2024 - Kyle Falk
The funds of the grant will be used towards purchasing a new tank for a classroom aquarium.
In 7th grade, the the aquarium is used for studying ecosystems and biomes. In 8th grade, the aquarium will be used for learning about the chemical makeup of water and the different cycles that occur in aquariums. It is an opportunity to provide a deeper understanding of the content through a hands on learning approach. |
2022 - Del Hubers
The grant funds will be used to commission a new beginning band composition by a female/LGBT/or person of color composer.
In a field dominated by cisgender white males, this population is often overlooked by publishing companies and their creative works are not made available to other band directors. |
2020 - Betsy Schamber
Grant money will be used to help create a "Learning Lab" for students in need. As an alternative to in-school or out of school suspension, the learning lab would create an environment where the crisis situation would be acknowledged, social and emotional skills would be introduced, taught and discussed, and various alternate choices to the crisis behavior would become part of the learning.
This "Learning Lab" would allow our staff to provide opportunities to use the tough situations that happen to create positive outcomes for, and build relationships with, our students. Funding for the grant would be used to purchase social and emotional learning curriculum as a foundation and resource for the staff member involved in promoting the learning with a student. The school, in turn, would provide the staff member and training to facilitate the learning. This Learning Lab has a focus on students grades six through eighth, however, the framework would allow for eventual expansion into the elementary and high school levels. In addition, the focus on social and emotional learning would not only be for students in crisis. Addressing social and emotional learning in a proactive setting and teaching skills to all students will help to prevent crisis situations and grow empathy in all students. |
2019 - Shellie Farwell
This grant would help off-set costs for two projects for both the middle school and the high school at St. Thomas More. The students will be using various painting techniques to create a large portrait of St. Thomas More and St John Fisher. Each student will have a visual contribution that will be permanently mounted in each of the school hall ways. This project will hang for years into the future.
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2018 - Jessica Carr
Plants are a big portion of the life sciences curriculum that I teach. They are also an important resource needed in order to promote sustainability in today's generation. This grant would help me develop a project that targets not only my general education students in 7th grade science, but also partners with our special education and life skills classes for students with moderate to severe cognitive disabilities, not only at the middle school level but at the elementary level, too. The grant money will be used to purchase and provide all materials needed to grow seeds and establish a mobile "mini plant cart". The focus of this project would be having my 7th grade science students work to develop a lab that could be carried out with special education students/life skills classes. Students would be responsible for presenting their plant knowledge, while designing and implementing a plant project with middle school and elementary life skills & special education classes. Research already demonstrates that students learn best when they teach a concept to others, so this provides an excellent way for current 7th graders to teach other students about a sustainable resource, while helping a population of students that often does not have many available resources to otherwise host a project like this.
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2017 - Amy Lynch
Grant money will be used to purchase a new Ipad and AppleTV.
This year, I am "flipping" my math classroom. The students do a video lesson at home or in study hall and in class we work on problems - often in groups and occasionally alone. Students check their work as they go - this helps correct errors before they get ingrained into the students brains. My students, parents and I really appreciate what this has done for my students and for the atmosphere within my classroom. Quotes from students about "flipped learning": "I like doing the problems in class because if I have a question I can ask the teacher. I like doing videos at home so if I don't have questions and I can finish my homework." "I like that in class we can ask you questions if we have them and we can work on it more in class. I like watching videos as homework more because if I have more homework in other subjects and not have to worry about time. I also like it because you can go over it as many times as you want." |