Grants Awarded This Fall by the Nebo Education Foundation

Submitted by lana.hiskey on

Brenda McFarland, kindergarten teacher at Spring Lake Elementary, was awarded a grant for an Egg Incubator. Brenda said, "I am so excited to have received this grant from the Nebo Education Foundation. I can't wait to use it with my kindergartners. We will hatch eggs during our Farm Unit this spring. What a great experience it will be for my students to have a hands-on experience hatching eggs. Thanks again Nebo Education Foundation!"

The English departments, at Spanish Fork High, Salem Hills High and Spanish Fork Junior, were awarded grants for literature circle books and novels.

Haylee Frohlich, English teacher at Spanish Fork Junior High, said, "The grant approved by the Nebo Foundation will be used to purchase two class sets of nonfiction books for our ninth-grade English classes. The books that we have selected as an English department have strong ties to both current and past historical events. With these books, we will study patterns and trends in history as well as informational text features. These books will help our students construct background knowledge and aid them in becoming lifelong learners."

Sheila Robbins, fourth-grade teacher at Sage Creek Elementary, and Brad Shuler, science teacher at Salem Hills High, were awarded grants for weather stations.

Park Elementary received a grant for second-grade classroom rugs. Principal, Rob Keddington said, "These rugs are divided into 30 equal squares and will help with the organization of center groups, table groups, listening spots for each child in each classroom, and with classroom management. We appreciate so much the Foundation and all they do to help us purchase much needed classroom supplies."

Cathy Condie, fourth-grade teacher at Sage Creek Elementary, and Kalani Reed, third-grade teacher at Canyon Elementary, as well as Spring Lakes’ third-grade team were awarded grants for document cameras.

Cathy responded, "Thank you so much for the news about the document camera! This is exciting and opens many learning doors for my students; such as, the step-by-step processes when I teach art lessons, everyone being able to see the pages of a book during teacher read aloud, sharing student work, editing student work together as a class, seeing documents/maps, science demonstrations, and so much more!I've had my heart set on one for so long, but haven't been able to afford one until now.Thanks to the generosity of the Nebo Foundation my students will greatly benefit with this wonderful, useful learning tool. A sincere thanks for this grant approval!!!!"

Ashley Grover, a third-grade teacher at Spring Lake, said, "Our third-grade team is very grateful to have something in our classroom that will help us use best practices as we incorporate the latest technology into our teaching. We are also excited for our students! They thrive on using technology and will find success in all areas of the curriculum as they are given the opportunity to share their work with their classmates."

Daryl Fluckiger, fifth-grade teacher at Hobble Creek Elementary, as well as Nancy Melander and Brooke Alderks at Santaquin were awarded grants for guided reading leveled books and reading recovery books.

Daryl said, "Our fifth-grade team was excited to hear we received this grant from the Nebo Foundation. We will use it to purchase guided reading books for our grade level. These books will allow us to challenge students at all reading levels and help students develop a love for reading that is so critical at this age."

Marilyn Anthony, a sixth-grade teacher at Orchard Hills, and Alison Hansen, Principal at Brockbank Elementary, received grants for a clicker response system.

arilyn said, "Orchard Hills Elementary is grateful for the work and generosity of the Nebo Foundation in behalf of the students in our district. With their help and that of our principal, Mr. Barlow, we have been able to purchase a set of "clickers" for our school. These little devices are essentially small remote controls for each child in a classroom, which enable them to interact with the teacher's computer in showing anonymous answers to questions, quizzes, and opinion polls. The answers are recorded on the teacher's computer, then are projected as bar graphs for the children to receive immediate feedback. They should add quality to our learning and provide some fun variety to our lessons."

Maureen Bushman, sixth-grade teacher at Foothills Elementary, Kim Larsen and Nishelle Morgan, third-grade teachers at Art City Elementary, as well as Kelly Cole, history teacher at Diamond Fork Junior, received grants for projectors.

Maureen stated, "The opportunity to purchase a projector and have it mounted in my classroom will be beneficial in many ways. It will allow me to quickly and efficiently use the projector, a document camera, and information from the computer to engage students with a variety of media and approaches to learning. I will be able to spend more time facing my students rather facing the board, a huge benefit to my student who is deaf and needs to read my lips for optimum learning. What a difference it will make when a student can come to the front of the room, share their work using a document camera or computer, and everyone can see it on the screen, as if they all had a front row seat’. Thank you, Nebo Foundation, for supporting me in my goal to teach and meet students' needs in the best way possible."

Kim and Nishelle wrote, "We are so excited to have received our grant! We can hardly wait to get the projectors and document cameras up and working for our students. How lucky our classes are to have the technology to help teach using students' actual work as samples. The students love sharing their stories on the document camera and love asking the class for suggestions on how they can improve their stories. We have also found that teaching Social Studies has become easier and more interactive as we are able to show PowerPoints to engage their understanding. In Science, we have been able to demonstrate experiments and analyze small changes from day to day as we take an up-close look at it through the document camera. In addition, we have found that the students who struggle with ADD and generally just staying on task have been able to stay focused better. We are so looking forward to the continual use of the document camera and the projector. Thank you for supporting our school!"

Eric Ferrin, math teacher at Spanish Fork Junior, and Kristie McMurdie, special education teacher at Diamond Fork Junior, were awarded grants for calculators.

Eric said, "Thank you so much for the grant. We plan on purchasing the calculators immediately, and then using them in all of our classes as a technology assistance for all of the students in our math classes. The students will be able to more easily do complex calculations in order to facilitate their learning. This will especially help the students that cannot afford their own calculators."

Salem Elementary was awarded a grant for basketball standards. Principal Ken Van Ausdal said, "The Gymnasium of Salem Elementary recently received an upgrade to its basketball courts. Local school patrons, the school’s PTA, the State of Utah, Salem City, and the Nebo Foundation all made generous contributions towards the purchase of adjustable basketball standards. The standards were purchased as part of the school’s three year plan to become a Gold Medal School and encourage healthy lifestyle choices. The standards are adjustable from 7.5’ to 10’ allowing competitive play for all ages and ability levels. The basketball courts are used during the school day for physical fitness instruction and during basketball season for community members. The generous contribution of all parties involved will help build healthy children for years to come."

Leslie Walker, music teacher at Springville Junior, and Justin Bills, music teacher at Salem Hills High, were awarded grants for a piano and over 60 titles of sheet music.

Jarom Stubbs, science teacher at Diamond Fork Junior, was awarded a grant for Vernier LabQuest computers.

Kathryn Buchanan, English teacher at Mt. Nebo, received a grant for a click magnetized smart board.

Peggy Beesley & Candice Sorensen, first-grade teachers at Sage Creek, as well as Patricia Hanson, first-grade teacher, and Wendy Grill, fourth-grade teacher, at Barnett Elementary received grants for projectors and documents cameras.

Congratulations to all our wonderful teachers that inspire the minds of children!

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Lana Hiskey
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