Kokomo Public Schools Education Foundation representatives recently surprised six Kokomo School Corporation teachers with checks to fund their five

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1 Kokomo Public Schools Education Foundation representatives recently surprised six Kokomo School Corporation teachers with checks to fund their five unique classroom projects that include a science-based photography project, an online book club, a Lego math project, a light table for preschoolers, and a new Play with Purpose room for preschool students with special needs. The Kokomo Education Foundation Board of Directors semi-annually (each semester) awards 3 to 6 enhancement mini-grants worth between $500 and $1,000 to Kokomo School Corporation teachers. In eight years, the Foundation has written grant checks to Kokomo Schools teachers for more than $42,000. This fund is supported by donations. If you would like to make a contribution to the mini-grant fund, or another Foundation-supported project, complete the donation form found on the following webpage: The teachers who earned the Fall 2015 mini-grants were awarded checks in November for their second-semester projects from Education Foundation President Ann Millikan. The purpose of the grants is to encourage innovation and creative teaching in the classroom. Following is a summary of the projects being funded, and how each project will benefit students in Kokomo School Corporation classrooms: PHOTOGRAPHY IN SCIENCE Maple Crest STEM Middle School 8 th -grade science teacher Carolyn (Beth) Neace squealed in delight when she learned that she had earned a $436 mini-grant to purchase four Nikon cameras for her classroom. This is so exciting! Mrs. Neace exclaimed when she learned that her project was being funded. Thank you. I m so happy. Mrs. Neace is thrilled to combine her two passions science and photography to create a handson project for students. Her Photography in Science project challenges students to capture two everyday-life photos for each science unit. The photos must represent the unit s theme. With the photos, students write an accompanying paragraph that explains the science behind the photos. For example, the students current unit theme is States of Matter. A student could take a photo of a partially-melted ice cube to show a change in the water s state from a solid to a liquid, Mrs. Neace explained in her grant application. In the accompanying paragraph, students could describe the change in the particle structure of the water molecules as the particles energy levels increase, Mrs. Neace added. By the end of the year, I would like the students to create a Science Photography Portfolio that will showcase all that we have experienced and learned in our year together, Mrs. Neace wrote in the application. The cameras Mrs. Neace will purchase with the grant money will help her build her project, she noted. Students will be able to check out the cameras from their classroom if they don t have a camera of their own to complete the assignment. Maple Crest Principal Dr. Katie Reckard noted that Mrs. Neace has been waiting to launch this project since before she was hired. She was talking about this project from Day 1 during her interview, even, Dr. Reckard said. I m very excited that Mrs. Neace can implement the project fully now. I believe it will benefit our students. Anytime we can teach students in a hands-on way, the material becomes more meaningful to them. According to Mrs. Neace, science can be a hard subject for students to grasp. Students sometimes become so caught up in concept language that they fail to see the real-life examples of science that surround them every day, Mrs. Neace explained. I love using photography to document life in a different way. In the same way, I want students to use this project to capture science through a different lens. I hope this will help the students make connections between the classroom and the real world.

2 INTERACTIVE BOOK CLUB Kokomo High School English teacher Dr. Joy Dewing is using her $500 grant from the Education Foundation to purchase books for a multi-class, interactive book club as part of her Advanced Placement Language & Composition course. In many ways, Dr. Dewing s project will resemble most book clubs. Students will select a text from an approved list, read it with a few other students, and meet regularly to discuss it. For this book club, however, students will meet online through Dr. Dewing s Canvas class webpage. Students will be grouped through Canvas and will have a forum to pose questions, respond to one another, and discuss what they are reading, Dr. Dewing explained in her grant proposal. Group members will be from different class periods, and all discussions will be conducted online. Students will have the opportunity to analyze the texts through a lens they may not have used before, Dr. Dewing noted in her application. Some students also may feel freer when writing their ideas than when vocalizing them in class discussions. The AP Language & Composition course is focused primarily on nonfiction texts, and students learn how to read, annotate, analyze, and write about texts at a college level. According to Dr. Dewing, during their senior year many students choose to take AP Literature & Composition, which is focused primarily on fiction texts. My project will be part of a unit that helps to bridge the gap between the two courses by providing texts closer to the length and depth of those studied in the AP Literature course, while giving students an in-depth study of a particular topic, Dr. Dewing noted in her grant application. In this unit, students will read, discuss, analyze, and write about a literary nonfiction text that is a nonfiction text that reads like a narrative. According to Dr. Dewing, students will select a title from a variety of topics including science, psychology, history, language, the space program, medicine, and human behavior. These are fields many of the students will study after high school, and the books will provide them with knowledge they can use in the future, Dr. Dewing added. Many of the titles selected for the unit come from a list of books recommended as part of the AP Summer Training and by an AP teacher website. Titles include The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley, The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan, The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois, Open by Andre Agassi, and Thank You for Your Service by David Finkel. KHS Principal Tony Harl believes the project will enrich Dr. Dewing s AP Language course, while also benefiting KHS as a whole. Because KHS is a 1-to-1 technology school, we as a staff always need to find new and creative ways to use our technology resources, Mr. Harl explained. I believe this project will use technology to enrich an already rigorous program. This also is a way to help our students become more interested in reading.

3 LEGO STEM CHALLENGE Elwood Haynes Elementary School 3 rd -grade teacher Bethany Sickle designed the Lego STEM Challenge to capitalize on her students interests in an effort to make learning more natural and enjoyable. Many of Miss Sickle s students use Legos outside of school and bring Lego-related books to school to read during self-reading time. She believes using Legos to teach important concepts will increase student engagement. Miss Sickle received a $649 grant from the Education Foundation to purchase 25 Lego sets for her STEM challenge. Through this challenge, students will learn about area and perimeter by designing structures using Legos. Miss Sickle has exciting plans to increase educational opportunities for our 3 rd -graders, Elwood Haynes Principal Kathi Hoover explained. The Lego STEM Challenge has the potential to truly engage students in the areas of science, engineering, and math. Miss Sickle s project will help make abstract concepts like area and perimeter seem more real to students, as well as create a sense of purpose for learning. At the beginning of the Lego Challenge, Miss Sickle plans to bring her brother in to discuss connections between Legos and the real world. According to Miss Sickle, her brother, Zach Sickle, is a Lego enthusiast who has earned Grand Champion honors every year in 4-H for his realistic Lego projects. He has created numerous buildings that meet the specific area and perimeter guidelines set for the project. Miss Sickle noted that Zach will talk with her students about how the Lego project has helped him in real life. Zach used the skills he learned through the Lego project to put up pasture fencing for his sheep, as well as design floor plans for the new barn on the family farm, Miss Sickle added. After hearing from Zach, students will create houses, fences, and other structures using specific area and perimeter guidelines. Students will work collaboratively, as well as independently, to plan, design, and critique their creations. According to Miss Sickle, students will create designs, both on paper and through the Lego Digital Designer program, before building structures using those designs. In the end, students will critique each other s final product as if they were building inspectors who must ensure that correct area and perimeter guidelines have been met. Students at Elwood Haynes will benefit greatly from their involvement in this project, Mrs. Hoover concluded. We also may use the Lego sets purchased with the grant to develop an after-school Lego team. This would increase the number of students who benefit from learning about math and science in this practical and fun way.

4 SHINING THE LIGHT ON REGGIO Preschool teachers in Kokomo Schools have been studying the Reggio-inspired Early Childhood methodology. Reggio instruction consists of student observation and discovery, provocations, projects, documentation, and reflection. As part of the study, teachers visited two Reggio classrooms, one at the Butler University Lab School and the other at St. Mary s Childcare Center in the Indianapolis Public Schools district. Learning about the Reggio method inspired Lafayette Park Elementary International School preschool teachers Cierra Wisher Williams and Jodi Schoolman to apply for an Education Foundation mini-grant to purchase a Reggio-inspired light table, as well as accompanying accessories, for their classrooms. Reggio materials have the potential to attract students and create a sense of wonder, the teachers wrote in their grant. The Reggio-inspired environmental materials are carefully selected to enhance learning and discovery. These light tables are a staple in the Reggio classrooms. The tables draw students into open-ended discussions about manipulation of light, color, and other concepts. Mrs. Wisher Williams and Mrs. Schoolman recently learned that they had been awarded a $ mini-grant from the Education Foundation to fund their project. The money will allow the teachers to purchase the light table, geometric solids, animal X-Rays (designed for the light table), prism blocks, rainbow sound blocks, and light table numbers and letters. According to the Lafayette Park preschool teachers, this equipment will open up opportunities for student-led investigation. Students may start by mixing colors and stacking or overlapping tissue paper or colored cellophane paper to see what happens when colors are combined. When students arrange different objects on the table, they should start to notice that light shines through some objects a great deal, others a little, and some not at all. The teachers also may use the light table and paper puppets to help students retell stories to their teachers, friends, or parents. The teachers noted in their grant proposal that the Reggio approach is inquiry-based and projectdriven, both of which are foundations of the International Baccalaureate, Integrated Arts, Technology Academy, and STEM programs in Kokomo Schools. Lafayette Park Principal Tammy Tickfer agreed that the Reggio approach fits well with the International Baccalaureate program at Lafayette Park. This project will support the IB program currently offered at Lafayette Park, Mrs. Tickfer explained. The inquiry- and project-based nature of the Reggio method will help students in structuring their own interests and questions. Teachers will assist students with cooperative learning. The units will match well with the research projects Lafayette Park students are expected to complete from kindergarten through 5 th grade.

5 PLAY WITH A PURPOSE Elwood Haynes Elementary School preschool teacher Lydia Standish wants to help her special needs students become more independent in their play, so she developed a project she calls Play with a Purpose. Mrs. Standish received a $ mini-grant from the Education Foundation to purchase the materials necessary for her project. She will add grid blocks, magic shapes, Shape-It sand, Childcraft sand and water, as well as a children s exercise CD to the Gross Motor room at Elwood Haynes. The purpose of the project is to purchase equipment and toys for the Gross Motor room to make the room more structured and to allow the preschool special education students to engage in ability-appropriate motor experiences that will enhance their learning and thus enable them to play with a purpose, Mrs. Standish wrote in her grant application. Mrs. Standish intends to structure the room into four stations, which include Large Motor Movement, Blocks and Construction, Sensory Exploration, and Fine Motor Learning. The Large Motor Movement station will support the development of body awareness. Mrs. Standish will add a CD player and the Preschool Aerobic Fun CD to add more choices for large motor movement activities. The Blocks and Construction station will support the students demonstration of initiative and self-direction. Mrs. Standish will purchase the Grid Blocks to add to the block and building choices already available in the motor room. Mrs. Standish explained that she chose the grid blocks because they are easier to manipulate for students with limited strength and coordination. The Sensory Exploration station will demonstrate how the five senses support processing information. Mrs. Standish hopes to add sand and water tools, as well as moldable sand, to the sensory table that is already in the gross motor room. These additional tools will allow students to explore and create new sensory experiences, Mrs. Standish noted. The Fine Motor Learning station will demonstrate development of fine and gross motor coordination. Mrs. Standish will purchase magnetic, manipulative blocks that allow students to sit and create at the Fine Motor Learning station. Mrs. Standish explained that these unique, small-scale blocks will strengthen fine motor muscles needed for self-care and writing skills. Mrs. Standish is an outstanding educator, Elwood Haynes Principal Kathi Hoover said. She works tirelessly to meet the needs and develop the full potential of our special education preschool students at Elwood Haynes. Her organized and structured approach to developing fine and gross motor skills will help prepare our special education students for kindergarten.