital Learning Day, organizers expect more than a million students - thousands of teachers, hundreds of school districts and a majority of states - to celebrate innovative teaching and to encourage the use of technology in teaching and learning.

Educators, parents, and supporters of education will find a range of ways to participate on the Digital Learning Day website.

On this day, the NEA Foundation will invite educators to trade ideas about how to use interactive technology and game-based learning to meet students where they want to be, having fun while they learn.

We’re doing this because we understand that (digital) learning can start the moment a child picks up a toy, or a digital device, and begins to explore the world. The NEA Foundation believes that connecting to others who want to find creative new ways to accelerate learning, enables us to deepen our own knowledge and to extend our reach.

By creating virtual educational communities, like the Digital Learning Day and the Foundation's Challenge to Innovate Gaming initiative, we empower the teachers who dare to leverage digital media and technology.By connecting them to others doing the same thing, we help to create a movement.

The educational experience weaves itself into everyday experiences outside the classroom.

And learning is always ON.

Harriet Sanford, President and CEO

One of our New Year’s resolutions was to find ways to fund more educators’ projects. Our new, $2,000 student achievement grants will help more teachers reach students with engaging classroom projects that will inspire learning. Also, in partnership with EarthEcho, we are offering new grants to support service-learning programs that improve the health of our water planet. The NEA Foundation-EarthEcho Water Planet Challenge grants are also for $2,000. Apply today just in time for the Feb. 1 deadline.

Union-district teams in Lee County, FL; Springfield, MA; Omaha, NE; and Columbus, OH have been selected from among thousands of school districts nationwide to participate in the latest expansion of the NEA Foundation’s Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative.

“When teachers, unions, and communities focus on learning conditions, student performance improves,” says the NEA Foundation President Harriet Sanford. “These teams join a national network of educators who are eager to share knowledge and experiences around reform.”

The newbies, Lee County, FL and Omaha, NE, each received first-year, $250,000 grants, after completing a rigorous six-month planning period. Springfield, MA and Columbus, OH have received second-year, $250,000 grants, for their proposals to continue focused work to accelerate the achievement rate for under-achieving, low income, and minority students.

What are they working on?

Lee County, FL

In Lee County, staff in nine, high-need schools will receive training for continuous improvement as a collaborative way to drive school turn-around. 

Springfield, MA

In Springfield, a collaborative instructional leadership team model has been designed and is being used in six, high-need elementary schools. Data fluency training for teachers will improve instructional practices and home visits will improve parent engagement.

Omaha, NE

In Omaha, four, high-need elementary schools will engage in whole school reform planning with a focus on improved instructional quality and equity through an expanded teacher role.

Columbus, OH

In Columbus, pre-service training will provide student teachers high quality practice and support in urban schools. Extension of the district’s well regarded teacher assistance and evaluation program will sustain them during their first two years of practice, and high-quality professional learning communities, to encourage networking and ongoing peer to peer learning, will continue to improve their work.

These sites have tremendous records of capacity for collaborative reform and prepared exciting proposals for how they will use our investment to close their community’s most pressing student achievement gaps. Congratulations to the teams, their students, and their communities.

Learn more about Columbus’ Peer Assistance and Review Program or Springfield’s Teacher Home Visits Program.

“Our Garden, Where Children Blossom and Bloom”

Students of Edison Elementary School in Denver, Co., are not only becoming more eco-friendly; they’re also gaining hands-on learning experience in life sciences. Their 21st century school already had a student and community garden, but one science teacher, Mrs. Vigil, dreamed of creating a life science laboratory garden to teach students about the plant life cycle and also supply organic foods for the school’s cafeteria.

Vigil requested marigold seeds for natural pest control, oat and rye seeds for green compost and weed control, and radishes to harvest in the fall. She also requested child-size gardening tools and help from FEED USA, to teach students about small scale farm-to-table gardening. Vigil’s project will impact more than 300 students at Edison Elementary. “I can almost see their excitement as they see tiny sprouts and green shoots growing in the All-In-One Greenhouses,” she wrote.

“Complete the Circuit: Electricity and Conservation of Energy”

Mr. Sames, of Lincoln Middle School in Portland, Maine, wrote in his project request, “What do you remember most from science class? Was it the lab reports you wrote…or was it the things you built?” Sames’ project involves building models to give students a real-world understanding of the energy issues they may face in their lifetimes.

Sames teaches at a diverse school, where students often teach him words in Khmer, Farsi, and other languages. What all of his students have in common is a need for hands-on learning and connecting class curriculum, such as measuring voltage in a circuit, to what happens at home when they turn on a light switch. He requested two electricity kits, including wires, battery packs, switches, lights, and multimeters for students to collect data. “These students have cell phones, access to computers, and televisions clamoring for their attention,” Sames wrote. He aimed to “pull their attention to the excitement of building something by hand and channel that excitement to thinking about energy solutions.” More than 70 students at Lincoln Middle will have the chance to participate in Sames’ project.  

“Grab and Go Math Centers”

Mrs. Sloan, of Fontenelle Elementary School in Omaha, Neb., wrote that her second graders, who are mostly minority students from low income families, do not have enough resources to challenge themselves in math. The school has not made its Annual Yearly Progress goal for the past several years. “Last year, as a school, we only had 28 percent of students meet the math goal,” Sloan said. She requested materials for grab-and-go math centers, which would include 20 sets of addition and subtraction flashcards, counting dice, and coins. The learning materials reached Sloan’s class of 19 second-graders at Fontenelle Elementary.

Have a project idea? It’s not too late to post project requests for any subject or grade level on DonorsChoose.org. Visit our New Opportunities page to find out how. 

Want to give this holiday? We’re still matching donations up to $250 per request for NEA members. Use the search bar on our homepage to browse projects by state or keyword

How would you describe the most successful aspects or your project?

How have you been able to build upon the work that was supported with grant funding?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Do you believe in the power of ideas? We do!

The NEA Foundation understands that the best way to help students learn is to help teachers teach. From bringing the alphabet to life with puppets, to showing students how germs spread, teachers have great ideas that are sure to inspire their students.

Too often teachers lack the resources to bring ideas like these to life. The NEA Foundation has partnered with DonorsChoose.org to give teachers and their students a helping hand.

So far, more than 80 teachers’ requests for materials and other learning needs have been fully funded and will reach more than 6,000 students. Hundreds more projects await your support.

Want to help? Give now and we’ll match your gift, up to $250 per request. Here’s how.

•    Find the search bar on our homepage to browse projects by state or keyword

•    Select projects to support, give, and make your dollars go twice as far

•    Teachers’ projects will be funded; they will receive needed materials; and students will soar