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Lexington City Schools this past fall presented 10 teachers with grants to improve classrooms or instruction.
“Each teacher could submit a grant request for up to $300 to support their project proposal,” explained Rebecca Walters, district superintendent.
“The grants were made possible through the district’s funding allocation from the federal Title IV grant which focuses funding on providing opportunities for schools to implement well-rounded educational experiences for students.”
The applications laid out the project or learning opportunity each teacher wished to provide, and explained how the money would help their students.
Anna Swenty, who teaches physical and earth science at Lylburn Downing Middle School, said she will use her grant award to create weather lab activity stations.
“I applied for this miniinnovation grant to purchase enough supplies to set up five weather lab station activities around my classroom, each designed to take about 10 minutes to complete,” she told The News-Gazette.
“Student groups will rotate through these five weather lab stations in any order and explore the weather concepts in a fun, hands-on way. The goal of these five weather lab stations is for my students to investigate distinct and various weather concepts that relate to the study of meteorology.”
The opportunity for hands-on learning is important, Swenty believes, especially for science subjects.
“I have never been able to find a good hands-on lab for weather topics for my high school level earth science course I teach to Lylburn Downing Middle School eighth-graders, and I truly believe that hands-on learning is the best way to learn science,” Swenty said.
“When middle school students study weather concepts they don’t always see how the weather topics are related and affect each other to bring about weather conditions. It is my hope that with these hands-on weather lab activity stations, I can bring the weather concepts to my eighth grade students in a more interactive approach.”
At Waddell Elementary, another mini-grant will go toward creating creative spaces for younger students.
“I teach kindergarten, first, and second grade art, and I plan to create an ‘Art Makerspace’ with the mini-innovation grant, explained Hannah Straub. “The makerspace will include a variety of hands-on materials that foster collaboration, communication, ingenuity, and creativity among my students”.
The money from the division will go toward equipping these spaces.
“I am using the grant to purchase educational, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) tools and manipulatives for my students. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity to create a permanent addition to our art room that will benefit students for years to come,” she said.
Rachel Braun, who teaches English as a Second Language at both the Waddell and Lylburn Downing, will use her grant to purchase cameras for a project that ties students’ home lives into language instruction.
“The LCS grant money awarded will allow me to buy five or six digital cameras,” she said. “These cameras will be sent home on a rotating basis for English Learner families who opt in to the program to use. Families who participate will photograph and narrate selected pictures multilingually.”
Students will come up with themes, then those who opt in to the program will take a camera home to capture photographs that fit their chosen theme. These pictures will be narrated in the student’s home language, then translated into English before being put into books.
“This process supports the assertion that literacy in all languages is valuable and educational. It creates opportunities for students and their families to have conversations around topics of interest to them and it generates an audience for the aspects of these conversations that the families choose to share,” Braun explained.
“It provides a tangible product that families can go back to in the future to document and celebrate their familial experiences at the same time that it highlights these experiences in the school setting where a copy of the book is placed,” she said. “This process would not be possible without the generous funding of the mini-innovation grant.”
Other Waddell teachers who received grants were Maggie Wilson, school counselor, for “World Kindness Day,” Angie Rader, music teacher and Erin Gregg, business manager, for “Makey Makey Piano Stairs,” and Lizzy Braman for “Activate Morning Meetings.”
Other LDMS teachers who received grants were Becky Sanders, science teacher, for “Digital Microscope,” and Chloe Dubinsky, Spanish teacher, for “Comida del Mundo (Food of the World).”
Jen Hall, the division’s instructional technology resource teacher, received a grant for “Computer Science Engagement Month,” as did Tracy Bond, who teaches art at both the elementary and middle schools, for “Gelli Plate Printmaking”.
Teachers who received these grants will be putting them into action throughout the school year.
“The teachers will implement their grant project during the school year and share outcomes through photos and an overview of the project near the end of the year,” said Walters.
“We hope to feature some of the mini-grants as part of a school board meeting this spring or during the year.”
