The Nebo Education Foundation board met in May and approved the following grants.
Salem Elementary
Lana Hiskey, foundation executive director; Dave Hansen, teacher; Lynda Hales, foundation president
Salem Elementary received a grant for technology to fund document cameras for the sixth grade.
Dave Hansen, sixth-grade teacher, said, “On behalf of Salem Elementary, thank you for your generous grant. With these funds, we are going to purchase document cameras that will be used in conjunction with our projectors. These document cameras will be used to enhance our instruction and increase learning of shared writing. We can use writing samples to assist with revision and edits and model how improvements may be made. Document cameras also offer a great way to have a ‘read aloud’. Instead of holding up the book and walking around, we can place the book on the document camera and everyone in the class can see the pictures and text. If there is a worksheet to be done, instead of copying it for each member of the class, we can project it. Then the work can be done off of the screen image. This saves paper and also saves time. We look at the acquisition of document cameras as a great teaching tool that will enhance our instruction and increase learning.”
Barnett Elementary
Ellen-Anita Olson, teacher; Lynda Hales, Nebo Education Foundation President
Barnett Elementary receives technology grant for a document camera and projector.
Ellen-Anita Olson, sixth-grade teacher, said, “Thank you so much for the wonderful news. This is great for my students and it will make teaching my class so much easier. Imagine the classroom coming to life with the ability to explore the solar system, examine microorganisms, work with interactive maps, learn how communities are organized, learn about the patterns in PASCAL’s triangle, learn how their names turn into a number code and how each code makes a star. I can prove to the students that they are stars, really. I can show the intricacies of leaves, pond life along with uncountable other possibilities opening with this kind of technology available in the classroom. We are under increasing pressure to use technology in the classroom.
This will be one big step on the way to help prepare students for the increasing demands of technology in this new century. Again, thank you so much for granting this wonderful technology equipment to my classroom.”
Orchard Hills Elementary
Lana Hiskey, foundation executive director; Kathryn Buchanan, teacher; Lisa Rowley, foundation board member.
Orchard Hills Elementary received two technology grants this month.
Kathryn Buchanan, fourth-grade teacher, said, “We are very grateful to the Nebo Education Foundation for providing the funds for our document cameras. This new technology will enable us to readily access information from educational sites and give our students more enriching instruction with the Core Curriculum. These incredible cameras will allow us to observe living and non-living objects, maps, charts, literature, manipulatives, and internet integration. We thank you again for acknowledging our needs and desire to provide our students with state-of-the-art tools for quality education.”
Another teacher, Stephanie Wood, said, “Our fifth grade is excited to receive this grant from Nebo Foundation that will help us purchase document cameras for our classrooms. We look forward to the many instructional possibilities the document cameras will open up in our classrooms especially the capability of projecting student work, the ability to demonstrate technology via the computer in our classroom, and the ability to project children's literature in full color and discuss the elements of art contained in each book. Thanks for your generous contribution!”
Diamond Fork Junior
Laura Taylor, foundation board member; Katie Reese, history teacher; Vicki Gardner, history teacher; Lana Hiskey, foundation executive director
Lana Hiskey, foundation executive director; Cecily Yeager, English teacher; Laura Taylor, foundation board member; Kami Bone, English teacher
Diamond Fork Junior received two technology grants for document cameras, projectors and a lap top computer.
Katie Reese and Vicki Gardner, history teachers, stated, “Because of funding from the Nebo Foundation, we will be able to purchase a document camera for our ninth- grade History/Geography classrooms. This grant is significant to us because it allows us to use varied media that is current and relevant to our curriculum, provides students with varied visual opportunities to enhance their learning experience, and connects the material to real-world scenarios and apply learning in their lives. Thank you Nebo Foundation for your financial assistance to provide this much-needed technology to our classrooms and for consistently supporting the teachers and students of Nebo School District!”
Another teacher, Cecily Yeager said, “Thanks to the Nebo Foundation, we were able to get matching funds to purchase laptops so that students have access to computers during E-Time remediation. Most students who are struggling in English lack skills or need one-on-one help from an English teacher in order to compose, revise, edit, or just make sense of their papers. Since we didn’t have access to student computers in our classrooms, students were not receiving the quality of remediation that best served their needs in an English classroom. We are so excited to be able to help more students during remediation so that they can make real progress in their writing. We appreciate the Nebo Foundation for helping us to help our students be successful!”
Goshen Elementary
Lisa Rowley and Kay Tischner, foundation board members; Travis Proctor teacher
Denise Ray, librarian; Lisa Rowley and Kay Tischner, foundation board members
Nebo Education Foundation awarded two grants one for a mathematics grant to Goshen Elementary for calculators to use in the fifth-grade classes and another for encyclopedias in the library.
Fifth-grade teacher, Travis Proctor, said, “Thank you so much for helping the fifth grade students at Goshen Elementary purchase new calculators. We were seriously lacking calculators and this grant will allow us to purchase some quality new calculators that fit perfectly with our math core. In this age of technology, understanding how to use a calculator and its functions is a critical skill. This skill is also part of the core and end-of-year tests. We have found that calculator proficiency helps students on all levels, and provides a foundation for future use. Thanks again from the Goshen Fifth Grades.”
Shadow Mountain Program
Kristina Christen, foundation board member; Scott Carson, Shadow Mountain program director; Ken Money, foundation board member
Shadow Mountain Program for over 700 fifth-grade students in Nebo School District received a technology grant from the Nebo Education Foundation.
Scott Carson, Administrator of the Shadow Mountain program, stated, “This grant money will be used to purchase a couple of wildlife cameras as well as a digital camera for general use. The wildlife cameras will be positioned around camp to photograph the animals that are around us at night. We will share the photos with our students to help teach them about the wildlife that is all around us at Shadow Mountain. This will hopefully help them to develop a greater respect for the natural environment we are in. The staff is very excited about this addition to our activities. The general purpose camera will help us to capture the fun and excitement that we all experience during camp. I will share these pictures with the students towards the end of camp to help reinforce the fun they have had and hopefully more deeply embed the positive experiences and memories that they now have in common. We are on a very tight budget when it comes to the extras in the Shadow Mountain program. We truly appreciate the foundation being willing to help us provide a richer experience for our students.”
Larsen Elementary
Michael Johnson, principal; Lana Hiskey, foundation director; Bev Miner, literacy specialist; Chris Smiley & Darlynn Menlove, foundation board members
Nebo Education Foundation awarded a literacy grant to Larsen Elementary.
Bev Miner, literacy specialist at Larsen, stated, “I am presently reorganizing the guided reading library at Larsen to make it more user-friendly. I noticed that most of our upper grade books were novels, which are great for Literacy Circles; but not so good for guided reading. We were also lacking in non-fiction. We have ordered some great titles (six packs) that support the curriculum, as well as provide high interest for our students. In addition, because of the specials offered, we will receive $3,000 worth, for free, of biographies at all levels to infuse more great books through our school. Because of the specials offered this year from Lerner Books, we will be helping every child at our school and for years to come. First of all, our kindergarten wants ABC Books to use early in the year for guided reading groups. We found a great set offered free with our order that will provide exactly what the kindergarten wants, and they will be housed in the kindergarten rooms. They will have 6-packs for each letter of the alphabet, 26 x 6 = 156 new books. Thank you for considering Larsen Elementary to be the recipient of a Foundation Grant!”
Spring Lake Elementary
Scott Barlow and Kristina Christensen, foundation board members; Marie Mitchell, teacher; Kevin Johnson, foundation board member; Principal Spencer Sainsbury
Nebo Education Foundation awarded a literacy grant to Spring Lake this month for literacy books in Spanish.
Marie Mitchell, kindergarten teacher, said, “For years I have felt a need for our school to have beginning readers written in Spanish. We have many Hispanic children and parents who speak limited English and could more easily read if the literature were in their own language. However, the books are VERY expensive. This year I was awarded a grant from Wal-Mart and then applied for matching funds through the Nebo Foundation in order to purchase Spanish readers and hands-on literacy kits for that very purpose. I am so grateful to see it become a reality.”
Payson High
Principal Bart Peery; Kevin Johnson, board member; Reed Thomson, teacher; Scott Barlow, board member
Payson High received a grant for a camera and macro lens for the science department.
Mr. Reed Thomson, science teacher, said, “The grant will be used to purchase a camera capable of taking close-up views of spiders, insects, plant structures and other life forms. Students will use the camera to take digital photographs of these specimens for personal discovery and as they complete reports and share their findings with their classmates. We also post “Spider of the Week” photos outside of the classroom so that other members of the student body can see common spiders found in our area and how they vary from one another. I am very excited and grateful for the assistance in acquiring this camera to provide more opportunity for science discovery by the students.”
Spanish Fork High
Laura Taylor, foundation board member; Principal Dave McKee; Vice Principal Reese Brunson
Spanish Fork High received a grant for a Freedom Wall to encourage patriotism in the school.
Rees Elementary
Rees Elementary received two grants one for technology and another for literacy.
Bev Miner, literacy specialist for Rees, said, “While Rees has a pretty great guided reading library, there were definitely some genres not adequately represented; therefore, our students had more fiction available to them than non-fiction, and biographies were non-existent. Lerner Books has some amazing specials that will allow us to receive $3,000 of free biographies with a $1000 purchase. We ordered some great non-fiction titles for our upper elementary. In addition, our transitional kindergarten will have ABC Books to use early in the year for guided reading groups, which were free with our order. Thank you, thank you for extending this grant to Rees Elementary.”