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Classrooms take flight with the 2011-12 Grant for Teaching Excellence Through the Grant for Teaching Excellence program, created in 1986 to honor Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who died in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, ATPE awards a $1,000 grant each year to one elementary educator and one secondary educator to fund innovative classroom projects. The 2011-12 grants were awarded in November 2011, and recipients were recognized for their accomplishments July 14 during the ATPE Summit.
Today’s special is a good read As elementary recipient Lauri Peters of East Central ISD says, there are 10 ways to become a better reader: read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read and read! In her grant application, Peters wrote that many of the prekindergarten through third-grade students on her campus—Pecan Valley Elementary, where 72 percent of students have been identified as economically disadvantaged—lack the luxury of having books for their parents to read to them every night. So Peters, a dyslexia specialist, used her grant to treat students and parents to an evening at the Reading Restaurant this past Feb. 9. The restaurant was set up in the Pecan Valley cafeteria, where parents and students sat at tablecloth-covered tables with floral centerpieces. Teachers served as the waitstaff, bringing guests “appetizer” books and leading them in a “main course” math or science activity. For “dessert,” students were allowed to choose books to take home. (Cookies and juice were served, too.)
Building roots that lead to STEM Secondary recipient Jodi Andoe, an eighth-grade science teacher in Paris ISD, recognized that the science achievement gap on her campus—the disparity among students’ ability to meet science passing standards—was the result of an opportunity gap. “Most of my students have never had an opportunity to play with traditional building toys,” Andoe wrote in her applications. “By giving them this opportunity and focusing on their curiosity and creativity in a nontraditional classroom setting, we can increase critical thinking skills and expose students to new opportunities.” Instead of being enrolled in a remediation class, 18 eighth-graders at Paris Junior High were selected to participate in a pilot STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) elective course. Students worked in teams to develop building plans, study robotics using LEGO MINDSTORMS Educational NXT kits and rely on NASA resources to plan a return trip to the moon. “My students deserve an equal education with the same opportunities other students in our surrounding community have,” Andoe wrote.
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Learn more about the ATPE Grant for Teaching Excellence program in the Resources section of atpe.org. Applications for 2012-13 grants are due Nov. 2.
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