28 Jan 2002
Teachers' Creativity Rewarded
DALLAS—The winners of American Airlines-sponsored mini-grants will be recognized at the Thursday, January 31, DISD board of trustees meeting. Seventeen proposals are being funded for school based projects run by 22 teachers. The $14,754 in grants was awarded for innovative instructional projects not funded in school budgets.
Funding for the mini-grants comes from the interest earned on $100,000 donated to the district in 1985 by American Airlines. The program is administered with the approval of the trustees by the Operation Involvement Advisory Committee—a committee of Dallas Independent School District teachers and staff members. This year's chairman is Betty Bush, a teacher at T. W. Browne Middle School. The purpose of the mini-grants program is to fund proposals designed and submitted by DISD teachers for exploring new classroom techniques or educational projects.
This year's judges had a serious challenge—132 proposals were received. Proposal winners and a brief excerpt of the projects are listed:
o Tina Rutledge and Nancy Gilcrease, Seagoville Elementary School, $983.05 for Counting on Counters to Count, provides a variety of interesting counters and accessories to improve students' math skills.
o Al Aguilar and Greg Cano, H. Grady Spruce High School, $1,000 for construction of an enclosed trailer, a vehicle for transporting items for competition.
o Rachel Everson, Edison Maple Lawn Academy, $1,000 for Expanding Our Minds Through Art, an art enrichment project.
o Angela Dorman, Skyline High School, $535 for Shakespearean / Renaissance Festival, a schoolwide multimedia festival of literature and performances.
o Kay Meadows, James Madison High School, $335.13 for Operation Resource, a project that uses The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal to provide real-world applications to the study of economics.
o Joan Scott Curtis, Thomas Jefferson High School, $957.76 for Reading Is a Family Event, A book reading program for teenage mothers.
o Darren Keith Carollo and Dwain Sadbury, Lincoln Communications and Humanities Magnet, $1,000 for Northwest Aeronautical Engineering Project, in collaboration with engineers from Boeing, McDonald Douglas, Lockheed-Martin, students design, build and fly airplanes to collect data, using Vernier Probes and TI-83 graphing calculators.
o Robin Gattis, Seagoville Elementary School, $969 for Today's Menu: A Good Book, schedules reading activities in the cafeteria during lunch periods and before school.
o Dionicio A. Gonzalez, School of Government, Law and Law Enforcement, $1,000 for Leadership Education and Debate Project, to enhance students' development/ cultivation of analytical, research, language skills through involvement with debate institute at the University of North Texas.
o Margaret Miller, Thomas Tolbert Elementary School,
o Kathy O'Hara, Nathan Adams Elementary School, $970.36 for Music for Younger Students, provides a CD player and CDs for music program in PreK–K.
o Mildred Edordu, Seagoville High School, $1,000 for Character Education for at Risk Students in Secondary Classroom. It provides novel reading program enhanced with videos to teach value of education.
o Ruth X. Davie, Gilbert Cuellar, Sr. Elementary School, $816 for Bailes Folklóricos Panameños, video, maps and folkloric dances will aid in teaching of geography.
o Erma Pruett and Phyllis Ellison, Kleberg Elementary School, $909 for Bloom Where You Are Planted: Junior Master Gardener Program providing materials for gardening under the guidance of Texas Master Gardeners.
o Sandra Williams and Barbara Johnson, Arlington Park Elementary School, $740.84 for To Home and Back with Books, a home reading program designed to increase parents' involvement in the language arts development of the child.
o Kendall Hasse, Woodrow Wilson High School, $1,000 for Multi-Ethnic Libraries in High School English Classes, provides small libraries inside each English teacher classroom, representing excellence of each culture's literature.
o Sandra Horton, Clara Oliver Elementary School, $869 for Eye of the Beholder. Two area high school students will assist fourth graders with photo journalism/writing projects.