2017 Foundation Mini Grant Winners Announced!

Congratulations to Provo School District Foundation Mini-Grant Winners! This year, the Provo School District Foundation once again awarded mini-grants to teachers in the district. In order to receive these mini-grants, teachers had to explain their idea for an innovative project within a two-page application. The completed applications was sent to the Provo School District Foundation Selection Committee who then selected 13 mini-grant winners.

Winners are awarded $500 in order to fund their project and are expected to write a brief report describing the project’s outcome.

The faculty who were selected are as follows:

Jacob Pollister, School Guidance Counselor Oak Springs School

“Comprehensive Guidance”

Jacob Pollister will purchase materials to produce effective lessons for the WhyTry guidance program and CTE-Intro counseling lessons for seventh grade. The WhyTry program helps motivate and re-engage students who may be struggling with challenges at home and in school. The CTE program is a career exploration program across the state where its counseling staff and tools can help create a strong and balanced plan to high school and beyond. Pollister is hopeful that these programs will help students progress and give them the best education they deserve.

4th, 5th, 6th Grade Teams Franklin Elementary

“Breakout Boxes”

Judy Rose and Lacie Titmus 6th Grade Team Lakeview Elementary

“Breakout Boxes”

Megan Anderson 5th Grade Wasatch Elementary

“Breakout Boxes”

Breakout boxes provide students with an opportunity to develop problem solving skills, perseverance and valuable collaboration skills. These are qualities that are valuable in the classroom but can be difficult to teach in a classroom. With Breakout Boxes, teachers can seamlessly integrate grade level content and character traits. Teachers expect student to be highly engaged in cross-curricular and real-world problems.

Kendra Davis, Cassidy Diamond and Debbie Wilcox, Kindergarten Team Franklin Elementary

“Sensory Tools”

The Kindergarten team at Franklin Elementary School plans on using their grant to buy sensory materials that will improve students’ social and emotional skills. Kindergarteners who could benefit from these materials include kids who have a hard time sitting, staying seated or paying attention, chew on their clothes or get frustrated easily. These materials will help students develop respect for others as they learn more about others and their social boundaries. Physical and emotional safety will increase as students learn coping strategies.

Kendra Davis, Kindergarten Teacher Franklin Elementary ($250 grant)

“Class Plant Book”

Kendra Davis plans to use her grant money to purchase plants for her students and publish the books her kindergarteners create during the process. The students will conduct research about different types of plants and then write a summary telling about their studied plant. In the end, the class book will include one page of writing and one illustrated page for each student. What a great way to remember their research!

Bailey Danielson, 4th Grade Sunset View Elementary

“Branching Out with Stem”

Bailey Danielson will be purchasing kits with core-based STEM activities along with supplies for students to create various projects. Some of those projects include creating a water purifier, investigating bridge engineering, learning about levers and pulleys, creating chemical reactions and more. She plans on having a STEM discovery experience bi-weekly among grade levels. Her hope is that students have the chance to collaborate, discuss possible solutions and take a hands-on approach to learning through experiments and engineering.

Jean Leonard, Art Teacher Sunset View Elementary

“Art in a Cart”

Jean Leonard plans to supply her art cart with the funds from her grant. This will supply many projects such as ceramics, oil pastel drawings inspired by Edgar Degas, tin foil sculptures that can build into shading and proportion, charcoal drawings inspired by Picasso, printmaking inspired by the ancient Chinese wood blocks and many more possibilities. She expects students to love the arts even more because they will be exposed to the vast artistic possibilities. Leonard feels that even though not every student may be able to draw, every student can be an artist.

Mallory Herring, Ryan McCarty, Jonathan Hoehne, Paige Drumm Amelia Earhart Elementary

“Earhart Society of Literary Scholars”

A variety of staff applied for this grant and are passionate about the success of the program it is helping to fund. They will be using the funds from the mini grant to pay for books, parties and incentives associated with the Earhart Society of Literary Scholars reading program. They have pursued other grants to fund the purchase of more than 30 copies of 16 engaging books that will be introduced and circulated among the students each month. Community members and staff will introduce these new books at book parties. These book parties include three students from each classroom, giving them the opportunity to mingle and learn about the books with other students in their grade. The students will then return to class and introduce the book of the month to their classmates. Last year, students showed excitement each month to learn about a new book. The school hopes these funds will help continue to grow this new and exciting program.

Mark Williams, History Teacher Independence High School

“Trebuchet – A Medieval English Siege Engine”

Mark is an exciting teacher that likes to bring history alive for his students. He will use his grant money to purchase the materials and tools needed to build a trebuchet, which is a catapult that consists of a large arm to launch projectiles. He hopes this will motivate students to come to school everyday. I know it will motivate me to come visit his class when they are ready to launch something!

Kimberly Sessions, Meghan Parker, Mariel Boone, Hannah Medina, 4th grade Teachers Westridge Elementary School

“The Weather Around Us!”

If you haven’t heard of Westridge News, you will. As a school, Westridge is creating its own news channel for their students. With fourth grade (and sixth grade) SEED standards incorporating the analyzing of weather, teachers wanted to give them the opportunity to make real-time weather predictions over the loud speaker during the morning announcements. In order to create a more exciting and applicable weather-predicting experience, the fourth grade applied for a grant to buy weather measurement instruments! Their hope is that students will have a more hands-on learning experience and develop deeper understanding about the Core science curriculum. So, stay tuned for the Westridge News Weather Report!

Stephen Scott, Math Teacher Provo High School

“Mathalicious Curriculum Enhancement”

Mr. Stephen Scott believes student engagement in learning is tied to what and how students are learning. Students need opportunities to grapple with problems and make sense of math in realistic contexts. His grant will be used to do just that for his students. Mathalicious is a program designed to give students activities that will teach them specific concepts, such as: linear functions, congruence, polynomials, trigonometric functions and more. Our hope is that by using this program, students’ disposition towards mathematics will improve because they will experience how math is used in the world today.

Leanna Narten, Dallas Gledhill, Misty Wright, Fourth Grade Teachers Provo Peaks Elementary School

“Water Filtration Global Connection”

Fourth graders are making a difference at Provo Peaks, and this grant will only help! With the fourth grade core standard involving water cycle, students are participating in a water filtration project. They will be working with an interactive global partner via video chat as they work and this grant will go toward materials needed to develop their project. The hope is that students will be able to identify how the water cycle affects their own lives and give them the confidence to solve a real world problem.

Maren Clayton, Leslie Stilson, Third Grade Teachers Spring Creek Elementary School

“STEAM Supplies for Scientific Students”

In order to create a greater learning environment, these teachers will be using the grant money to buy books and DVDs that support the S.T.E.A.M. curriculum held each Friday. They hope these materials will create greater engagement and learning among students, not just on Fridays, but throughout the week as well. Students will have a more hands-on experience and apply these interesting subjects in their own lives as they continue learning.