2015-2016 Grants to Educators

2015-2016 Grants to Educators

Andrews Elementary School

Kim Artigues - $450

Let’s Learn with Logic

The stimulating "Let's Learn with Logic" reasoning games will be utilized for differentiated Math instruction in order to enhance spatial and analytical reasoning; while challenging the student's strategic thinking skills. Students will use mathematical problem solving skills to develop logical thinking and practice rigorous problem solving. This will further enhance our Math instruction by making connections with content and will serve as a great introduction to deductive reasoning and applying mathematics to problem solving in everyday life.


Jennifer Moreno - $413

Dealing Number Sense

While our students are “Dealing Number Sense” using decks of playing cards and dominoes, they will develop and master, as in-depth understanding of place value: including the concept of ordering, rounding, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and fractions. Students will be engaged during the hands-on approach to learning Numerical Representations and

Relationships: number sense. The dice games requested as a continuation of this grant will be used to better understand place value as mentioned above.


Mandy Rains - $500

KIC: Kids Inquiry Conference

Kids Inquiry Conference is an event that uses the foundational ideas of the typical science fair and “KIC”s it into high gear. The students will work in teams to choose a topic, design a science investigation, execute the scientific process, reflect on the results, and write a research article to be published in a yearly KIC book. Groups will then have the opportunity to share their findings with younger students, peers, teachers, parents and community members through engaging presentations in a conference like setting.

Armstrong Middle School

Kristin Haney - $1500

College Campus Visit

The annual College Campus Visit is geared toward educating students about life at a college campus. Students are provided with knowledge of what life is like on a college campus (dorm life, class sizes, clubs and organizations), benefits of a college education and college entrance requirements. Students will visit a major Texas university where they will tour the campus, receive information about the campus from actual college students, and eat lunch in a college cafeteria.

Armstrong Middle School

Kimberly Harvey-Jordan - $1500

Chamber Theatre Productions

This grant will be used to take our sixth grade students from Armstrong Middle to the Chamber

Theatre Productions Inc. It will provide them the opportunity to see a drama as well as live poetry to connect with curriculum goals. All sixth graders who are in English Language Arts will be eligible to attend.

Barron Elementary School

Matthew Clark -$325

Math Can be Fun 2

This grant will buy more research based math board games to help bring Math into a real world setting. Allowing students to play games, that will reinforcing their Math Facts, Operations, and

Problem Solving skills. The games will help provide learning tools to meet the new standard of personal financial literacy that will tested on STAAR. The money will be used to purchase games targeting deficient skills identified through MAP and STAAR data analysis

Beaty EC - P-K

Megan Fogarty - $1000

We All Read Together

Last year we began adapting and supplementing grade level literature to allow our special education students to enjoy the same books as their general education peers. We have so far created eight adapted book kits and have used them in four different classrooms to reach thirty seven students. We would like to continue our project to create a true, inclusive library for our self-contained classrooms that utilizes classic fiction and nonfiction books.

Beaty EC - P-K

Heather Schmitt - $780

Family Visual Supports Training Series

The Family Visual Support Training Series will be a hands-on experience designed to support parents and caregivers in their ability to enhance their child’s participation and success in school, at home and throughout the community. This series of trainings will provide strategies to help the child communicate more effectively in order to alleviate stress, ease frustration during challenging situations and promote positive behaviors.

Beverly Elementary School

Laura Schnitzer - $825

Literature Throughout the Classroom

Second grade students will be immersed in good literature throughout the school year.

Students will be given the opportunity to select “ just right” books for their individual book bags. These books will be high interest books.

Boggess Elementary School

Lori Scaglione - $1500

Study It, Grow It, Share it!

Study It, Grow It, Share It is a vessel that molds a healthy mind/body to empower students to develop their knowledge and desire to create a nurturing and giving environment through outreach and community involvement. The implementation of a Tower Garden growing system will enable students to understand the use of aeroponics (the process of growing plants in an air or mist environment eliminating the need for soil-to produce more colorful, delicious, and incredibly nutrient dense fruit, vegetables and herbs). The Tower Garden System would provide a lifelong skill and positively impact the future of students' health and education.

Bowman Middle School

Jessica Cofield - $950

Expand Your Genre

A comfortable setting with books of different genres to be shared and enjoyed by all.


Elizabeth Donnelson – $620

Green Dream

Many of the students and staff at our middle school are requesting a return to efficient recycling. A Recycling Club will allow us to build awareness of environmental issues, especially as it relates to our school. A staff member will be in charge of the recycling club and also providing service hours to those interested in helping the Recycling Club students .


Leslie Grant - $1500

High Five for Success Student Recognition Program

High Five for Success Student Recognition Program is a student recognition program created and implemented by the Student Recognition Team at Bowman Middle School.The goal of the program is to creatively recognize all students for their success in school. Success is based on the Bowman student expectations of RESPECT: Yourself, Your Peers, Your Teachers, Your

Campus, Your Visitors,


Angela Larch – $600

Project Read, Write, Inspire

Reading Workshop, a section of our 7th grade English curriculum, is implemented with an objective to not only notice an author’s craft of writing, but to also increase vocabulary, fluency and comprehension skills. When we provide our students with high-interest novels and informational texts, they are more likely to develop writing skills and become lifelong readers.

Our project will allow us to purchase current high-interest literature for our 7th grade classrooms to support our student’s reading and writing development.


Joshua Peters - $500

Diverse Books for Diverse Students

All children deserve to find a book in which they can see a reflection of themselves and their experiences. To best serve a diverse student population, I need to offer a diverse selection of books in my classroom library. I am seeking to add recent, high-interest, and award-winning titles to my collection.

Carpenter Middle School

Melissa Alouf – $1500

Robotics Club

An after school club to provide students the ability to explore and experience robot building, coding, and problem solving. Competitions will be held to increase excitement and interest in

STEM related topics for enhanced school performance and possible career choices. Students will have access to enrichment opportunities that otherwise would be unavailable to them.

Carpenter Middle School

Barbara Lye - $300

Using Reading Strategies to Learn Math!

This project will use interesting stories and beautifully illustrated children’s book to engage students in developing mathematical ideas. Using familiar reading strategies in the math classroom will help make mathematics more accessible to all students. This project will be used in the Power Math classes to develop and strengthen problem solving skills.

Christie Elementary School

Suzanne Armstrong - $650

Title: Arts in Action

Learning experiences in the arts contribute to the development of academic skills, including the areas of reading and language development, and mathematics. Certain forms of arts instruction enhance and complement basic reading skills, language development and writing skills. Bringing theater education to our students opens new worlds of opportunity. The act of performing can help students recognize their potential for success and improve their confidence. Arts-rich learning environments can have far-reaching effects that extend to the entire school and surrounding community.


Carrie Cormack - $1500

Recess is Right

Most of us remember recess as an important part of the school day. It was a time to be outdoors; to organize our own games; to play on the swings, slides, and other playground equipment; or just to hang out with friends. There is considerable research to suggest that recess has many benefits for children in the cognitive, social-emotional, and physical domains.


Jeini Gordon - $1325.17

Bilingual Leveled Readers

The bilingual program classrooms at Christie Elementary are in need of bilingual leveled readers. These readers will be used to enhance bilingual student learning at home through their weekly distribution. Each student will be given a weekly individual leveled reader to be used and returned in exchange for a new title throughout the entire school year.


Veronica Harrell - $1500

Read and Discover

We desire to create a Science inquiry site for second grade to allow students to dive deeper into our Science TEKS. The Café can be used as a reading station for further inquiry or research within the science UBd (Unit By Design) instruction. Students will be able to work independently or in collaborative pairs to discover new information.


Jenna Hurtado - $1350

Read all About it!

All kindergarten students at Christie Elementary will receive their own monthly subscription to

National Geographic Little Kids Magazine. They will each receive new issues, over a six month period. The Magazines will be used to enrich and excite the Literacy Program at Christie

Elementary.


Lilly Jensby - $1500

Gadget Girls, The Next Generation

Gadget Girls, The Next Gen! Gadget Girls is a collaborative initiative designed to boost achievement in science and mathematics and aimed at inspiring the next generation of innovators. According to the 2010 President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology

Report, early interest has been identified as a predictor in determining whether a student chooses to pursue a STEM career. Through this cooperative learning process girls will develop leadership, creative thinking, and problem-solving skills as well as foster sustained interest in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. As a result, girls will be empowered at a young age to pursue STEM-related career pathways.

Christie Elementary School – with Huffman, Jackson, McCall, Thomas ES

Kimberly Lewis - $3000

Bookworm Challenge

The Bookworm Challenge is a reading incentive program based on Donalyn Miller’s The Book

Whisperer to engage our students in free choice independent reading of a variety of genres. By giving grade levels 3-5 a goal of 25 books, grade levels 1-2 a goal of 20 books and Kindergarten a goal of 15 books per year, we hope to increase student enjoyment of reading and widen their genre selection. To create a grade level bookworm, individual pieces with the student’s name, title and a brief sentence about the book will be added to show student progress.


Sandra Nachman - $1500

Designing Mathematicians

The sky's the limit ... or is it? Our Designing Mathematicians are taking math out of this world through inquiry-based projects that challenge students to critically think and problem-solve at the highest levels! Not only will students be able to bring their mathematical ideas to life, they will also be able to share their learning through student-produced digital portfolios, which will deepen their understanding of how math connects us to the real world .


Kristin Ransom - $800

Comprehension is KEY!

Students will dive into reading high interest nonfiction literature. They will engage in meaningful conversation while boosting their comprehension strategies. The goal is to build strong independent readers one engaging text at a time.


Malia Ritchison - $500

Growing Language Through Children's Books

For Growing Language Through Children's Books, we are requesting funding to improve and grow our SLP library at Christie Elementary. Using each book, we can create many lessons and visuals that target so many language and speech skills in fun and motivating ways. In addition to helping our students master their speech therapy goals, we will also be promoting literacy and language arts in the classroom and beyond.


Katie Specht - $100

The Write Stuff

The Write Stuff is an opportunity for students to create, design, write, and illustrate their very own books for a complete literacy understanding. This will provide each student in my classroom to write, with competency, a story and/or an article to express their individual ideas.

The Write Stuff provides Second grade students with a creative outlet for their writing where they remain engaged in the writing process and continue build upon their individual skills.


Natalie Unmuth - $1000

A Play on Words

The main objective is to increase language arts comprehension through reader's theater.

Students will build upon their vocabulary, fluency, and gain a deeper understanding of grammar and figurative language. These plays provide grammar focused content within the context of a play.

Clark High School

Savannah Deegan - $1500

Garold Wayne Foundation Field Trip

Agricultural science students will travel to the Garold Wayne Interactive Zoological Park to experience the life of an animal caretaker and learn about the work being completed by Texas

A&M's genetics department at the foundation to preserve the gene pool of endangered big cats.

Clark High School

Christina Kraft - $1500

Fortification of Art in the Context of World History

A field trip to the Kimbell Art Museum and The Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth for 10th

Grade Humanities students and AP European History students will fortify world history studies in the context of art. Additionally, the trip will serve as a review for testing content for the

World History AP test and European History AP test as contextualization is a necessary component of analytical thinking. While textbooks provide a basic image of the art, viewing in person gives students a more holistic understanding.

Cox

Gary Wilson - $1300

School Age Parent Program - "Bonus Bucks" Incentive Program

The Bonus Bucks incentive program provides incentives and reinforcement for school age parents to remain in school, achieve academic success, and develop positive parental behavior.

Students earn "Bonus Bucks" throughout the semester and may redeem them at the end of the semester event "Celebrations" for relevant items (i.e. diapers, bottles, children's books, children/baby clothing, car seats, etc.) This program provides a way to acknowledge success during a very trying time in the young person's life.

Daffron Elementary School

Linda DeSousa - $1448.93

Every Brick Counts! Legos in Math

Second grade students will have the tools necessary to build and apply the processes of mathematical problem solving with the use of Legos. Pairs of students will work together solving real life problems with Lego figures and blocks. Students will then share their strategies with the class.

Davis Elementary School

Stacey Overbey - $1500

Touch Phonics to Touch STAAR

Our campus will utilize the multi-sensory Touch Phonics programs in both general education and specialists' classes in order to aid students in mastering decoding and spelling goals.

Forman Elementary School

Leticia Diwa - $1500

Making Our Mark With The Community Through Literacy

The Making Our Mark with the Community through Literacy is a project to train volunteers to become literacy tutors for students. This project combines technology with reading tools for volunteers to help with enrichment through a support program for students. Through this grant, our volunteers will be more equipped with the tools necessary to help not only students make their mark through literacy, but themselves as well.


Andrea Jaramillo - $1500

Discovery Den

The Discovery Den will be a place where entrepreneurship will birth and thrive.

Entrepreneurship teaches you to believe in yourself, your team and your plan. This is the skill set we want for our students: collaborating, communicating, creating and critical thinking. The

Discovery Den will allow us to create a better future for everyone by allowing ideas to materialize through thoughtful play.


Russell Sanders - $1500

Boyz II Men and Beautiful Me

"We are not what has happened to us, we are who we CHOOSE to become!" Our programs are geared to promote, enhance and establish a positive self-esteem through leadership and community service experiences which build good character that will be part of a student's skill set for future leadership roles in our greater society.


Cassey Scales - $1500

Future Engineers

Future Engineers will gear up for science through the exciting world of Engineering. Fourth and fifth graders will engage in the exploration of the Engineering Design Process and experience hands on activities that introduce them to the world of Engineering. They will problem solve weekly challenges and activities from various strands of Engineering fields such as Civil

Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering and many others.

Frankford Middle School

Karyn Wynne - $930

Study Chats

Morning Study CHATS are for students to meet and collaborate about what they are learning in their core subjects. Instead of sitting in the cafeteria or gym waiting for school to start, students will come to Study CHATS to stay on top of their grades. Study CHATS will be for group study sessions, group project work, or just to get their homework done. It will be a safe and “cool” place to study with peers.

Gulledge Elementary School

Lisa Beyer - $1492.46

Drummin' Through the TEKS

The Drummin' Through the TEKS project will provide the opportunity for every student at our school to learn and perform music in a class drum ensemble. This project will fund the purchase of seven tubanos and two resource books for our elementary music classroom, which will allow students to experience rhythm, ensemble, movement, improvisation, meter, and timbre with a hands-on experience. Having a class-set of drums ensures that every student will have enough time to explore and learn the skills to be proficient at demonstrating their knowledge of concepts in the music curriculum.

Gulledge Elementary School

Caitie Hatcher - $1415

Rockin Robotics

A stimulating STEM education is crucial for developing the basic analytical, problem-solving and critical thinking skills that are central to academic achievement and workforce readiness in the

21st century. Our school wants to create authentic, student-owned learning experiences through the use of Sphero Robots and Arduino starter kits. With these hands-on STEM activities, our students will exemplify our 4 Cs: collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking.

Haggar Elementary School

Christy Fox - $1330

Stay On Task

Stay on Task is a program based on 21st century goals, and was designed to encourage and support teachers. It is not sufficient for the teachers to merely implement different classroom management strategies. This program encourages the creation of a classroom environment that improves the engagement of all students in the classroom and keeps them on-task.

Haggar Elementary School

April Grizzle - $1500

May Osmos come out and play?

Osmos is a fun, electronic tool that attaches to iPads to enhance students’ learning through visual and spatial activities. Students will have the opportunity to utilize Osmos to develop critical thinking skills, perform STEM activities, and connect other curricular areas such as music and art to science and technology. From special needs students to kindergarten to fifth graders,

Osmos will open new doors for all learners in the area of strategic thinking.

Haggard Middle School

Mary Lyon - $2950

V-B Mapping Our Assessments with Pictures

This Grant project would provide visual supports and pictures for the VB-MAPP Assessment.

The VB- MAPP Assessment is used to evaluate language, social skills, and academic reading, writing and math skills for children with autism and other developmental disabilities. These materials would also be used to support functional communication and intervention for students on elementary, middle and high school campuses.

Harrington Elementary School

Jamie Edmondson - $1500

R3 (Reaching Reluctant Readers)

R3 (Reaching Reluctant Readers) is a program designed to reach out to students who have yet to discover the joy of reading. The librarian, classroom teacher, and student will work together to build a collection of books that are both highly interesting and appropriate for a student’s reading level. Students will discover the pleasure of reading, desire additional literary experiences, and gain skills needed to become successful.

Hendrick Middle School

Victoria Hines - $1500

AVID Tastes College Life & Food 4 Thought

Each spring, the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) students who are being successful in their classes get a taste of college life by touring a local university, eating in the campus dining facility, and visiting various areas to include student life and the campus bookstore. Many of the AVID students also participate in the Food 4 Thought after-school help sessions to better equip them for success in their required honors course. Food 4 Thought is an after-school academic support program that supplements regularly scheduled tutorials and provides a nutritional snack.

Hickey Elementary School

Melissa Cole - $1489.41

Leveled Literacy Intervention

The Fountas and Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention is a focused supplementary intervention system that targets our below grade level Tier-2 students in reading through explicit instruction of reading, writing and word work. Intensive teaching in small groups gives opportunities for students to further develop comprehension and discussion skills, oral language development, phonics and decoding as well as writing what students are thinking about what they have read.

By implementing this program for our below level Tier-2 reading students we intend to increase our reader's growth, working towards closing the achievement gap, and have more students meet grade-level expectations at the end of the year.


Monica Maldonado - $1500

I Can Read

I Can Read is a program geared towards helping struggling reader improve their reading by two grade levels. I Can Read will help empower struggling readers become independent strong readers. Through the use of the a resource program students will be able to practice their phonics and improve their reading

2015-2016 Grants to Educators


Joy Prather - $1500

Make, Create, and Innovate

Through the Make, Create, and Innovate program the students at Hickey Elementary will be given a variety of tools to allow for hands-on learning in building and electronics. Students will not only use creativity to invent and build things, but also they will be given challenges to solve problems and test their designs and theories.


Erika Sanchez - $1500

Fighting for Fiction Frenzy

The students at Hickey Elementary will be given access to new and exciting fiction chapter books, participate in reading challenges, hear booktalks, have access to book trailers, and create book reviews themselves for other students to read or watch. The desire is to create a reading frenzy and increase fluency, reading comprehension, and meaningful experiences with books. That kind of reading success produces more lifelong readers.


Dung Tran - $1466.65

The Lost Art of Telling Time

Telling time, really? Do we still need to tell time, or why not just read a number off of a digital clock? "The Lost Art of Telling Time" will put the love back into reading an analog clock by providing students with analog watches during a two week long project. Students will build an understanding of time, understanding passage of time, understanding the units time is measured and what each unit of measure means, and relating all of this to their everyday life.

Hightower Elementary School

Cathi Gordon - $1450

One Book One School

One Book One School is designed to be a reading connection between school and family. Every student, every parent, every teacher and staff member will be reading the same book at the same time. This program will strengthen the bond between school and home through a timeless children's classic.

Huffman Elementary

Courtney West - $970

Show me the money!!

Show me the money is focused on deepening the third grader's understanding of the financial system as a whole. We will take a field trip to where money is created!!! The focus of the trip will be on why government prints money, how they do it and some of the history of the Bureau all with the goal of creating higher learning around our personal financial TEKS.

Huffman Elementary School

Wynita Harris - $1200

Connecting Learning and Real-World Experiences: Art Tour

Curiosity, Experience, Explore, Collaborate and Critical Thinking Skills are key words that define what can happen when students are given the chance to be exposed to and tour the Dallas

Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture center as they connect lessons from the Art Studio with current exhibits at each museum. Many of our students have never set foot in a museum and this grant would give several children the opportunity to be exposed to these innovative and educational learning environments. Students will be able to have an experience that allows them to explore in a collaborative setting using their critical thinking skills and connect their authentic learning experience to previous lessons in the art studio and to the world around them.


Linda Martin - $400

Kids Inquiry Conference 2015-2016

Kids Inquiry Conference is an event that uses the foundation ideas of the typical science fair and

“KIC”s it into high gear. The students will work in teams to choose a topic, design a science investigation, execute the scientific process, reflect on the results, and write a research article to be published in a yearly KIC book. Groups will then have the opportunity to share their findings with younger students, peers, teachers, parents and community members through engaging presentations in a conference like setting.


Cynthia Smith - $1200

Comprehension Cafe

Third grade students practice reading picture books, poems, jokes, and riddles to build fluency.

Then third grade students host first grade and kindergarten at Comprehension Cafe in the spring. Third grade students will read an appetizer (poem), an entree (picture book), and a dessert (joke or riddle) to their younger counterparts.

Jackson Elementary School

Stephanie Stoller -$1000

Lego Club

The Lego Club is a research-based group that focuses on enhancing social skills for students with autism and other social difficulties. Students come together in a small group with separate jobs, but with the same goal of building a Lego set. By using Legos, which are highly motivating to the students, they learn how to problem solve, communicate with their peers, work collaboratively, and follow directions in a way that is fun!

McCall Elementary School

Stacy Kimbriel - $2025

Kimbriel's Brown Bag Lunch Bunch

Elementary kids always want to eat lunch with the principal! Kimbriel's Brown Bag Lunch Bunch will be focused time to work with students who are on the verge of gaining advanced levels in the area of reading. Four books/anthologies have been selected for students to read and participate in a book club to enhance reading instruction in the classroom. These books will be gifted to the children, often to students who do not own many books, to add to their home libraries.

Meadows Elementary School

Ellyn Reese-Fautsch - $1000

Smooth Sailing/Synergy for Student Success

Whether or not eligible for Special Education services, so many students at our Title One school have special needs that must be appropriately addressed, both academic or behavioral. When all staff cooperate towards facilitation of the learning process for our students, the kids will always benefit! The goal of this Grant Proposal is to promote smooth sailing throughout the school day through staff synergy and campus behavior support, as recommended to our staff by the Momentous Institute at an August 2015 training, by providing materials to staff members to support students' progress in the educational environment, resource or inclusion,

General Education or Special Education.

Memorial Elementary School

Veronica Carreno – $1463

Books to Heal Kids

Books to Heal Kids is a project to provide bibliotherapy resources and trainings to parents, teachers, and students. We will build a library of therapeutic books and games that parents and teachers can borrow and use, and the counselors will provide training and information. We will hold a series of "Coffee with the Counselors" meetings to introduce the resources to our families and help kids be successful in school.

Memorial Elementary School

Seema Shah - $1500

Brick by Brick: Learning with Legos

Brick by Brick: Learning with Legos will enable all students to develop the 4Cs (communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity) through the use of Legos. The Legos will be utilized to enhance all content area lessons with an emphasis on STEM. Students will build-

"brick by brick"- a foundation of life long learning skills.

Mendenhall Elementary School

Christine Barrantes - $1115.94

Teaching Science Through the Arts

Teaching Science through the Arts is a program which uses students' interest in the arts to get them excited about science. Students will use instruments to explore and experiment with sound. They will conduct experiments and use scientific process skills to determine the best way to make piñatas and other crafts. They will do acrylic paintings on canvas to demonstrate what they have discovered about animal habitats, ecosystems, and landforms.


Maria Gallastegui - $1500

Linking LEGOS 4Learning

Linking LEGOS 4Learning will provide students in grades kinder through 5th with hands-on engaging materials to transform them into confident and engaged readers and writers! Linking

LEGOS 4Learning will increase students’ motivation and build strong writers while teaching literacy, communication, collaboration, and teamwork skills. Linking LEGOS 4Learning will encourage students to work together to create and build stories with LEGO bricks and figures as their toolbox and then share, write and publish their stories.


Solange Patterson - $750

First Grade STEM Lab

First Grade STEM Lab will provide every first grader the opportunity to do independent STEM exploration daily. Each first grade classroom will design a STEM Lab corner for students to have more exposure to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math activities in the real world. Using these real life science tools will make our students be excited about STEM careers in the future.


Renee Tobias - $700

For the Love of Reading!

For the Love of Reading will provide a variety of books to allow students to self-select reading material to significantly improve their reading comprehension. Students served by this program will increase the amount of time they spend reading which will, in turn, increase their fluency and comprehension. By providing a wide variety of books and other reading material, this program will promote a love of reading and learning to assist students in becoming life-long learners.

Mitchell Elementary School

Amparo Behmer - $1000

Touch Phonics

Touch Phonics is a multi-sensory method to teach phonics, word structure and spelling to below grade level readers. The program uses tactile, kinesthetic, visual and auditory learning styles to enhance memory and learning. Touch Phonics is beneficial for students who learn best by doing. The program will be used for those students who are in a low reading percentile.

Mitchell Elementary School

Jennifer McCarty - $1500

Fun with Fluency!

The goal for the "Fun with Fluency" program is to provide fun, independent Take-Home Math activities for struggling students in grades 3-5 to build Fact Fluency in Math. "Fun with Fluency" reinforces math skills and concepts taught in grades 3-5 to students who lack resources at home and who need additional math practice and experiences. This program gives students the opportunity to check-out weekly activities that support grade level TEKS, help close math achievement gaps, and promote student academic growth and success.

Murphy Middle School

Cathy Beardshaw - $900

STAAR Review-A-Palooza

In 2015, the Science and History department invited all eighth grade students and funded a

Saturday STAAR Review-A-Palooza pilot program to help review science and history concepts through hands on experiences and cooperative learning activities. The program started from a teacher who had honors students that wanted to review the concepts from 6th and 7th grade science. But due to curriculum pacing; class time was limited. This event allowed students in the eighth grade to have the opportunity to review and practice the concepts of sixth and seventh grade science, and time to sequence historical events while linking those events and seeing causal effects. The Review-A-Palooza allowed the practice of additional application of historical text to content, combined historical events, trends, and themes of content across the curriculum.


Karyn Collins - $1500

Stampeding toward Success through Reading

The more students read, the better readers they become. By dedicating reading time during class, recommending books for them to read, exposing students to a variety of texts, authors and topics, plus validating their reading choices, students' interest and motivation to read increases. This increased interest and motivation results in the students' lifelong success.

Knowing and understanding the importance of preparing our students for the future, the 6th grade Language Arts teachers will implement our sustained silent reading program, Stampeding towards Success through Reading


Elizabeth Jones - $1200

STAARburst Science

STAARburst is an eight week after-school science program targeting eighth grade students who need additional assistance with STAAR success through supplemental instruction. Students will experience engaging hands-on, reinforcing curricula to enhance learning and strengthen metacognition. Instructional leadership will be provided by the science department.

Outdoor Learning Center

Ginger Nelson - $1500

Power Partners with Nature!

Power Partners with Nature is the chance for high school students to continue to research, configure, test, and construct alternative energy sources for electrical power. Their efforts and final products will transfer learning opportunities and teachable moments with PISD elementary students seeing alternative energy in action. Students will see nature's ability to power lights, fans, computers, and more with solar and wind energy.

Otto Middle School

Frank Fonseca - $1500

Homework Club

The Homework Club nourishes students’ mind, body, and heart to promote academic success.

This after school program provides a safe place for students who are at risk for academic failure to receive the support needed to complete unfinished class work, homework, and work on organizational skills. The goal of the program is to create independent life long learners.


Molly McCreary - $1500

Book Club Collection

The Book Club Collection is a continuation of the development of a special collection of novel sets containing multiple copies (8-10) of the same title for use in student and/or teacher led small groups holding after school book clubs. Book clubs at school provide students from diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, and socioeconomic status with opportunities to read for pleasure and personal growth in a nurturing environment, making connections with each other through conversations about literature while developing literacy skills. The Book Club Collection is available for use by all schools, district wide, through inter-library loan.


Kennitra Robertson - $1500

Think PAWSitive!

PAWSitive is our way to describe students who demonstrate excellence in exhibiting our campus core values! Our PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) program focuses on reinforcing positive behavior and showing appreciation to students who are making great choices. Campus-wide incentives include the PAWSitive school store where students redeem

"bucks" for prizes, students of the month activities, and weekly prize drawings during lunch.

Plano East Senior High School

Kristy Alexander - $1500

AmStud Reads

This program provides for a classroom library filled with books designed to appeal to the varied and diverse interests of learners identified as gifted. All students thrive when allowed to make choices about their own learning, and these books will provide opportunities for students to explore writing in all genres related to fields such as art, medicine, architecture, theater, engineering, music, dance, and physics - to name just a few. Ongoing, scheduled time will be provided in class to honor the value of reading deeply and widely.


Tommy Guynes - $1500

Built for Success

Built for Success sponsors professional luncheons, business site visits and classroom presentations by local business leaders related to specific careers and Applied Science degrees located at Collin College and Dallas County Community Colleges. The three methods of career exploration will target at-risk students with the aspiration of sparking interests toward specific in-demand employment areas. Built for Success will connect students with members of the

Plano Rotary, community colleges and employers with career fields of student interest. We build successful and motivated students!


Joe Russell - $1350

The Arts in Person

American Studies students will travel to downtown Dallas for the ultimate hands-on experience of history as it is revealed through art and architecture. They will tour the Dallas Museum of

Art, the Nasher Sculpture Center and take a walking tour through the Dallas Arts District in order to bring art and architecture to life. These experiences will not only help prepare them for the AP US History exam, but their analysis of visual argument will reinforce skills developed for the AP English Language exam as well.


Kristin Shapiro - $3000

Aquaponics

In a three part setup, bacteria, nitrogen-consuming plants, and fish are combined to create a unique aquaponics setup. The project combines nutrient cycling and food production to allow students to understand that all organisms produce waste, however, this waste must constantly be cycled to allow for the continued availability of nutrients. Students utilize a Problem Based

Learning (PBL) model .


Dusty Vincer - $1500

Lighting the Way

Recognizing the need for observation of DNA and further data analysis in future science careers, this project aims to bring current forensic science techniques into the biology classrooms. Students will have opportunities to conduct hands-on investigations to visually analyze bands of DNA and predict the size of DNA fragments using logarithmic functions.

Students will use a combination of disciplines including science, technology, engineering, and math to develop creative thinking and problem-solving skills in real-world forensic science applications.

Plano West Senior High School

Nakesha Cade - $1500

Community Access

A major goal of students in the Plano West structured classrooms is to be able to be a contributing member of the community after graduation with independence and life skills. We practice functional skills daily in the classroom so that students can successfully and appropriately access the community. Community access will give students the real-world tools to be effective and also involve community members with the on-going learning of our students.

Plano West Senior High School

Kathy Hackett - $1500

University Clinicians for UIL Expertise and Personal Growth

In preparation for the UIL Choir competition, two highly respected university professors of music will provide a total of 3 days of intensive clinics to all choir students during their regular class periods and after school to prepare them for group competition and individual growth. Dr.

Kevin Fenton, professor of choral conducting and ensembles at Florida State University will spend two (2) days providing specialized clinics while Dr. Lynne Gackle, professor of choral conducting at Baylor University, will spend one (1) day providing specialized clinics. All choir students will also have the opportunity to experience university-level instruction and performance expectations as they consider their post-secondary opportunities.

Rasor Elementary School

Peggy Bridge - $1500

Full STEAM Ahead!

The ultimate goal of Full STEAM Ahead is to provide students real life experiences in critical thinking while making connections between science, technology, engineering, art, and math

(STEAM) to the real world. We will involve students in STEAM activities with lessons that have been designed to enhance both the McGraw Hill reading and Pearson math curriculums.

Students will solve problems or challenges using collaboration, creative design, thoughtful reflection, and then be asked to share their final learning experience and product to various audiences within their classes, grade levels, the school, our community, and even the world.

Rice Middle School

Rocio Martinez - $1500

Spanish and French Book Club

Our Book Club will successfully engage struggling and skilled Spanish and French readers to promote language acquisition. Current research from Hayes and Ahrens which analyzes the frequency and complexity of words a person might encounter in different contexts, shows that it is reading volume, rather than oral language that is the primary source of differences in vocabularies. Their research shows that most vocabulary is acquired outside of formal teaching

(the student self-selects the words he wants to know), and that opportunities to acquire new words occur vastly more often while reading rather than listening.

Shepard Elementary School

Susan Seward - $1440

STREAM Boxes

STREAM (Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Art, and Math) education and engagement does not end when students leave school. With STREAM (Science, Technology,

Reading, Engineering, Art, and Math) Boxes, students will be able to check out portable lab activities with coordinating books and DVDs. The STREAM Boxes will allow kids and their parents to learn more about alternative energy, rocketry, the human body, and so much more!

Sp Prog 9-12

Katherine Morales - $1500

#Community Literacy Program

Our project called "#Community Literacy Program," is a literacy program designed to foster a love of reading within the entire school community. Our plan includes student and teacher facilitated book clubs which extend beyond the confines of the school day by using a unique twitter hashtag for insight and inquiry. This grant will allow us to purchase high interest reading materials, displays that would be placed throughout the school, incentives for master readers, and materials for a culminating activity-a parent showcase .

Sp Prog K-8

William Dixon - $1000

"H.A.L.O." Helping Achieve Leadership Opportunities

Leadership potential is in every child, how they use that leadership is something that needs to be guided and nurtured. H.A.L.O. will take boys and girls from grades K-8 and give them opportunities to achieve their leadership potential through guided lessons and real life situations. The members of H.A.L.O. will learn social skills, creative problem solving, and out of the box thinking that will help them achieve success at their home campus.

Stinson Elementary School

Stephanie Cappel - $640.03

Creating Literature- based Experiences through Adapted & Modified Shared Storybooks

Students with moderate to severe disabilities are often unable to access traditional reading materials. By using the same (or similar) books as those used by a comparable student’s grade level peers, that have been adapted and/or modified using visuals, picture supports, revised vocabulary, and increased physical accessibility, we can target social skills, communication and language development, and literacy skills that are needed to increase reading independence.

My project is to create a literature library full of high-interest books to address specific needs of students who are unable to fully benefit from shared reading or read-alouds due to cognitive, physical, or speech and language disabilities.

Stinson Elementary School

Christina Prenzi - $739.25

It's all in the Connection!

The proposed program would allow an opportunity to have students on the Autism Spectrum interact with scientific concepts in a very hands-on way. This multi-sensory experience, with access to a variety of scientific topics, will reinforce and allow generalization of many Science concepts that the students are learning in the classroom. The Dallas Arboretum Children's

Adventure Garden provides a content rich environment, chock-full of relevant subject matter, as well so many possibilities to meet students where they each are individually in Science!

Vines High School

Barbara Hester - $1500

Freedom Time Riders

Providing transportation for students who are in need of afternoon tutorials but do not have alternative transportation. This program will create academic and preventative opportunities to assist students in educational success.

Vines High School

Debbie Schmittou - $1500

Venturing Into Verse Novels

In the continued effort to reach the reluctant reader at the high school level, we will envelop novels in verse, a novel told in verse rather than prose. Verse novels support the literary elements while giving teens a viable reading option for books that are not as overwhelming as other novel genres. Written with the music and imagery elements of poetry, these books will expose our students to character development and story structure found in the form of traditional novels.

Williams High School

Robyn Delahunt - $1500

The Traveling Learning Lab

The traveling learning lab is for kids who access the Special Education Resource program so that they have opportunities to experience multi-sensory educational programming offered throughout the metroplex. The most powerful and meaningful learning takes place in the real world environment and the traveling learning lab gives our non-typical learners in special education an opportunity to learn on their terms and plays to their learning strengths. Being non-typical learners, our SpEd students need a more hands on learning setting than what the traditional classroom is capable of providing and the field trips taken as part of the traveling learning lab program opens up those more kinesthetic teaching moments.


Ramy Mahmoud - $1500

Pass the Scalpel!

Our goal as science educators is to develop in our students a passion for science and learning, but that cannot be done through lecture or worksheets. Instead, it is nurtured through handson experience, and nowhere is that more evident than through the process of dissection! Help us bring back this highly valuable and otherwise rarely-experienced process that can help revitalize a true passion and appreciation for all life and science!


Adrianna Martinez Goodland - $1473.2

CSI Plano - II

Students gain an understanding of the content we teach through lecture and related activities, but in order to develop a true passion and appreciation for the biological sciences, students need to experience real-world, relevant, and practical applications of the content. In the world of microbiology, nowhere is that application more engaging than within the world of forensics!

With your help, we will create "CSI Plano," where students will collect simulated "DNA" from teacher "suspects" from across our campus, and will run a DNA fingerprint through gel electrophoresis in order to identify a culprit and solve a crime!

Wilson Middle School

Zachary Dill - $174.65

A Walk Through History

History is a science one must study through multiple perspectives, philosophies and various resources (primary/secondary sources, monographs, scholarly journals, art, etc.). "A Walk

Through History" project is a timeline that allows students to see history from an objective viewpoint where facts are facts. All humans are historians, although not all seek the profession, for they desire to seek what is truth. The timeline provides a basis in which the students build upon and form their own bias through current theories of society, cultural backgrounds, politics, and beliefs. History is evolving, adopting new and old methods, thus the subject is presented in diverse manners.


Francisco Flores - $800

Reading 4 All

Consistent reading affords students the opportunity to develop their vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and foster an intrinsic desire to not only read, but read for pleasure. Our project will allow us to purchase a variety of high-interest texts to build classroom libraries that will better meet the needs of struggling readers in a special education setting, who prefer trending and popular texts at their independent reading levels. When students are allowed to select their own reading material, they are more likely to remain engaged and develop a lifelong love for reading.


Laura Perry - $1500

Kagan Structures (materials needed)

On September 14, 2015, I (and a fellow math teacher) attended a Kagan Structures training that we found to be very engaging. We have incorporated some structures into our math classroom, but would like to share these ideas to other subjects on campus, and to the other grade-level math classes on campus. To do this, we will need some Kagan Structure materials, and/or send more people to the Cooperative Learning Day 1 Training.


Valerie Weadock - $1200

Nothing But the Truth

Consistent reading helps students to improve vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and writing skills. When students are allowed to select their own reading material, they are more likely to remain engaged and develop a life-long love for reading. Our project will allow us to purchase non-fiction texts to not only build variety within our classroom libraries but better meet the needs of struggling readers who often prefer shorter segments of text, more visuals, and topics that correspond to real-world interests.

2015-2016 Grants to Educators

2015-2016 Grants to Educators

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