“Spooktacular Grants Day” Honors Campuses with Grants

TYLER — No tricks, just treats for Tyler ISD classroom teachers and students for Friday’s “Spooktacular” Grant Day from the Tyler ISD Foundation as more than ten campuses receive twelve grants totaling more than $25,000, according to Larry Goddard, Executive Director of the Tyler ISD Foundation. An additional $40,000 in grant awards will be announced at a later date, making the total grant awards more than $65,000 for the full academic year.

“We honor the teachers, teams of teachers, administrators and staff who wrote innovative, forward-thinking projects to help inspire learning, enrich teaching and enhance opportunities for Tyler ISD’s students,” said Goddard. “We received a record number of grant proposals—close to 70—and we used creative grantor decisions to make as many of the programs come to life as possible,” said Goddard. “Our range is from pre-kindergarten proposals to advanced math and science, state of the art technology, to duct tape and cardboard science events—you name it, the teachers have come up with remarkable ideas to help their students. I love the fact that many of the teachers say the grant program ‘allows them to dream.’ That’s priceless—a teacher’s dream for his or her students—what a wonderful faculty and staff we have at Tyler ISD to spend their time in creating opportunities for their students.”

The recipients for the 2010-2011 academic year are as follows:

1. Dixie Elementary, “Reporters Are Better Readers and Writers” – Diann Darden, Mary Perry, Ashley Henderson, Wheeler Jones, Tracy Schweizer, Mario Moreno, Natasha Balfour, Connie Wood. More than 90 students will be involved in this Reading, Language Arts and Science project. Students will learn to use the program Newsmaker combined with a web cam and microphone to produce well-organized self-written presentations that clearly and concisely convey concepts and information. Emphasis will be made for the fourth graders to improve their delivery on fluency, rhythm, pacing, intonation and expression of their written scripts.

2. Griffin Elementary School, “Read Me a Great Book” – Debra Ketchum, Cynthia Gilbert, Martha Ramirez. Thirty students plus parents from kindergarten to second grade will be involved in this project which supplements the literacy instruction of the school by equipping parents to have what’s termed a fun and engaging read-aloud time at home with their student. Studies show that the single most important activity for building knowledge required for eventual success is reading aloud to children.

3. Bell Elementary Global Communications Academy, “iTouch: Touching Lives in the Classroom and Beyond” – Dr. Keri Hampton, Lisa Brown, Cathy France, Sarah Jane Walker. Impacting 506 students and almost 30 teachers, this campus grant will bring subject areas such as Reading, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Technology together in using iPod Touches to support and enhance classroom instruction by reinforcing foreign language skills, learning sight words, listening to audio books, note taking, and reinforcing math concepts through iPod applications and podcasting. This program will teach students to examine every new technology for its potential to educate.

4. Andy Woods Elementary, “Dancing with the Facts” – Happi Deason, Ashley Phelps. Over 700 students will be impacted by this grant that will provide three sets of Geo-Fitness Mats (75 total student mats); Geo Motion mats help reinforce colors, shapes, math facts and letters.

5. Bonner Elementary, “There’s a Fraction Beat in My Pizza Meat!” – Mrs. Derrell (Debbie) Broughton. With 500 students served, school officials say students will learn a fun and exciting method of exploring and understanding fractions beats in music. By using large and small hand drums, students will learn how to visualize fraction parts in a whole pizza pie.

6. Caldwell Elementary Arts Academy, “All Aboard…for a Journey Through Time” – Laura Lee Field and Sherrill Echols. Kindergarten through fifth graders will be part of a what’s termed fun and educational approach of introducing young students to the classical periods of Art History. The kids will study classical art as well as create drawings, paintings, sculptures and heritage crafts to reinforce the art period and styles of culture.

7. Owens Elementary, “Stop Summer Brain Drain!” – Linda Payne, Jennifer Taylor, Pat Bickley. Over 600 students will be impacted with the goal of lessening summer learning loss — a researched phenomenon. Officials say all young people experience learning losses when they do not engage in educational activities during the summer. Using five grade level workbooks containing eight weeks of lessons over fifteen bonus activities created by ThinkStretch, the sessions will be a fun time for students and encourage students and volunteers throughout the summer, according to school officials.

8. Hubbard Middle School, “The Sky’s the Limit” – Deanna Malloy. Over 300 students in construction technology will build this high-flying rubber band powered model airplane. Entitled, “Shoebox Rises Off the Ground Project” the goal is to get the shoebox to fly for forty seconds in a gym and outdoors. This is the starting point for students to learn about the four forces of flight and aerospace technology using alternative energy.

9. Boulter Engineering Prep, “Guitars Give Guidance”- Patricia McCormick. During school ‘improvement period,’ the students will be involved in a program designed to put guitars in the hands of at-risk youth in order that they may have a creative outlet in lieu of misbehavior temptations.

10. Hubbard Middle School, “History Happens, Anytime!” – Katherine Bozick, Candace Veatch, Roger Webb, Whitney Figueroa, Jack Pool, Mandy Sawyer, Cindy Nick, Cindy Loughmiller, Alec Tatum. Close to 1,000 students will be impacted by learning history with advanced technology. Teachers will create and upload audio and video to expand the learning experiences in bringing History to life for middle school students. “StudyCasts” will be used to multiply the enhancement for students. In essence, say school officials, history could happen at any time.

11. Stewart Middle School, “Creative Curriculum with Cardboard and Duct Tape”- Mary McGough and Holly Youngblood. Math and science students (more than 140) will use measurement and Physics, the two lowest scoring objectives on the TAKS tests results, to help them improve their understanding. Students must build box cars using at least three different geometric figures. To qualify for this project, students must complete 25 hours in tutorials for Math and/or Science.

12. Hubbard Middle School, “Mathletes in Action”- Rebecca Clements, Nick Smith, Angelica Brown. Seventh grade math students (325) will be involved in a competitive mathematical virtual world for prizes and bragging rights to be the best in the world, mathematical confidence, and achievement.

Funding for this grant cycle is provided by an Anonymous Donor, The Junior League of Tyler, Inc., Bank of America, and the Retail Merchants of Tyler Fund at East Texas Communities Foundation.