More October Grants Given by the Nebo Education Foundation

Submitted by lana.hiskey on

More October Grants Given by the Nebo Education Foundation

The Nebo Education Foundation board had a record number of grants in October. 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 inspire the minds of students.

Spanish Oaks – Susan Phelps, First-Grade Teacher
Susan said, “I am so grateful and excited to receive this generous grant to use in my classroom. This grant money will go to purchase sets of books and compact discs for students to use in our listening center.  Having a well supplied listening center is so beneficial for students.  It allows them to hear fluent reading including skills such as voice inflection, expression, word emphasis, phrasing, and reading punctuation.  All of these are skills that we strive to help our students incorporate into their own reading.  A listening center helps students practice the vital skill of listening.  A listening center also encourages a love for reading because of the fun and joy students experience while hearing and reading a story!  I love watching my students as they listen to a story, and smile as I hear them laugh right out loud and grin ear to ear as they enjoy a great book.  Students love having their own copy of the story to follow along with and to see how the words they are hearing look.  It allows them to have a personal relationship with the book.  My goal is to purchase MP3 players and save these recordings into a digital format so that they are preserved for my students for years to come!  Thank you for this gift to students!”  

Spanish Oaks – Lindsay Robison, First-Grade Teacher
“Thank you so much for the grant.  It is immensely appreciated.  In our Journeys program we have a list of six to eight sight words for students to learn each week.  Journeys has leveled readers that we use during guided reading that incorporate those sight words.  There are three different leveled books, each on a different reading level, but our school only had one copy of each book.  This grant allows each teacher on the team to have a copy of each leveled reader that contains that week's sight words. I am extremely grateful for this because I can guarantee that my low readers are reading their sight words each week since they are being reinforced in guided reading,” stated Lindsay Robison.          

Diamond Fork Junior – Kelly Cole, History Teacher
Kelly Cole said, “We would like to thank Nebo Foundation for their generous contribution on behalf of the eighth-grade students and U.S. History teachers at Diamond Fork Jr. High. We were able to purchase some Kids Discover magazines, "How America Works" that we used as supplemental material to help students prepare for the mandatory Civics Exam. Eighty percent of our students passed the test. We felt the information in the magazines helped illustrate our government's structure for students in a simple, yet thorough manner that served them as they took the test. Thank you for supporting our students!”


Larsen Elementary – Katie Berns Thaus Amonett, Keir Scoubes, Sixth-Grade Teachers
“We are so excited to purchase more Chromebooks, which offer an authentic opportunity for students to further their education through technology.  Our desire is to cultivate students’ excitement and techno-savvy ability to unlock the unlimited resource of knowledge that the internet offers.  With this gift from the Nebo Education Foundation, our students will be able to experience space travel as if they were an astronaut, reach for growth by working on their ALEKS PIE, solidify typing fluency by composing final draft papers into Utah Compose, record reading success on Road to Success and gain confidence with each SAGE formative practice exercise. We want our students to embrace the advantages that technology offers them. This grant affords us that opportunity. Thank you Nebo Education Foundation,” replied the sixth-grade teachers at Larsen Elementary.

Spanish Fork High – Lucas Isley, Photographer Teacher
Mr. Isley said, “I was very excited to hear I was awarded a grant from the Nebo Education Foundation.  When we went to the five period day here at SFHS, it added a significant amount of students to my rolls.  This semester I have 110 advanced photography students all sharing 20 SLR cameras.  If all cameras are returned in the morning, it works okay for classes but trying to have 110 students share 20 cameras for homework is kind of a nightmare.  This grant will allow me to purchase two more cameras for my class.  This will allow more students access to cameras for homework and more to have hands on time in class.  Thank you so much for awarding me this grant!”

East Meadows Elementary – Kelsi Moore, STAR Tutoring Teacher
“I am incredibly grateful to be awarded the grant in the amount of $500 for East Meadows Elementary STAR Tutoring program.  This grant combined with the $500 provided by my principal, Ms. Gledhill, and the deal that has been worked out with Benchmark Education will allow me to purchase about $1,500 worth of books to begin the library for my STAR reading program.  These books will be used by second-, third-, and fourth-grade students and their adult tutors. The East Meadows community has come together to provide the students with volunteers who read with the students twice a week to help so that these students will be able to read on grade level by the end of the school year.  Books provided by this grant means that the students will have a wider range of books on their reading level to choose from to read.  I would like to say thank you to all of the businesses, donors, and volunteers, especially the Nebo Foundation board members, for coming together to make a difference in the lives of so many children,” said Kelsi Moore.

Rees Elementary – Tammy Strunk, Fifth-Grade Teacher 

Riverview Elementary – Doni Bufton, Sixth-Grade Teacher
"I just want to thank the Nebo Foundation for approving a grant to purchase the classroom sets of the book "Bomb".  It has been a fabulous teaching tool of World War II and we have been able to use it as a mentor text in informational writing.  The students have enjoyed it immensely!" exclaimed Doni Bufton.