The Lynchburg City Schools Education Foundation, Inc.’s Board of Directors recently awarded 40 Classroom Innovation Grants totaling $81,500.02 to Lynchburg City Schools teachers. Now in its 25th year, this program provides funds to a wide range of innovative projects and programs, such as the exploration of contemporary art, hands-on environmental studies, increased parent engagement, and the art of literature of our local heritage. To date, $715,023.63 has been awarded through the program.
This year’s fifty eight corporate sponsors include: Genworth Foundation, BWX Technologies, Lynchburg Economic Development Authority, AREVA, Belvac Production Machinery, Fleet Laboratories, Piedmont Community Health Plan, Carrington Family Foundation, Appalachian Power, Walmart (Old Forest Road and Wards Road), Walmart Neighborhood Market, WestRock, Dodson Pest Control, LSC Communications, ABC 13 WSET-TV, BB&T, Centra Foundation, First Piedmont Corporation, Greater Lynchburg Community Trust - The Kenneth L. & Bertha S. White Fund, Roger & Winston Green, Harris Corporation, Innovative Wireless Technologies, Merryman Foundation, Sam’s Club, Wegmann USA, Wells Fargo, American National Bank, Bank of the James, Candler Oil, Central Virginia Federal Credit Union, Coldwell Banker Commercial Read & Co., Coleman-Adams Construction, Dominion Seven Architects, The Education & Research Foundation Inc., Electronic Design & Manufacturing Company, Generation Solutions, Hanwha Azdel, Harman Eye Center, Harrington Corporation, HumanKind, Hurt & Proffitt, LG Flint General Contractors, Lynchburg Municipal Employee Federal Credit Union, Lynchburg Nissan, Master Engineers & Designers, Moore & Giles, The News & Advance, Old Dominion Wood Products, R.M. Gantt Construction, Successful Innovations, Elizabeth Sumpter and Brian Carlton, Sylvan Learning/Morgan Family, Kim & Stephen Tibbs, TRAX, LLC., Westminster Canterbury, Wiley|Wilson, Wooldridge Heating • Air • Electric.
For more information about the Classroom Innovation Grant Program and the LCS Education Foundation, Inc. contact Jodi K. Gillette, Executive Director (515-5081) or [email protected].
Below are the projects that received grants for the 2016-2017 school year:
MASTER CLASSROOM INNOVATION GRANTS
iPads for a Contemporary Art Education
Sheffield Elementary School – Teacher: Joanna Bourque
Grant Sponsors: Fleet Laboratories, Wells Fargo, Greater Lynchburg Community Trust Teacher Grant Fund
The purpose of this project is to provide fifth grade elementary students with access to iPads in art class to expose them to contemporary artistic media used by today’s creative professionals. To ensure that fifth grade students are prepared to utilize iPads in novel and innovative ways, all students will be using the iPads to build skills and confidence as they progress from grade to grade. By fifth grade, students will be familiar and comfortable with using a number of sophisticated digital applications as artistic media and collaborative tools. Through built-in iPad functions and downloaded applications, students will learn to digitally draw, paint, illustrate, animate, manipulate, collaborate, research, record, and display artistic works. They will discover new and engaging ways to tell their stories and to communicate their ideas. These are skills that transfer to other areas and will also prove useful for future classes and careers in our technological age. IPads deliver innumerable digital tools for creative purposes, and they will give our students experiences they could never achieve through traditional artistic media.
The Save a Life Tour/YOVASO Summer Leadership Retreat
Heritage High School – Teachers: Stacy Preston, Reinaldo Gonzalez
Grant Sponsors: Genworth Foundation, Centra Foundation, LCS Education Foundation
The purpose of this project is to provide the education that our students need to become safe drivers. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens and we are trying to prevent more deaths from occurring. With the Save a Life Tour and the YOVASO Summer Leadership Retreat, our students will get a fun, hands on approach to learning about safe driving and also will learn the dangers of incorrect driving practices. Hopefully, our students will take what they learn and put it into practice. Also, they can share what they learn with their family, friends and communities.
Engineering exSTREAM Citizens
R. S. Payne Elementary School – Teachers: Tracy Proffitt, Becky Scott
Grant Sponsor: BWX Technologies, Inc.
The purpose of this project is to motivate and engage students to improve achievement, behavior, and culture using STREAM - Science, Technology, Reading, Art, and Math. Engineering ExSTREAM Citizens will build not only academic capacity in our students, but also motivate students’ work toward positive behavior, and social success through teamwork, allowing them to develop essential leadership skills necessary to become thriving future citizens of our city.
Many of our students struggle to find success in their school experience. This project will not only give them the opportunity to achieve success in academics, but also in behavior and social skills. Through Engineering ExSTREAM Citizens, we hope to provide a unique program to increase motivation for learning, self-efficacy, responsibility for one’s behavior, and the ability to encourage positive relationships, while teaching students that teamwork and interdependence is essential to a positive climate and culture. Our intention is that this program will greatly improve our ability to reach our achievement, behavior, and cultural goals, and if proven effective, can be a catalyst for change among schools across the city.
2016 Design Elements and Graphic Communications
Linkhorne Middle School – Teacher: Christina Franklin
Grant Sponsors: Belvac Production Machinery, Wegmann USA, Harrington Corporation
The purpose of this project is to provide a link to real world processes in Graphic Communication Systems and expand the Technology and Engineering Education curriculum. The students currently only have the ability to create a one color screen print onto paper and ink jet dry transfer designs. The addition of this printing press will enable the students to create an attractive, professionally printed, T-shirt or mouse pad using current industry quality equipment.
Art Smart
Hutcherson Early Learning Center – Teacher: Kristin Porterfield
Grant Sponsors: Greater Lynchburg Community Trust, Harris Corporation, RM Gantt, LCS Education Foundation
The purpose of this project is to provide young children with authentic experiences to learning about the visual arts. Children will see examples of famous works by Van Gough, Gerhard Richter, and Jackson Pollock. By viewing these famous examples children will develop an awareness of the mechanics of the visual arts. In addition, a variety of materials, textures, and tools will be provided for children to imitate the art they have seen. Selected books with additional examples of similar art will be read. Children will also have the opportunity to visit a local art museum and re-create their own art galleries. This project will allow children to learn the vocabulary and fundamental understandings of the visual arts so they can more effectively communicate about the visual arts world.
Cookie Tin Banjos Through Math, Music, and Science
T. C. Miller Elementary School for Innovation – Teacher: Angie Salerno
Grant Sponsors: Belvac Production Machinery, Hurt & Proffitt, Lynchburg Nissan, TRAX, Wooldridge Heating · Air · Electric
The purpose of this project is to provide students with a creative musical venue of understanding math, science, and music concepts addressed through the fifth grade SOLs in each subject. This project will serve to address education cross-curricular: It will focus on the SOLs that address math, specifically measurement, and sound, specifically sound waves, frequency, and hertz. Not only will these concepts learned in science and math be reinforced, but they will further address music SOLs. Students will gain knowledge of how an instrument is made while further grasping the importance of learning music and its concepts: how to read music and apply the notes read to an instrument in order to perform, but also why this instrument is important in the history of music.
Making Violin Classes an Equal Opportunity
Dearington, Heritage, and Sheffield Elementary Schools – Teacher: Anna Hutcherson
Grant Sponsors: Dominion Seven Architects, The Education & Research Foundation, Old Dominion Wood Products, Haywood Robinson Fund, LCS Education Foundation
The purpose of this proposal is to provide equal opportunity in the existing elementary Strings Program. At this time we are unable to accept the majority of students who are eligible to participate at Dearington, Heritage and Sheffield Elementary Schools. At other schools in our city, the Strings Program serves as a lesson in responsibility, accountability, and that hard work creates results. Studies show that participation in instrumental music improves students’ performance academically and socio-emotionally. The purpose is not to teach violin, but to teach important life skills through violin.
Natural Bridge State Park: Bridging the Gap
E. C. Glass High School – Teacher: Catherine Phillips
Grant Sponsor: Genworth Foundation
The purpose of this project is to provide an engaging, hands-on experience that addresses severe weaknesses in specific Earth Science SOL standards to a group of students who would have financial hardship in paying for a field trip to Natural Bridge State Park. The trip to Natural Bridge State Park will follow curriculum directly aligned with the Earth Science standards including exploration of rocks, geologic features and processes (Natural Bridge), karst topography (Natural Bridge Caverns), and mineral resources (Salt Peter Mine), As a result of this outdoor educational experience, we will increase student engagement in Earth Science, we will expose our students to an meaningful experience they would likely not ever have otherwise, and we will ultimately see an improvement in our SOL pass rates for Earth Science.
“The Next Level” Etiquette Luncheon
E. C. Glass High School – Teacher: Chris Gardner, Jamar Lovelace, Matthew Smith, Heidi Vande Hoef
Grant Sponsor: Lynchburg Economic Development Authority
The purpose of this project is to provide an opportunity for students in the BluePrint to learn what it takes to succeed at the next level of life. The Etiquette Luncheon project reinforces leadership traits through career development with interactive lessons in resume building, interview skills, business etiquette, and workforce readiness. Hands-on learning methods are utilized to incorporate written language, oral communication, interpersonal skills, professional networking, and overall business knowledge. Through collaboration with Coaches in the Classroom and Beacon of Hope, students explore career goals through a lens that supports all pathways of higher education.
CLASSROOM INNOVATION GRANTS
ECG Cuts the Cord
E. C. Glass High School – Teacher: Chuck Yarbrough
Grant Sponsors: ABC 13 WSET-TV, Innovative Wireless Technologies
We want to purchase the Wireless LAN Module (ELPAP07) for the existing Projectors. This small device lets teachers connect their laptop to the projector via our existing wireless network. It eliminates the need to use the HDMI cord that is 15 ft. long. By using this device teachers will be able to use the laptop from anywhere in class. Now desks, students and stations can be placed around the room based on the lesson and not the reach of a cable.
Environmental Studies on the James
Heritage High School – Teachers: Alex Drumheller, Laurie George
Grant Sponsors: WestRock
The purpose of this proposal is to provide funds that will make the importance of research and environmental monitoring real and applicable to students enrolled in AP Environmental and Ecology courses at the high school level. Students will assess water quality at several locations on the James and develop detailed water quality reports that will be sent to appropriate agencies for review. Students will be trained on the proper methods of canoeing and water safety by their teachers and representatives from the James River Association. Students will develop a greater understanding of the natural world around them and the diversity of the ecosystems in our area. Students will also gain experience with real world research and the gathering and assessment of data in a real and relevant way. Finally students will hopefully become stewards and advocates for the protection and sustainability of the James as a natural resource in our community.
Mango Math Motivates 2nd Grade Mathematics
Linkhorne Elementary School – Teacher: risty Genung
Grant Sponsor: AREVA
The purpose of this program is to provide students with independent games and activities that they will complete independently and successfully without the help of an adult. We will have a heterogeneous group of math students this coming year and by being able to purchase 3 grade level kits, I will be able to differentiate my centers based on the needs of my students. This gives students the opportunity to see that they can be successful in math and truly see themselves as mathematicians.
Watchdogs
Paul Munro Elementary School – Teacher: Paul Dechant
Grant Sponsor: Dodson Brothers Pest Control
The purpose of this project is to provide our students with ongoing support in their academic journey. It would allow and encourage fathers/uncles/grandfathers to be an active and visible part of the regular school day. Watchdogs would be tasked with volunteering throughout the building including in the classroom, cafeteria, at recess, and walking the hallways to ensure the building is secure. Students will be encouraged through seeing their watchdogs and those of their friends throughout the year and will open the door to encourage more fathers/uncles/grandfathers to volunteer in the school.
Making Learning Come ALIVE!
Heritage Elementary School – Teacher: Julie Speck
Grant Sponsors: Roger & Winston Green, Central Virginia Federal Credit Union
The purpose of this project is to provide my students (current and for many years to come) with the most up-to-date technology to enhance their learning in both math and language arts. We need to meet these students where they are and do whatever we can as kindergarten teachers to build a solid foundation for their education to grow on! I truly believe this augmented reality software will grasp their attention, keep them engaged, and get them excited about learning! Once engaged, the students will be learning all the necessary skills to become successful readers as well as grow their number sense! But most of all, the students will began to fall in love with learning; which is every teacher’s ultimate goal!
Science and Social Studies in the Reading Classroom
Perrymont Elementary School – Teachers: Madeline Reed, Brooke Andrews, Julie Lacks
Grant Sponsor: BWX Technologies
The purpose of this program is to provide cross-curricular enrichment and remediation opportunities for students during the Daily 5 component of the language arts block. In order to successfully implement Daily 5, students need to have access to a variety of texts. Students will be exposed to up-to-date information related to science and social studies standards. This information will be used to enhance the “Read to Self”, “Read to Someone”, and the teacher directed station during Daily 5. All stations will allow students to work on reading fluency and comprehension.
Learning Through Play
Dearnington Elementary School for Innovation – Teachers: Brendan Kinne, Lisa Shipp
Grant Sponsors: American National Bank, Master Engineers & Designers, Candler Oil Company
The purpose of this project is to provide our students with more opportunities to learn through playing. It will provide our Movement Education Teacher with the resources to aid with bringing academics into his class. This project will also provide our teachers with resources to use during recess both indoors and outdoors, that will bring the academics into other areas of school besides the classroom. Learning through play will allow our classrooms in the younger grades to be more child friendly. It will allow our younger students to explore the world through play with the active presence of teachers. Teachers will be able to guide students’ learning with rich, experiential activities that focuses on academics through play.
Watch D.O.G.S. at LES
Linkhorne Elementary School – Teachers: Kalea Staton, Staci Treadway
Grant Sponsors: Sam’s Club, Walmart Old Forest Road
The purpose of this program is to provide students with the opportunity to share positive interactions with male role-models. WATCH D.O.G.S. is a one-of-a-kind, school-based father involvement program that works to support education and safety. The Watch D.O.G.S. program is a national program recognized by the TODAY show and ABC World News. Currently, there are 5,348 registered WATCH D.O.G.S. schools in 47 states. The program utilizes strong encouraging male father figures to be an extra presence in our schools. Fathers, grandfathers, step-fathers, uncles, and other father figures volunteer to serve at least one day a year in a variety of school activities as assigned by the program administrator. This program provides students opportunities to learn and grow with positive male influence. Students will have an opportunity to interact with adult male role-models while enhancing their academic development. The Watch D.O.G.S. can read, play at recess, eat lunch with students, monitor school grounds, and work on flash cards and other activities. They engage with all types of students, not just their own.
Outdoor Learning Lab
Sandusky Elementary School – Teachers: Cindi Bowen, McKinley Tucker, Addie Smulik
Grant Sponsor: Appalachian Power
The purpose of the Outdoor Learning Lab is to provide students a place to connect and spend time in their natural environment. All the while focusing on their traditional studies, as well as enrichment and leadership opportunities for all. Proven benefits of outdoor learning include better developed cognitive abilities, better attendance and higher test scores. Positive effects on students’ motivation levels are carried over to the traditional classroom. There is an opportunity for students with behavior issues to become leaders in an outdoor setting. This in turn means improved behavior in the classroom setting. Moving the classroom outside from time to time opens a world of fresh stimuli for senses that has an amazing power to lock into the brain and secure whatever information is being learned.
Authors as Mentors for the Reading/Writing Connection
Perrymont Elementary School – Teachers: Sheila Rudder, Kathy Abbott, Kay VanKuren
Grant Sponsors: Kim & Stephen Tibbs, Harman Eye Center
The purpose of this project is to provide increased attention to the connections between reading and writing and to the value of quality children’s literature. By using authors as mentors, students learn a variety of writing styles and elements of craft. Our proposal includes bringing Dr. Jeri Watts to Perrymont to work with our 5th grade students. She is an Associate Professor and Program Director for Undergraduate Curriculum and Instruction at Lynchburg College. Dr. Watts will present one of her books titled, A Piece of Home to our fifth grade students. After the presentation she will give students a writing prompt. Students will begin their own book and will be coached by Dr. Watts and teachers during a scheduled conferencing session. The intended outcome is to publish the selected writings and have a 5th grade book bound for each of the 5th grade classes. This book will become part of their classroom library. Each student who completes the assignment will also receive a copy of the bound 5th grade book.
Acting for Change: Play Reading Incentive
Paul Laurent Dunbar Middle School for Innovation – Teacher: Albert Carter
Grant Sponsors: Liz Sumpter & Brian Carlton, Bank of the James, Moore & Giles
The purpose of this project is to provide enough play scripts that have a positive social impact and demonstrate multicultural diversity for every student in my theatre classes to be able to use when we read the plays out loud in class. Plays have been selected that deal with issues that our students face daily including bullying, gossip, learning disabilities, working with others, and multicultural diversity so that students can better understand differences of fellow students and focus on understanding that we also have many common needs and wants as humans. This will give students a chance to discuss many important issues in a positive light and help to effect change that will strengthen our school environment for the better. Reading the plays aloud together in class will help students increase their reading, comprehension, working together, and acting skills. They will be more confident to read aloud in other classes and they will be more successful auditioning for theatrical productions at Dunbar and in community theatres because of the experience they had in class. The more practice opportunities that our students have to read should also impact our Reading SOL scores in a positive manner. Another benefit will be that students will be able to practice and strengthen acting skills that they can use in auditions, on stage and in class.
Inspiration Street, Lynchburg VA
E. C. Glass High School – Teachers: Patty Worsham, Krista Rawls-Fanning
Grant Sponsors: LSC Communications
We will purchase 100 books to be divided between History and English. Teachers will collaborate to divide up parts of the book to focus on their respective subjects. For example, English classes will focus on the arts: Anne Spencer, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Claude Mc Kay and James Weldon Johnson (in conjunction with more contemporary African-American writers and poets). History teachers will focus on historical people of more political and historical significance: Thurgood Marshall, The Reverend Martin Luther King JR., James Weldon Johnson, Chauncey Spencer, and George Washington Carver. Seniors (and students enrolled in African American History classes) will explore the richness of the African-American experience centered on Pierce Street. We plan to encourage students to visit the Anne Spencer House and Garden. English classes already participate in the Anne Spencer poetry contest, and we hope to increases the number of students who write poetry and are aware of the renowned African –American poets in Lynchburg’s history.
Bring Wall Street to LMS
Linkhorne Middle School – Teachers: Brenda Murphy, Samantha Payne
Grant Sponsors: Genworth Foundation, Lynchburg Municipal Employees
The purpose of the program is to provide students with an authentic experience to learn the function of the American stock market. Starting with a virtual cash account of $100,000, students strive to create the best-performing portfolio using a live trading simulation. They work together in teams, practicing leadership, organization, negotiation, and cooperation as they compete for the top spot. The setup is engaging, and the learning is a natural part of the experience. Students use real internet research and news updates, making the simulation an even better mirror of the real marketplace. While the competition creates student excitement, the educational experience delivers the biggest impact. Students who participate in the The Stock Market Game™ program learn more than investing. The program also teaches and reinforces the essential skills and concepts of critical thinking, decision-making, cooperation and communication, Independent research, and saving and investing. As they progress, they learn core academic concepts and skills that can help them succeed in the classroom and in life.
Feeding Reading: A Block Area Library
Hutcherson Early Learning Center – Teacher: Jane Ruehle
Grant Sponsors: HumanKind, LG Flint Construction
The purpose of this project is to provide a permanent, high-interest, durable, 7 volume Block Area library for each of the 10 classrooms at Hutcherson Early Learning Center. Early literacy instruction necessitates access to high-interest print that is connected directly to children’s hands-on activity. The National Association for the Education of Young Children’s position paper on developmentally appropriate practices regarding learning to read and write notes that, “excellent instruction builds on what children already know and can do.” The Block Area is a classroom area that children may and do choose to work in daily. It is stocked with a large selection of blocks and other supporting materials. Construction in this area is an opportunity for social interaction, math skill development, artistic expression, and science exploration. By adding a selection of books, both fiction and non-fiction, literacy development can become an integral part of working in the Block Area. The library will allow for independent exploration, teacher read-aloud, and related small group activities.
Bigger and Better: Music Video Part 2, Electric Bugaloo
E. C. Glass High School – Teacher: Mr. Casey Wood
Grant Sponsor: Lynchburg Economic Development Authority
The purpose of this project is to provide students who would not otherwise have the resources an opportunity to record an album and make a music video while working with industry experts to do so. By taking our students to The Recording Zone, students will be able to learn the entire process of recording an album including microphone placement, tracking, overdubbing, mixing, and mastering. They will also be featured in a professional recording and music video that they can share with friends and family as well as on social media. This is important to the development of my students because it will open their eyes to the possibilities of making music and the job opportunities in the music industry. Students will become familiar with the tools required to record an album professionally and film and edit a music video by working firsthand with industry professionals. They will see firsthand how much work it takes to create a record and music video and experience the pride in accomplishing such a task.
Bounce It Out
Fort Hill Community School – Teacher: Katherine Baker
Grant Sponsor: Piedmont Community Health Plan
The purpose of this proposal is to provide students at Fort Hill Community School with a sustainable tool to assist them to improve their academics and classroom behaviors. Students at Fort Hill Community School often struggle with remaining focused and attentive which impacts them negatively in the classroom. With the introduction of stability ball seating into each classroom, students must engage their bodies and minds, which in turn leads to increased focus and energy in the classroom. Stability ball seating allows students to self-regulate when they are having difficulty remaining focused or awake in class, thus decreasing the number of times they are addressed by teachers and promoting positive classroom behaviors.
Literacy and Math Play Trays
Hutcherson Early Learning Center – Teachers: Laurie Squier, Wendy Stratton
Grant Sponsors: Electronic Design & Manufacturing, Wiley|Wilson, Coldwell Banker Commercial Read & Company
The plan is to purchase a beginning collection of quality children’s literature and corresponding materials for active hands on learning and extension of the books for each of the 13 inclusion and special education classrooms at Hutcherson Early Learning Center. By basing learning activities on familiar and engaging children’s literature, children will be enthusiastic to interact in these activities. Having materials that are stimulating for multiple senses (touch, smell, sound, and sight) to manipulate and retell stories will increase student vocabulary as well as reach a variety of learners with different learning styles. Research shows that positive experiences with literacy from an early age and support for reading-related activities are great predictors of reading success later in a child’s academic career. Shared book experiences and integrated, content focused activities, and repeated/often story reading can increase a child’s literacy skills. Integrating mathematics and literacy creates an integration of curriculum rather than a segmenting of skill development. By ensuring each classroom has a beginning set of literacy and math Play Trays teachers will be able to use them and experience the benefits of the active learning that they can begin to recreate for themselves. The plan is to introduce these Play Trays to all teachers with lesson plan ideas and extensions for the activities before their use. The Play Trays will be utilized in teacher planning and PLC groups. The teaching-learning cycle will be utilized to prepare the lesson ideas based on Virginia Foundation Blocks for Early Learning. Pre and Post assessments will be created and utilized to determine effectiveness of instruction using the data to form strategies for reaching all students. Play Tray lessons are easily created using the COLET/LOLET lesson plan/implementation style utilized by Lynchburg City Schools.
SHF WATCH Dogs
Paul Munro Elementary School – Teacher: Mary Finke
Grant Sponsor: Piedmont Community Health Plan
The purpose of this program is to provide students with the opportunity to share positive interactions with male role-models. Students will have an opportunity to interact with adult male role-models while enhancing their academic development. Currently, most elementary schools do not have a high number of male personnel working with students. This program works to help students learning and grow with positive male influence. The Watch D.O.G.S. program is a National program that utilizes strong encouraging male father figures to be an extra presence in our school. Watch D.O.G.S. are fathers, grandfathers, uncles, and other father figures who volunteer for a day at least once a year. The Watch D.O.G.S. can read, play at recess, eat lunch with students, monitor school grounds, work on flash cards and other activities that they are engaged with all types of students, not just their own.
Young Men of Distinction
Fort Hill Community School – Teachers: George Hurt, Jason Giambrone
Grant Sponsor: Merryman Foundation
The local chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc will partner with FHCS to supply male mentors that will be matched to 7-10 of the male students participating in this mentoring program. Mentors will meet twice a month during school hours. Mentors will provide guidance to mentees in the areas of self-esteem, respect for authority, how to make positive choices and strategies for dealing with the pressures to participate in drug and gang activities. Mentees will also be taught life skills and job preparation and professional development skills. They will be instructed on how to fill out a job application, write a resume, and participate in mock job interviews. Students will also learn how to tie a neck tie. Students will serve as hosts at community events such as: Voter Registration, Formal dinners for guest speakers, High school performances such as band recitals and plays, Neighborhood watch activities, Winter Celebrations, Thanksgiving feast, Graduation. At the end of the year each student will receive professional attire that will include a shirt and tie along with shoes and a belt.
Sensory Awareness in the Real World Setting
Hutcherson Early Learning Center – Teachers: Christina Marston, Jan Wiley, Britney Fields, Laurie Squier
Grant Sponsor: Carrington Family Trust
The purpose of this project is to provide sensory rich activities that will help children learn to self- regulate. Human beings are designed to enjoy things that promote the development of our brains, which causes us to naturally seek sensations every day. The sensory integration that occurs in moving, talking, and playing is the groundwork for reading, writing, and socially appropriate behavior. Sensory Awareness in the Real World Setting will offer regular Ed Pre-K Teachers and ECSE Teachers and parents a group of tools to help our students to have the opportunities to grow in the classroom and in the home environments. These materials will improve sensory modulation abilities of preschoolers so children with sensory processing challenges can actively engage and attend to developmentally appropriate preschool tasks and activities.
Excuse Me, is this Seat Taken?
Sheffield Elementary School – Teacher: Lisa Falls
Grant Sponsors: Sylvan Learning of Lynchburg/Morgan Family, Walmart Wards Road
The purpose of this project/proposal is to provide our students with ongoing support in their academic journey. It would allow and encourage fathers/uncles/grandfathers to be an active and visible part of the regular school day. Watchdogs would be tasked with volunteering throughout the building including in the classroom, cafeteria, at recess, and walking the hallways to ensure the building is secure. Students will be encouraged through seeing their watchdogs and those of their friends throughout the year and will open the door to encourage more fathers/uncles/grandfathers to volunteer in the school.
Quidditch in Physical Education!
Perrymont Elementary School – Teacher: Jeffrey Matzdorff
Grant Sponsors: Piedmont Community Health Plan
The purpose of this project proposal is to provide students at Perrymont Elementary School with a more fun and creative way to practice sports skills without doing a traditional sport. With the hoola-hoops, foam soccer balls and foam footballs we are able to play various innovative games, such as Hoola-hoop soccer and Quidditch football. These innovative sports would be used to assess students on their SOLs for P.E. such as throwing to target, throwing with a partner, and throwing and catching are SOLs for students K–5.
Perrymont Recorder Program
Perrymont Elementary School – Teacher: Alison Gaston
Grant Sponsors: Walmart Neighborhood Market
The purpose of this proposal is to provide an individual soprano recorder to third grade music students and instructional resources and materials to implement a Recorder Program at Perrymont Elementary School. These instruments and resources will help students to be able to meet performance objectives that include playing individual instruments by reading music written on the treble staff. If funded, the grant will provide personal soprano recorders to implement the program for two years. By using a resource called “Recorder Karate” and other sheet music, students will be able to earn “belts” as they complete various levels of the program. Students will soon have colorful belts hanging from their recorders to show their progress in reading and playing music.
Light Up My Learning
Linkhorne Elementary School – Teacher: Barbara Reid, Laura Buschmann
Grant Sponsor: Hanwha Azdel
The purpose of this proposal is to provide a unique way for students to acquire new math and reading skills through play-based learning. Students will be able to manipulate items such as translucent shapes, numbers, and letters in a new and different way than is currently available in the classroom setting. The light table and matching manipulatives will be available during math and reading centers for children to explore and can also be used in both guided math and reading groups. Because the light table is portable teachers in any classroom in the school could use it to augment their lessons. Older students could explore fractions, interactions with colors, the amount of light that can pass through an object, or create their own manipulatives to enhance their learning.
Engineering is Elementary
Linkhorne Elementary School – Teacher: Allison Ashton
Grant Sponsor: AREVA
The purpose of this proposal is to provide students with more real-world, hands on experience with topics from our science and math curriculum. Through the use of the Engineering is Elementary curriculum students will learn the engineering design process which they will be able to apply in all problem solving situations. Students will learn about different engineering disciplines while also applying knowledge learned in science and math. Students will also learn the importance of communication and teamwork through carefully designed cooperative learning experiences.
The Next Chapter
Linkhorne Elementary School – Teachers: Claire Ickes, Lauri Harwood, Karen Kessler, Karen Mason, William Maurice
Grant Sponsors: The News & Advance, Successful Innovations
The purpose of this project is to provide our special education students and English language learners books to read at home, either independently or with a loving adult. Special Education students and English Language Learners do not easily fall in love with reading for pleasure. The Next Chapter will gift our students with books to take home to enjoy during school breaks. Before winter break, spring intersession and spring break, our students will be given fiction and/or non-fiction books to read and enjoy independently or with a family member. Upon returning to school after the break, the children will discuss and/or share something they have created about their book or about the experience of sharing the book with a family member. The interest and encouragement of the teacher in their experience coupled with the anticipation of another book for the next break will help each child write The Next Chapter in their story of becoming a better reader and a reader for life.
Painting for Positive Behavior
Sandusky Middle School – Teacher: Stacy Sterne, Karen Camden, Bob Kerns, Lynne Arbaugh
Grant Sponsors: BB&T, Westminster Canterbury
The purpose of this proposal is to provide a unique behavior incentive to the Spartan community of learners. Students meeting the criteria will enjoy an afterschool artistic experience that will include music, laughter, a spectacular painting, and positive memories of a fun afternoon. We enjoy painting events in the local community and often bring our completed paintings to school and show them off to our students. Our students like to see our paintings and would love to have the same opportunity to paint. We think that we will encourage positive behavior from our students and create relationships with students who share our love of the Arts. With the materials purchased with money from this grant we can continue to combine our love of painting with our love for the students of Sandusky Middle School and have paint experiences with our students whenever we can, long after the incentive ends.
Baby Chicks in the Classroom
Hutcherson Early Learning Center & R. S. Payne Elementary School – Teachers: Bert Mueller, Sherry Mueller, Jane Ruehle, Kristin Porterfield
Grant Sponsors: Coleman Adams Construction, First Piedmont Corporation
The purpose of this project is to provide preschool and elementary children in 14 classrooms the hands-on experiences observing life processes. 12 preschool classrooms at Hutcherson ELC and 2 elementary special education classrooms at R. S. Payne will participate. Each school will be provided an incubator and 7 fertilized eggs to hatch. Subsequently each classroom will receive 3 day old baby chicks and all of the materials to care for them for one week. Educational materials including a set of books and manipulatives for each classroom will also be provided. This activity can be reproduced each year in a large number of classrooms.
See Like a Scientist; Write Like a Scientist
Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle School for Innovation – Teachers: Gail Waller, Erin Rettke
Grant Sponsor: BWX Technologies
The primary purpose of this proposal is to engage and immerse students in real-world science settings around the globe without even having to leave the classroom! Through the use of Google Cardboard (simple and relatively inexpensive viewers) linked with apps through Google Cardboard for Education, science comes to “LIFE” by allowing students to travel to ecosystems across the globe, visualize flora and fauna in distinct biomes, and observe relationships between living organisms. The second part of this proposal is to help students develop scientific writing skills as they journal like real-world scientists. Through the use of a document camera, the writing of real scientists can be shared and would allow for science teachers to model and illustrate how to set-up and collect data; how to summarize a lab activity; how to make observations and use scientific descriptors; how to utilize concept mapping and graphic organizers, and how to keep notes throughout the thinking process.
Mentoring Through Text
Perrymont Elementary School – Teachers: Allison West, Lynda Wyndham, Katelyn Little, Miranda Shore
Grant Sponsors: Generation Solutions, George Rainsford Fund
The purpose of this proposal is to provide Mentor texts to help teach students concepts that can be abstract and tough in a fun and engaging way. By reading aloud these mentor texts will help to hook the students into a lesson, so that the teacher can build upon this excitement to teach them the rigorous content. Our third grade writing samples indicate a need for a focus on author’s craft. As a school district Lynchburg City has designed a schedule that allows for a reading mini whole group lesson before getting into small groups for guided reading. Followed by a mini writing whole group lesson before conferencing with students on their writing. One of the recommended uses of this mini-lesson time block is reading aloud to model a new strategy or skill with the students. High level and interesting books engage the students. Our grant will provide the tools necessary to craft literacy leaders.
Ann Spencer Meditative Garden
E. C. Glass High School – Teacher: Kimberly Gibson-McDonald
Grant Sponsor: Anonymous
The purpose of this project is to create a public piece of artwork that focuses on the poetry of Ann Spencer and her love of nature. Students will create stepping stones in the shape of leaves that will be decorated with lines from Ann Spencer’s poems or poems inspired by Ann Spencer. The stepping stones will be installed in one of the courtyards at E. C. Glass and new flowers will be planted.