Grantee Archive

Educators at Holmen High School will learn how to instruct farm-to-school techniques in a number of settings. Educators will become familiar with greenhouse labs, outdoor gardens, and offsite farms, which they will use to provide students context for math and science concepts through the observation of food production. The project will create a learning environment that fosters the development of meaningful collaboration and problem-solving as students produce food for the school lunch program.

Through “A Design in Mind,” Mrs. Ferranto and Mrs. Crandall will actively engage and challenge students to learn how to identify and solve problems and create solutions. Students will learn to identify pertinent issues in various situations within their school and surrounding community and design and build constructive problem solving mechanisms while mastering the Missouri Learning Standards. Students will be immersed in project based learning using a design thinking mindset.

Dr. Garrity will facilitate a study group at Chollas Meade Elementary School to help preschool, transitional kindergarten, and kindergarten teachers examine language and literacy practices and align planning, instruction, and assessment across grade levels. The meetings will utilize a recursive cycle of reflection, questioning, planning, and acting to create a continuum of instruction that supports the implementation of effective, developmentally appropriate teaching and assessment practices that are evidence based, engaging, and support children’s success in school.

To better understand the social and emotional needs of English Language Learners and other high need students, Ms. Purl and her colleagues will embed Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) elementary strategies into daily instruction school wide. Educators will meet in grade level teams to discuss AVID strategies previously learned in the AVID Elementary Foundations Path Training. Upon reflection, teams will plan how to incorporate these AVID strategies and resources into their daily routines.

Ms. Whitman and Ms. Kemeny will design a school wide book study based around I Will Always Write Back, a novel in which an American girl builds a lifelong friendship with a pal from Zimbabwe. After reading the book, students will participate in an international pen pal program, visit with the books’ authors, and conduct research on the home countries of their pen pals.

Dr. Harty and Mr. Savage will improve student achievement in STEAM by introducing traditional and cutting edge tools in the school’s MakerSpace. The group will provide students options to apply science and math skills as well as creative design ideas. Students will fabricate prototypes and end products to address real world challenges and support entrepreneurial ventures.

To further meet the needs of students facing food insecurity, Dr. Sumell and Dr. Burden will expand the Youngstown State University Food Pantry. Produce for the pantry will be grown at the campus greenhouse, where students in nutrition and biology courses will learn the lifespan of a piece of food. Students will work with an array of local and regional organizations to ensure that the project has a substantial impact on community members in need.

After attending the City University of New York?s Critical Peer Assistant and Review Institute, Ms. Criss and Ms. Garton will lead a diverse community of urban educators in Youth-led Participatory Action Research (YPAR). Ms. Criss will also lead the group in designing plans to affect positive social change through peer review by providing the team with the resources, networks, and skills needed to train youth and adults in YPAR.

Through ?Ready, Set, Grow!,? students in the Rockridge school district will participate in outdoor learning at local elementary schools. The creation of the new gardens will serve as powerful learning tools that will provide students with experiences to compliment earth and life science instruction, while allowing them to discover how and where food is grown. The hands-on learning will introduce students to basic agricultural knowledge.

Mrs. Ringling will travel to Iceland to participate in the GeoCamp Iceland Teacher Institute: ?Exploring Iceland’s Changing Landscapes and Diverse Environments.? During the institute, Mrs. Ringling will participate in geographic inquiry and field methods courses where she will learn about global environmental change and its impact on the people of Iceland. Mrs. Ringling will produce classroom resources and lessons for her students as well as the GeoCamp database and organizations including the National Conference on Geography Education.

Mrs. Ringling will travel to Iceland to participate in the GeoCamp Iceland Teacher Institute: ?Exploring Iceland’s Changing Landscapes and Diverse Environments.? During the institute, Mrs. Ringling will participate in geographic inquiry and field methods courses where she will learn about global environmental change and its impact on the people of Iceland. Mrs. Ringling will produce classroom resources and lessons for her students as well as the GeoCamp database and organizations including the National Conference on Geography Education.

Mr. Frogue and Mr. Garcia will develop an engineering pathway for their students through Project Lead the Way. The pathway will encourage students to learn STEM concepts through CAD-CAM, a technology that will allow them to design and manufacture their own products. The students will sell the products they create and will use the profits to continue funding engineering pathways in Covina High School.

To improve her ability to meet the needs of her students, Ms. Sheffield will attend the Greater Good Science Center’s Summer Institute on ?The Science of Prosocial Human Development.? Workshops on current research on social and emotional learning and ways to effectively implement that research will help her to apply her knowledge in her classroom. She will also learn how to use the science of empathy, compassion, forgiveness, and gratitude to build a positive school climate, and how to integrate prosocial science and practice into content and pedagogy. Ms. Sheffield will disseminate her knowledge through professional development training with her colleagues and administration.

To better understand her students’ cultures, Ms. Russ will participate in a month-long Spanish language study and cultural immersion in Peru. While there, she will learn more about Latin American culture and second language acquisition. The increased language skills and cultural awareness will help Ms. Russ better communicate with students and their families, and increase student learning outcomes.

Mrs. Brown will visit Marie-Kahle-Gesamtschule, a secondary school in Bonn, Germany, where she will work with local educators to strengthen an international partnership designed to foster active global citizenship. Mrs. Brown and the team will develop global learning projects and opportunities for students in each of their schools. Mrs. Brown will create podcasts and short films to share her experience and bring the world into her 21st Century classroom.

Through the “Out of This World” professional development experience, Ms. Imhoff will acquire the knowledge needed to lead educators and students in developing and creating a cube satellite to send into space. By attending the Educator Space Academy at the US Space and Rocket Center, Ms. Imhoff will learn how to integrate space exploration into the school district’s kindergarten through eighth grade science curriculum. Additionally, through authentic astronaut training, Ms. Imhoff will gain the skills needed to develop a district-wide program where students will design satellites and experiments to learn more about space.