Spring 2017 Grants
“The Chromebooks are important because they extend our education.”
Alyssa Langford 6th grader, HMS
Congratulations to our 2017 Spring Grant Recipients!
Edgewood Elementary
OSMO – Offering Students Many Opportunities to Learn Through Innovative Technology – Andrea Krueger
This grant will provide the Osmo Wonder Kits for each kindergarten classroom. This device allows students to use technology while also incorporating hands-on activities to build critical thinking skills.
Unlocking Comprehension – Angela Gerontakis
This grant will provide reading assessments for Grades 3 – 5 to better understand each student’s comprehension strengths and weaknesses. Along with assessments, the resource material will also help teachers design and direct instruction based on each student’s needs.
Activ Community with Mobile Promethean ActivPanel – Fran Woodruff, Alison Hill and Lynn Dorough
This grant will provide an ActivPanel for the library and school counselor’s classroom at Edgewood Elementary. This multi-touch interactive board allows students and teachers to simultaneously share ideas, problem solve and manipulate images in whole-class or small-group settings. The ActivPanel will be used by all students at Edgewood Elementary during their character education and library time.
Hall-Kent Elementary
Putting the ‘FUN’ in Building Reading Skills – Amanda Civitello
This grant will provide a new reading resource for third grade teachers and students. The Wilson Fundations materials will support the current core reading curriculum with intensive instruction for students at all reading levels.
Experiencing the Wonder of VR – Becky Salls, Teri Nash, Pam White, Lynn Dorough, and Lindsay Galaffasi
The world of technology keeps growing and changing. This grant will pilot a new type of technology in the classroom, Virtual Reality. This technology will be provide an immersive learning experience so students can play an active role in their learning.
Summer Enrichment Program for Low-Income Students – Kornelia McDaniel
Summer learning loss can leave low-income students 2 ½ to 3 years behind their peers. This grant will provide an engaging, curriculum-based program for low-income students during the summer to help alleviate this learning loss. This pilot program will help students with critical reading and math skills and opportunities for athletic, cultural and social activities.
Shades Cahaba Elementary
Engaging Early Readers – Beth Gladney
Studies have shown that listening to a book while reading the text increases reading comprehension and proficiency. This grant will provide a new set of Vox audio books for the library to help beginning and struggling readers increase their reading proficiency.
Summer Reading Project – Alli Phelps, Beth Gladney, Ellen Helf, John Lowry, and Wendy Story
For the second year, the Foundation will fund this summer reading program for struggling readers and ELL students. Students will receive books at the end of the school year, attend a summer book swap and keep a journal about what they are reading. By keeping students engaged in reading throughout the summer break as well as by providing them with easy access to books, the program hopes to empower students to increase their confidence in literacy skills and their love of reading.
Shades Cahaba MakerSpace – Part 2 – Wendy Story and Lindsay Galafassi
As a follow-up to the 2015 request for a MakerSpace, this grant will offer enhancements to this interactive learning space. A new component for the space will be ‘gamification’ which will include Bloxels, coding board games and a seedling marble maze. Other enhancements include Magformers magnetic building blocks and Blue-Bots. These new additions will help to introduce younger students (K-2) to STEM concepts.
All Three Elementary Schools
The Interactive Classroom – Desiree Smith
In a continuing effort to help keep the technology in our classrooms up-to-date, the Foundation is underwriting the purchase of new Promethean ActivBoards for all fourth-grade classrooms in our system. Each interactive board is a whiteboard and computer screen all-in-one and is capable of being manipulated by up to 6 students at a time for collaborative problem-solving, discovery and product creation.
Homewood Middle School
Building Students’ Perseverance through Growth Mindset Mathematical Activities in Algebra I – Kevin Wolfe-Hughes, Laura Thuirer and Mary McLeod
Many students enter 8th grade with the idea that they either ‘get math’ or they don’t. To change this mindset and help students become better problem solvers, the 8th grade Math teachers are doing a summer book study using Fostering Algebraic Thinking. This resource will help them create growth mindset activities that will foster perseverance in solving mathematical problems.
Building on Success – HMS Summer Reading Program – Mary Paris
For the second year, the Foundation will fund this summer program to engage at-risk students and help them build foundational reading skills necessary for future academic success. During a structured in-school summer program, students will work on guided reading, vocabulary and reading comprehension activities.
Homewood High School
It’s Osmo Fun! – Tiffany Statum and Gilan Jones
This grant will provide Osmo Wonder Kits for the special education department. The hands-on approach to learning will be beneficial for students at all learning levels.
Graphing Calculators for the Math Classroom – Catherine Warren
This grant provides graphing calculators for AP Statistics and Analytical Math classes. The Foundation has helped update this new technology for many of the math classes at the high school.
AP Summer Institute for AP European History in Rome, Italy – Mindy McBride
This grant will send the AP European History teacher at Homewood High School to the Advanced Placement Summer Institute to gain valuable information and learn best practices for instructing students in AP European History. During the trip, the teacher will electronically document all field trips and site visits so that future students can take virtual field trips to Rome during the course.
