More November Grants Given by the Nebo Education Foundation

Submitted by lana.hiskey on

The Nebo Education Foundation board had a record number of grants in November. Here are a few more that received funds to meet the many needs across the district. This Foundation Board functions through generous donations made by individuals and businesses as well as fundraisers where all the money goes to educate students in Nebo School District. Thank you to all those that so generously supported Nebo students through donations.

Congratulations to the following teachers that continue to bless the lives of students. 

Canyon Elementary – Angelyn Perkins, Fourth-Grade Teacher
“In fourth grade, the students are required to publish at least six pieces of writing. They are also required to type an informational and persuasive essay by the end of the year.  Having a class set of Chromebooks allows students to get a daily practice of typing and organizing ideas as well as publishing. Our students are required to reach an individual quarterly reading goal through a web-based National Reading Program, Accelerated Reader. In order to do this they must have easy access to a Chromebook here at school to take comprehension and vocabulary tests after completing a book. With access to a Chromebooks, our students can now create slide presentation on fossils, the rock cycle, and weather, as well as Utah animals and biomes. We have also found a web-based program that helps students individually with a daily multiplication fast fact practice.  he possibilities are endless and are so desired and needed to create an engaging classroom. I am so grateful to the Nebo Education Foundation for considering and accepting my grant proposal. YA HOO!!!!” exclaimed Angelyn Perkins, fourth-grade teacher at Canyon Elementary.

Maple Mountain High – Kami Bone, English Teacher
Kami Bone, English teacher at Maple Mountain High, said, “We are so excited to hear that we were granted $844 from the Nebo Education Foundation for the purchase of Plantronics Headsets for Maple Mountain High School. These headsets will be used by our 10th grade English students who are creating podcasts on topics that they have chosen and researched. We believe that this project will present students with an opportunity to use a variety of skills from research, planning, editing, considering audience, using technology, and much, much more. This is an excellent chance for students to move to the next level beyond learning skills- that is using skills to create. These headsets allow students to record, edit, and also listen to other students' podcasts. Having a large number of headsets allows all the regular 10th grade English students to work on this project simultaneously, which promotes and eases collaboration among the teachers. We received matching funds from our fantastic principal, John Penrod. We are so very grateful for the generosity of the Nebo Education Foundation and have found this experience to be quick, simple, and very positive! Thanks again!”

Spanish Oaks Elementary – Heidi Dimmick & Gregg Crockett, Sixth-Grade Teachers
Heidi Dimmick, Spanish Oaks sixth-grade teacher, stated, “We are so excited about this grant!  It enables us to implement the ideas and the programs that we were taught while getting our technology endorsements.  It will allow our students new opportunities to research, study and learn that they wouldn't have had the same kind of access to before.  Thank you so much for your generous gift.”

“We are very excited about receiving this grant.  The grant is allowing us to buy a Chromebook cart to house the 30 Chromebooks we received from a different grant. This is making it possible to have one-to-one electronics in our classrooms, opening up many opportunities in our classroom instruction for our students to write, edit, create, explore, research, and be more in charge of their own learning.  We are excited to see the new applications our students will receive in their learning from this awesome gift,” said Gregg Crockett, Spanish Oaks sixth-grade teacher.

Diamond Fork Junior High – Cecily Yeager & Marissa Larsen, English Teacher
Marissa Larsen, English teacher at Diamond Fork Junior said, “Having new copies of ‘The Westing Game’ has made such a huge difference in my classroom.  We were using books that were 15+ years old with broken spines, and many of the copies had several missing pages. When my students saw the new books, they were in awe, and so excited to get their hands on the new, glossy hardbacks. I'm glad that my students get to use the new books, because they treat our reading time differently when they are reading out of a book that isn't falling apart. The students also take pride in keeping their book nice, and I find that they treat these books with much more respect. The ‘Westing Game’ is such a great book to read, and because of this grant, many more students will have the opportunity to enjoy it.” 

Spanish Fork Junior High – Jonathan Lawrence, English Teacher
“Thank you for helping facilitate this grant on behalf of the Nebo Foundation to aid teachers and benefit the students of Spanish Fork Jr. High. My grant will be used to purchase books at appropriate Lexile levels for my students to access in my classroom lending library. The Lexile system helps students match the vocabulary level of reading materials with their needs as determined by the DRP (Degrees of Reading Power) assessment administered every fall and spring in the English classes. This data helps teachers and students chose appropriately challenging texts that will grow the vocabulary when paired effectively,” said Jonathan Lawrence, Spanish Fork Junior High English teacher. “When I returned to teaching after a time as a Dean of Students, I determined what remained of my classroom lending library was below the levels expected for the students in my teaching assignment. I am grateful to both Principal Matt Christensen and the Nebo Foundation for assisting me with improving my lending library in this meaningful grant. Upon learning the grant was awarded, my students and I were ecstatic. Thank you again,” said Jonathan Lawrence, English teacher at Spanish Fork Junior.

Springville High – Arianna Booth, Math Teacher
“Susan Langford, Julie Wilding, Janessa Lee, and I are thrilled and honored to have received this grant from the Nebo Education Foundation. The grant money will be used to help pay for Mimio Pads that we purchased at the beginning of the school year. A Mimio Pad is a wireless tablet that allows us to control our computer desktop from anywhere in the classroom. We can write and record with these tablets. Not only does this technology free us from being stuck at the front of the classroom, but it also allows us to provide extra resources for our students. Every day, I can post my notes for the day to my website for students who were absent. We can also record mini lessons or tutorials using these pads. Personally, I have been able to record a few tutorials for my students. I have had several students tell me that those tutorials really helped them when they did not quite understand the concept in class. We have loved having the Mimio Pads so far, and we are continuing to find creative ways to use these to continue to help our students. Thank you again!” exclaimed, Arianna Booth, math teacher at Springville High.

Sierra Bonita Elementary – Dana Beckert, Library
Dana Beckert, Sierra Bonita facilitator, said, “We are so grateful for the grant awarded to Sierra Bonita for the amount of $927.12 to purchase books for our leveled library. Part of the money will be used to buy high interest, low readability books. These books are designed to appeal to a struggling reader’s age and maturity level, but are written at a reading level that is lower than the student’s grade level. By adding these types of books to our leveled library, teachers will have the resources to better motivate their struggling students to read. The remaining funds will be used to purchase the Scholastic Short Reads resource. These are short passages that will give students the practice needed to read and comprehend complex, informational texts. The passages will be used in guided reading to help students think on a deeper level and will be instrumental in helping students prepare for the SAGE writing test. Thank you, again, for the funding provided by the Nebo Education Foundation. We are excited to have these resources available.”

Riverview Elementary – Mary Hollister, Fifth-Grade Teacher
"We will be sharing these Chromebooks between our four fifth-grade classes.  We use these heavily for our SLO’s, with utahcompose.com teaching grammar, and helping students prepare for the SAGE Writing test. The Chromebooks are used to enhance the social studies and science curriculum. Students can use them to practice their spelling words or take tests on spellingcity.com. We used the Chromebooks last year to take SAGE Formative tests, and for SAGE Summative testing when the computer lab was not available. Our computer labs are very busy, and the Chromebooks help alleviate some of the scheduling issues. Research is a huge component of fifth grade, and we rely on Chromebooks heavily for that, as well as for preparing PowerPoint presentations. Students also look up schema information to enhance guided reading group instruction. And with the new program ‘myon’ that we are using this year, students love to use the Chromebooks during sustained silent reading time. It keeps track of how much time they have been reading, and gives them 5,000 books to choose from. As you can see, we really use Chromebooks in fifth grade. The money that you have given us will allow us to buy seven more Chromebooks, and we will have two complete sets for the fifth grade. It will help more students to have access to technology in our classrooms. Thank you so much!” exclaimed Mary Hollister, fifth-grade teacher at Riverview Elementary.

Oakridge – Peta Clark, Speech