The Baldwin Education Foundation recently awarded 22 grants worth $11,671 to 41 teachers in each of the USD 348 schools.
Six of these grants went to various departments at Baldwin High School.
A new Microscopy Camera was awarded to the BHS science department and will be well used by the entire department.
Various Baldwin Junior High School departments also received six of the 22 grants. One of the most technologically advanced grants was awarded to seventh grade reading teacher Erik Bailey who received Kindles for his class. Bailey is looking forward to having the technology in his classroom.
“I am thrilled about getting the grant from the Baldwin Education Foundation,” Bailey said. “This will allow all students to have opportunities to combine the excitement of technology with the joy of reading. I look forward to getting a nice selection of popular books that seventh graders read. I am also very excited about the way e-Readers allow students to discover and learn new vocabulary words without having to leave their books.”
The Intermediate Center received three of the grants. Third grade teacher April Kohrs received a grant for Digital Reading Adventure.
“The goal of this grant is to improve student reading fluency and comprehension,” Kohrs said. “A secondary goal is to increase student engagement in reading and book
discussions.”
The grant allowed the school to purchase several new reading materials for the class and will also help the school with meeting the new Common Core Standards.
“With the grant, we will purchase three iPod touches, headphone splitters, 12 Magic Tree House audiobooks, and 12 Magic Tree House Nonfiction Companion books for our classroom,” Kohrs said. “Students will use the iPod Touches daily to listen to or “read” these high interest books an in innovative way. The addition of the Nonfiction Companions to our classroom library will allow us to meet new Common Core Standard guidelines that aim for 50% of classroom text to be informational.”
The remaining seven grants were distributed in the Primary Center. One of the grants will be shared by Besty Ulrich, Holly Gaylord and Deanna Kessler-Miley.
“The grant will be used to have an assembly with Marty the Magician,” Kessler-Miley said. “Marty will present an assembly to the students during school, a second assembly will be held in the evening in which the entire family can come too.
BES-PC staff was able to choose which of Marty’s programs they thought would most benefit their students the most.
“We chose Keys to Character and Building a Bully Free School,” Kessler-Miley said. “After the assemblies, we hope that the teachers will refer back to the presentations to remind the students about what they have learned. We hope to see an increase in positive character behavior and a decrease in negative bullying behavior by students.”