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Sarah Finnegan
The Homewood City Schools Foundation gave out grants today to various teachers across the many Homewood schools.
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Sarah Finnegan
The Homewood City Schools Foundation gave out grants today to various teachers across the many Homewood schools.
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Sarah Finnegan
The Homewood City Schools Foundation gave out grants today to various teachers across the many Homewood schools.
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Sarah Finnegan
The Homewood City Schools Foundation gave out grants today to various teachers across the many Homewood schools.
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Sarah Finnegan
The Homewood City Schools Foundation gave out grants today to various teachers across the many Homewood schools.
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Sarah Finnegan
The Homewood City Schools Foundation gave out grants today to various teachers across the many Homewood schools.
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Sarah Finnegan
The Homewood City Schools Foundation gave out grants today to various teachers across the many Homewood schools.
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Sarah Finnegan
The Homewood City Schools Foundation gave out grants today to various teachers across the many Homewood schools.
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Sarah Finnegan
The Homewood City Schools Foundation gave out grants today to various teachers across the many Homewood schools.
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Sarah Finnegan
The Homewood City Schools Foundation gave out grants today to various teachers across the many Homewood schools.
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Sarah Finnegan
The Homewood City Schools Foundation gave out grants today to various teachers across the many Homewood schools.
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Sarah Finnegan
The Homewood City Schools Foundation gave out grants today to various teachers across the many Homewood schools.
13 of 13
Sarah Finnegan
The Homewood City Schools Foundation gave out grants today to various teachers across the many Homewood schools.
Several Homewood teachers and faculty members started their Friday off on a high note, as representatives from the Homewood City Schools Foundation visited each school to announce their spring grant recipients.
The Homewood City Schools Foundation raises money throughout the year, including at events like Homewood Grown and Grateful Dads, to support the school system's needs and extra projects that the regular budget cannot cover. This includes fall and spring grant awards.
HCSF President Emmie Smith said the foundation received 33 grant proposals this spring, with requests ranging from $200 to $24,000. Smith said the grant committee looks for proposals that include different ways of teaching material, use of technology and otherwise demonstration of the teacher going above and beyond.
The projects that were funded in 2017 include purchase of Promethean interactive whiteboards for every fourth grade classroom, which can be used by up to six students at once for collaborative work. Individual school grants include:
Edgewood Elementary
- “OSMO – Offering Students Many Opportunities to Learn Through Innovative Technology” - Kindergarten teacher Andrea Krueger will obtain Osmo Wonder Kits for the kindergarten classrooms to combine technology, critical thinking and hands-on activities.
- “Unlocking Comprehension” - Reading specialist Angela Gerontakis will use reading assessments for grades 3-5 to better understand students' comprehension abilities and direct teaching to meet students' needs.
- “Activ Community with Mobile Promethean ActivPanel” - Librarian Fran Woodruff, guidance counselor Alison Hill and technology specialist Lynn Dorough will install ActivPanels, which are interactive white boards, in the library and counselor's office. These can be used by individuals or groups of students during character education and library time.
Hall-Kent Elementary
- “Putting the ‘FUN’ in Building Reading Skills” - Third grade teacher Amanda Civitello will be sharing Wilson Fundations reading instruction materials with all third grade classrooms to support current reading curriculum.
- “Experiencing the Wonder of VR” - Virtual reality immersive learning will be coming to Hall-Kent thanks to the combined work of technology specialist Becky Salls, Teri Nash, Pam White, Edgewood technology specialist Lynn Dorough and Hall-Kent technology specialist Lindsay Galaffasi.
- “Summer Enrichment Program for Low-Income Students” - Kindergarten teacher Kornelia McDaniel is creating a pilot program to prevent learning loss over the summer through reading and math curriculum alongside social and athletic activities.
Shades Cahaba Elementary
- “Engaging Early Readers” - Librarian Beth Gladney hopes to help new and struggling readers improve their skills with a set of Vox audiobooks that students can listen to while reading a book's text.
- “Shades Cahaba MakerSpace – Part 2” - The makerspace, originally created through a 2015 grant, will receive games such as Bloxels, coding board games, a seedling marble maze, Magformers building blocks and Blue-Bots for younger students to learn about STEM concepts. This is the work of Assistant Principal Wendy Story and technology specialist Lindsay Galaffasi.
- “Summer Reading Project” - This summer program for struggling readers and English Language Learning (ELL) students will incorporate a summer book swap and journaling to encourage students to increase their literacy skills. This grant was awarded to ELL instructor Alli Phelps, librarian Beth Gladney, reading specialist Ellen Helf, Principal John Lowry and Assistant Principal Wendy Story.
Homewood Middle School
- “Building Students’ Perseverance through Growth Mindset Mathematical Activities in Algebra I” - Eighth grade algebra teachers Kevin Wolfe-Hughes, Laura Thuirer and Mary McLeod will participate in a summer book study to create new ways of engaging students in math and encouraging perseverance and problem solving.
- “Building on Success – HMS Summer Reading Program” - Special education teacher Mary Paris has received a second grant for her summer program for at-risk students to learn vocabulary, comprehension and reading skills.
Homewood High School
- “It’s Osmo Fun!” - Osmo Wonder Kits will be used in the special education classrooms for hands-on learning, through the grant awarded to special education teachers Tiffany Statum and Gilan Jones.
- “Graphing Calculators for the Math Classroom” - Math teacher Catherine Warren will purchase new graphing calculators for the AP Statistics and Analytical Math courses.
- “AP Summer Institute for AP European History in Rome, Italy” - Applied for by science teacher Mindy McBride, this grant will send the AP European History teacher to the AP Summer Institute to learn best practices. The trip will include documentation of field trips and site visits so future students can take virtual trips to Rome during the class.
Learn more about the Foundation's grant awards at homewoodcityschoolsfoundation.com.
