Teachers from nine different public schools across Gallatin have received a combined $16,101 from the Gallatin Chamber Foundation to help fund various educational projects and initiatives for students.
The 21 grant recipients for the 2021-22 school year were revealed during surprise visits to their classrooms last month. Funding was raised primarily through the annual Shamrock Run in March along with a showing of the movie “Hocus Pocus” at the Palace Theatre last year.
“These grants help fund innovate projects in classrooms that wouldn’t be funded through other funding sources,” Gallatin Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Kim Baker said. “Many of them impact the whole school and quite often they impact the community as well.”
Individual teachers could apply for up to $500 in funding while a collaborative project involving multiple teachers could receive up to $2,500.
The foundation received nearly 50 grant applications earlier this year, according to Baker. Recipients were selected by the nonprofit’s board members.
Since 2014, the foundation has awarded more than $65,000 in funding to K-12 public schools in Gallatin.
The complete list of Gallatin Chamber Foundation’s School Innovation and Enhancement Grant recipients for 2021 are:
Benny Bills Elementary School
Stacy Benton: The project will provide students with sturdy On-The-Go Caddies that will hold their learning materials as they utilize flexible seating in the classroom. This will save valuable instruction time and enable the classroom to run more efficiently.
Chandler Faith: The project will allow students to choose from multiple different flexible seating options in the classroom, which will make it easier for the class to move around and collaborate with each other. It will also allow students to be more engaged and relaxed during learning because of the choices they will be able to make with the seating.
Gallatin High School
Tabithia Graves: The funding will support the Gallatin High Deli, which is a program that will help students learn how to plan menus, budget costs, purchase items, prepare food, serve customers, use money skills as the cashier, work on social socials and learn how to clean a workspace. It will also benefit staff by offering an affordable lunch served to them without the need to leave campus.
Sandy Hale: Grant funding will be used to purchase fabric and yarn for sewing machine and crochet. The supplies will be used to make clothing protectors and lap blankets for nursing homes. While doing this, students will hopefully learn skills to expand their knowledge to do more for others who are in need.
Stacy Hendricks: The grant will be used to purchase a digital zoom document camera for the classroom, which will capture textbook images, artwork and 3D images in real time for the entire classroom to see. The document camera will save time and allow for more efficient teaching.
Guild Elementary School
Kim Harkreader: The project will support all 750 students at the school through a year-long initiative promoting enhanced learning opportunities for students to explore other areas of interest outside of the classroom.
Heather Hays: The project will support fifth graders who are part of the school’s House Council and allow them to implement ideas and solutions to make improvements at the school.
Howard Elementary School
Louise Griffith: The project would include the addition of STEAM Bins in classrooms, which can be used to promote creativity and solve problems using real-world challenges. The bins are also a creative and developmentally appropriate form of engineering for elementary students.
Shafer Middle School
Rosa Hickman: The project will promote crocheting and will allow students to express their creativity while also promoting concentration, reading and math skills.
Carla Keeter: Funding will be used to purchase a large outdoor chess board and figures to encourage more interested in the game and options for members of the school’s chess club. It could also be used during recess and encourage strategic thinking among students.
Station Camp Elementary School
Cecily Galanopoulos: The grant will allow for the addition of a STEM Makerspace area in the classroom where students can create things using task cards and ideas based off curriculum projects.
Rachel Higgins: The project will provide an interactive board for the third-grade hallway that will be used daily for lessons as needed.
Misty Klahn: The project will implement a math and life skills program that will help shape the growing futures of students. Through the Investment Kid program, students will learn about real world scenarios and hands on life skills that all community members need to be successful whether they go to college and start a career, complete trade school or open a small business right out of high school.
Amy McAllister: Funding will be used for creative activities that will help students in the second grade with their social and emotional learning. Purchases will include books about emotions such as anger and sadness along with corresponding emotive plush animals.
Station Camp Middle School
Sharon Garner: The grant will be used to support a classroom economy where students will be able to earn and spend fake money in a simulated setting. Students will apply for jobs, earn paychecks, be fined if needed and pay for items with classroom money. Calculators will be purchased to calculate tax, percentages, discounts and to balance their accounts. Students will also use two Chromebook computers to input credits and debits and balance their own online bank account.
Station Camp High School
Kristina Young: The project will include the purchasing and making, if needed, of adaptive physical education equipment for high school students with limited gross motor abilities including adaptations for wheelchairs.
Union S.T.E.A.M. and Demonstration School
Allison Bush: The project will provide students at the school with an opportunity to learn how to perform on the ukulele as well as be able to enjoy the art of printmaking. Students will learn different skills in both art and music classes that will be showcased at the end of the year.
Kimberly Howell: The project will allow students to observe birds that come to feed at installed feeders on campus and report their observations to Project Feeder Watch, which will allow them and scientists to track and learn about what is happening with birds in the area.
Kimberly Howell: The project will focus on students who may be reluctant to read a book when they could just watch a movie based on it the book instead. Each month, a group will read a book and then gather on the last Friday after school to have snacks and watch the corresponding movie. After the film, the group will then talk about the differences and similarities between the two.
Susan Hinson: Funding will be used to purchase suitcases that will be filled with items such as books, models, experiments, props, primary sources and other materials that will enhance the current curriculum and help it come to life for students.
Elizabeth Jerrolds: The project will include different types of seating, sensory items and other tools to help students when they become jittery.
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