Public Education Foundation of Little Rock

2007 Innovative Idea Winning Grants Booker Elementary – Significant Studies for Second Grade Awarded $3,144.86 Staff: Dixie Fair, Sunny Hawk, Gail Hollamon Principal: Dr. Cheryl Carson Significant Studies for Second Grade is a reading/writing workshop aimed at improving comprehension. The reading workshop includes author or genre studies, character analysis, understanding dialogue, and learning to read non-fiction. The writing workshop studies include writing about memories and experimenting with forms of writing such as picture books and letters. Booker Elementary – First Fact Finders Awarded: $4,053.80 Staff: Jan Wolfe, Sommer Thomas Principal: Dr. Cheryl Carson “First Fact Finders” will help 1st grade students understand how to use the structure of non-fiction to comprehend factual text in science and social studies lessons. Non-fiction reading materials and “discovery boxes” will be provided to all 1st grade classrooms. At “Non-fiction Literacy Nights,” student- written books will be shared with parents and community members. These original books will be added to the school library. Carver Elementary – Learning From School to Home Awarded: $905.15 Staff: Susan Daniel, Louise Carpenter, Nina Huey, Kathy Traylor Principal: Diane Barksdale “Learning from School to Home” continues a successful PEF-funded program by allowing the school to purchase enough additional activity packs to allow participation by all kindergarten students. Designed as learning tools the students can take home to share with their parents, the packs cover essential concepts in math, science, language arts, nutrition, music, and gross and fine motor skill activities. Central High – My Community Documentary Project Awarded: $2,000.00 Staff: Kirby Shofner Principal: Nancy Rousseau To encourage at-risk students to be more involved and develop a sense of pride in their community, EAST computer lab students will have access to digital video cameras to develop, create, edit, and produce documentary videos about the communities in which they live. Students will shoot video as they go through their everyday experiences, and they will be encouraged to “professionally” interview friends, acquaintances, and family members. The documentaries will be shared with students, parents, and interested citizens. Chicot Elementary – Bigger Than Life Awarded: $710.00 Staff: Marsha Hunter Principal: Shoutell Richardson To enhance visual learning and engage more low-performing students, teachers will utilize an ELMO visual presenter, a compact projector that creates a “larger than life” view of teaching materials. The ELMO allows read- aloud books to be viewed easily by all students and teachers to enhance their presentations with magnified slides and transparencies. The Parent Center will use it at math and literacy night presentations. The whole school will use the ELMO in the cafeteria each morning before class by displaying books on the big screen, thus turning that spare time into a learning experience. Forest Heights Middle School – The Science Behind Superheroes Awarded: $3,000.00 Staff: Margaret Wang, Wendy Welch Principal: Dr. Debbie Price Four family science nights will provide a unique opportunity to students and their families to participate in enrichment activities while exploring the principles behind famous superheroes. The themes of the four 9-week projects will be: Superman - focusing on Newton’s laws of motion and principles of flight; X-men - examining “non-mutant” DNA, magnetism, weather, and electricity; the Fantastic Four – focusing on polymers, geology, and thermodynamics; and Spiderman - studying arachnids, radioactivity, human reflexes, and surface tension. Geyer Springs Elementary – Read With Me Book Club Awarded: $5,000.00 Staff: Misty Janski, Jennifer Grider, Stacy Burrall Principal: Donna Hall The “Read with Me Book Club” will promote and stimulate interaction among 35 families with students in grades K-5 by providing books/materials and discussion in a book club setting. Students will receive a new book monthly which they may keep and read with their parents. The group will meet monthly to discuss the book, complete an enrichment activity, receive an enrichment incentive, and eat dinner. At the end of the year, all participants will be invited to the “Character Ball.” Students will make costumes that resemble their favorite book characters and perform using Reader’s Theater or poetry. Hall High School – Shape It Up Awarded: $5,000.00 Staff: Yolanda Artis, Joan Best, Marie Boone, Coniell Bursac, Melba Carter, Judith Collins, Aminah Eddings, Selita Farr, Carla Harris, Sheila Hudson, Michelle Carr Jackson, Tiffany Jackson, Lula Williams Principal: John Bacon The “Shape It Up” project will utilize the Texas Instruments Navigator System to improve performance in algebra, geometry, and English classes. Designed to work with TI graphing calculators already in use, the TI- Navigator System provides wireless communication between a student’s calculator and the teacher’s computer, allowing teachers to send lessons to a student targeted to his individual needs. Horace Mann Middle School – Horace Mann Environmental Team Awarded: $5,000.00 Staff: Rick Washam, Jamie McKenney, Stephanie Jones Principal: Patricia Boykin “The Environmental Team Building Project” will provide an avenue for hands- on, student-driven learning in an outside classroom. Partnering with the Arkansas 4-H Center, the Audubon Society and the Arkansas Forestry Commission, Mann EAST lab students will interact with nature and document events such as soil erosion and environmental pollution. King Elementary – King Space Camp Awarded: $2,011.82 Staff: Will Felton, Diana Shockley, Diane Rynders, Debbie Capps Principal: Tyronne Harris One hundred 3rd-5th grade students will participate in a night-time class exploring the field of astronomy and using current technology to study objects in space. Students will establish learning goals, choose what areas of the sky to observe, decide what to document for their presentations, take observational notes and photographs, keep journals and learning logs, and hear guest speakers. Mabelvale Elementary – Tech-Savvy Kids Camp Awarded: $3,497.91 Staff: Shameka Montgomery, Holcomb Pittman, Travis Taylor, Barbara Williams Principal: Darian Smith “Tech-Savvy Kids Camp” is a week-long, intensive technology training program designed to help 4th grade students improve both oral presentation and written communication skills. Participants will create a “personalized” digital story that presents their local community in a positive light. Those who complete the program will receive a $40 voucher to purchase a computer from the LRSD’s Computers for Kids program. McClellan High School – Who Wants to be a Millionaire and a Teacher? Awarded: $5,000.00 Staff: Jackie Williams, Tashenia McMillan Principal: Gloria Hamilton McClellan’s Banking and Finance and Orientation to Teaching classes will collaborate with a 5th grade class from Baseline Elementary to teach the younger students about banking and finance. While developing lesson plans on financial planning for the 5th graders, high school students contemplating a teaching career will learn that they can be financially independent with wise investment planning. The 27 5th graders will each be presented with a $100 five-year certificate of deposit and a suggested savings plan at the program’s end. Metropolitan Career-Technical Center – Computers for Kids Awarded: $4,920.00 Staff: Harvey Johnson Principal: Michael Peterson To prepare students for jobs in technology, Metropolitan micro-computer technology classes will work on refurbishing, installing, and testing used computer hardware and software as part of the LRSD’s Computers for Kids program. Annually, the program will place approximately 1000 refurbished computers in the homes of students who do not have access to computer technology. Romine Elementary – Saturday Excursions Awarded: $5,000.00 Staff: Monica Norwood, Yvonne Jones, Patricia Snipes, Holly Tidball Principal: Lille Scull “Saturday Excursions” will afford low-performing students the opportunity to engage in a series of educational fieldtrips to experience golfing, spelunking, hiking, and horseback riding; they also will visit an art museum, orchestra, restaurant, and the Heifer ranch. Preparation for the trips will include research on the appropriate attire, etiquette, and vocabulary for the experiences. Students will maintain reflective journals and a collective photo diary, which will help them to develop brochures of students’ favorite excursions for a school “fieldtrip guide.” Western Hills Elementary – Mallets and More Awarded: $4,800.62 Staff: Cynthia Buehling Principal: Scott Morgan Instruction using the Orff/Schulwerk process involves students in creating, playing, moving to, and singing music, often tying musical instruction with literature and math lessons. This grant will provide enough Orff instruments (xylophones, metalophones, glockenspiels, and recorders) and mallets for all classes at Western Hills to learn and to play at the same time. Western Hills Elementary – Who’s Who Awarded: $2,500.00 Staff: Kristy Taylor Principal: Scott Morgan To improve writing and comprehension skills, biographies and the corresponding Accelerated Reader quizzes will be purchased for all K-5th grade students. Students, who previously lacked sufficient non-fiction materials in classrooms or the school library, will be encouraged to take the books home to read with their parents, and teachers will assign literacy projects tied to the biographies. Woodruff Elementary – Hooked on Books Awarded: $998.00 Staff: Cardelia Horn, Sherry Skaggs Principal: Katrina Ray “Hooked on Books”, a supplemental reading program, uses the High Noon Reading programs and Sound Out Chapter Books to provide low-readability, high-interest materials to foster independent reading and comprehension skills for struggling elementary students. Students will work independently and in small groups with teachers, specialists, parent volunteers and mentors from Big Brothers/Big Sisters.