2017 Clinard Grants for Innovative Teaching

Earlier this month, the Forsyth Education Partnership announced the winners of the 2017 Clinard Grants for Innovative Teaching. We invited the winners to tell us a little more about their projects. Here’s what the ones who have responded so far had to say:

Yesmin Volcan at Speas Global Elementary:

“In 2015, my classroom had the privilege of receiving a grant for a Reading Center that positively transformed reading in my classroom. Two years later, this center has demonstrated a surge in the development and learning of reading and practicing social skills in a Spanish Dual-Immersion Program.”

“Now my goal is to continue improving kindergarten students’ literacy skills by creating a Multi-Sensory Writing Center. The requested materials will aid in classroom writing/drawing development skills."

“This project will increase my students’ writing ability and literacy. The requested materials will allow my students to engage with letters and sounds in a more meaningful way that will support their language acquisition and comprehension. Items including writing tools, stamps, punches, and stamp pads will allow students to manipulate and engage with letters to create sounds and words.”

“The combination of these items with basic classroom materials (like crayons, dry erase boards, construction paper, pencils, markers, and folders) will make for more engaging and meaningful literacy intervention. I hope that this project will help me reach my ultimate goal as a teacher, which is to cultivate, support, create, form life-long learners and writers. The wide array of options will allow me to give differentiated instruction.”

Angela Kelly at Mineral Springs Elementary:

“I am using the grant money to help add to my flexible seating.  We are buying wobble stools and wobble cushions.  This helps students who are very wiggly.  This is my first year doing flexible seating.  We already have kneeling pads, crate seats, regular stools, yoga balls, and the students are allowed to stand.  Thus far, it seems to be going really well. I look forward to seeing how the additional seats affect flexible seating in our classroom.”

Elia Spencer at Clemmons Elementary:

“I am so pleased to have received this grant! We will use the grant to fund a series of field trips in which we will visit Kaliedium North, Kaliedium Downtown, and a local farm. We are collaborating with our SLP to use these opportunities to build language and communication skills.”

“As a small EC Preschool class we would not have been able to afford the cost of a bus and driver in addition to any fees associated with the venues, but, with this grant, we will have the opportunity to go on field trips we wouldn't have otherwise had the funds to make happen.”

“We also value the work that parents put in and are going to send a literacy kit home for each field trip so that they can contribute to the experience also.”

Richardean Miller at Griffith Elementary:

“I applied for the grant because, in my preschool 3 class, I do not have a computer that the children can use to touch and learn. The computer that I have chosen will allow the students to point and touch to let me see that they know and understand some basic skills that we are working on.”

“My children are in the EC Preschool setting and they have goals that they must meet. This grant money has given me the tool that I need to help reach this goal for the students.” 

Syrita Robinson at Petree Elementary:

“The purpose of my grant is to purchase novels for my fifth-grade students. They will use these novels to do literature circles, digital playlists and pathways for learning.” 

Vernon Childress at Carter High:

“My grant will be used to set up a couple of virtual stores so our students will be able use real-life examples of how to shop and pay for items to help them gain independence in this area.”

Amanda Gordon at Diggs-Latham Elementary:

“I wrote the grant for materials for an origami unit.  I attended professional development with NC A+ Schools in Raleigh in August and was inspired by some activities we completed with origami.”

“We started out learning some basic folds and then created several pieces including a paper cup that will actually hold water, swans, birds, frogs, etc.  During the folding process, we made connections to math and art and of course this type of activity would help students with fine motor skills as well.  Once we had our pieces completed, we arranged them into a type of sculpture or relief art piece in order to create an arrangement and then write a story, poem, song, or other piece to explain our creation.” 

“My goal is to write a unit that will give students a chance to learn origami techniques, using authentic paper and detailed instructions and then show them connections across all subject areas, which will of course embrace the 8 Essentials of A+ Schools and the 5 Pillars of Magnet Schools, since we are an A+ Magnet School.”

You will find the full list of grant winners at Clinard Grants for Innovative Teaching.