Although St. Vrain Valley teachers are busy juggling what some might say is the most difficult school year ever, they have continued to create special projects with funding from Teacher Innovation grants.
Each year the St. Vrain Valley Schools Education Foundation, or SVVSEF, raises money through the Sunrise Stampede, the St. Vrain Valley Gala, grants and willing donors to support specialized projects created by teachers. The projects “support the District’s strategic direction, supplement standard curriculum and enhance efforts to meet student learning needs,” according to the nonprofit’s website.
During the selection process, SVVSEF looks for projects that are creative, innovative, improve achievement for students, close achievement gaps and promote lifelong learning, according to the website.
“If I have one thing to say about Teacher Innovation grants, it’s that our teachers are so innovative and so dedicated during this time. Even when you think that they’re too busy to fill out something to get a grant, it just warms my heart to know that they’re still persevering and they have things that they want to happen in their classrooms and the foundation is thrilled to be able to help them do that,” said Michelle Phelan, SVVSEF community liaison.
In 1985, when Elanor Flanders established the education foundation, the grants were created to supplement teachers so they could purchase basic supplies for their classrooms. A few years ago, the foundation changed the focus of the grants from supplying basic needs to innovation.
“The whole idea behind that is to try to fund innovative ideas and projects, things that are possibly going to change the future of public education,” said Josh Atherton, SVVSEF executive director.
The foundation divides the applications for grants into three categories: STEM, Special Needs and Innovation. It encourages teachers to look beyond what is provided by the district when applying for the grant. To make sure the foundation does not duplicate efforts, it works closely with the school district and supplies teachers with information if their project is already supported by the district.
This year the foundation saw a 15% to 20% reduction in the number of proposals submitted from previous years, Atherton said. Eighty-one applications were submitted and 53 were funded either fully or partially in a range of $500 to $2,000. For teachers whose grants were only partially funded, SVVSEF provided access to DonorChoose.org — a website geared to helping educators across the nation fund special projects.
“Sometimes, what unfortunately happens is we partially fund a teacher and then they are kind of left on their own to find the additional funding,” Atherton said.
In some cases teachers may have other avenues to find the additional funds to complete their projects such as parent organizations, boosters or even classroom parent support. However, often, and especially this year, teachers are overburdened with priorities other than fundraising and they simply cut their projects to meet the funding available, Atherton said.
The grants submitted this year varied but many shared the theme of ways to benefit students’ education while under the pandemic’s restrictions.
Katelyn Ryan, a LaunchEd teacher for sixth and seventh grade students, wanted to create design thinking challenge kits for students to engage with learning beyond the screen.
“I wanted to find a way to make sure that even in the middle of a pandemic, students can still engage with learning at high levels,” Ryan said via email.
Her vision for the kits is to allow teachers to “keep some of the best parts of in-person learning, creativity and innovation alive with students who are working from home,” she said.
Through her fully funded grant, she will create two types of bags — ideate and prototype — for students. The ideate bag is designed to allow students to “see their thinking change and grow and process,” while the prototype bag will allow ideas and learning “come alive,” she said.
Ryan plans to include special LaunchEd stickers so students can take pictures of their projects and share them with the community to show “how they are launching forward in their learning,” she said.
At Thunder Valley K-8, significant support needs elementary school teacher Brittany Duncan plans to use her fully funded grant to help all who walk through the halls.
She toured several schools in the Westminster area and discovered sensory pathways.
“A sensory path is a colorful, creative and playful way for kids to build sensory pathways, connections in the brain that are responsible for sight, touch, sound, etc., which enable kids to complete complex, multi-stage tasks. A sensory path is a great way for kids to develop motor skills like balance, hand-eye coordination, and spatial awareness, and is normally made with stickers that can be stuck to any surface,” according to to the Fit and Fun Playscapes blog.
“When I first thought about this project, I thought about how it would impact the whole school and how students of all ages and abilities would benefit from this pathway, as well as the continuous impact it will have on students for years as it requires minimal upkeep,” Duncan said via email.
Duncan said she recognizes the importance of appropriate and interactive brain breaks for students outside of time in front of a screen.
“Sensory processing disorders show that students will start to lose cognitive functioning and focus during the school day and they will begin feeling overloaded with all the things around them. The sensory pathway gives these students the opportunity to refocus and gain control of themselves through a series of movements focusing on fine motor, gross motor and restimulating of their cognitive abilities that prepares them to rejoin the classroom,” she said.
The sensory pathway will be established in the hallways at Thunder Valley K-8 by placing vinyl stickers on the walls and floor. While the idea was established for students with special needs in mind, all students, staff and parents will be able to utilize it for fun and regulation.
The excitement of Teacher Innovation grants is the possibility that the future of public education comes out of a small idea by a teacher, Atherton said.
“We think big, we dream big but we stay really focused on what we are doing to make sure that we make an impact on the students in the classroom in partnership with St. Vrain Valley Schools,” he said.
