Community First Bank of Indiana has partnered with the local education foundations to offer 7 teacher mini-grants for the 2024-25 school year. Each mini-grant will provide a teacher with $500 for their classroom’s needs. The winners were presented with their awarded grants in the Fall of 2024:
A Game is Worth 1,000 Words: This project will put various types of games in the hands of students as they collaborate and enhance their speaking and listening skills. Playing games naturally engages multilingual students and makes the language acquisition process more enjoyable and less intimidating. Games promote communication among learners, encouraging them to practice speaking in a social context along with using academic language. Connecting with a game is worth 1,000 words!
Podcasting Curriculum: Podcasting equipment will be used to create informative YouTube and podcast broadcasts to support teacher professional development in district technology and the new reading curriculum. By providing accessible and engaging content, this initiative aims to improve teacher knowledge, skills, and overall effectiveness in the classroom which will in turn positively affect the students throughout the district. The top three objectives for this grant would be: to provide teachers with high-quality, informative podcasts on district technology, to support teachers in implementing the new reading curriculum effectively, and to create a collaborative and engaging professional development platform.
Serving Smiles: This year, the kindergarten grade level at Monon Trail Elementary School, led by Lexi Nicole, is focusing on how even young students can serve their communities. The plan is to dedicate the first Friday of each month to a service-learning project. Some of the ideas include making tie blankets, Riley Care Bags, friendship bracelets, and kindness rocks.
Over the past year, the teachers have introduced service projects into the classrooms and have observed how it instantly inspires students to give back to their communities. Additionally, this activity aims to build connections between the class and their families. The hope is to involve families in some of the projects and to encourage students to continue finding ways to give back as they grow up.
Hazel Dell Zen Room: At Hazel Dell Elementary School, Michelle Rogowski is leading an initiative to convert a space in the building into a designated “zen room” for staff. This idea was piloted during Mental Health Month, and the staff has consistently requested a more permanent space. An available space has been identified, and the grant will be used to purchase items to decorate the area and bring it to life. Having a calming zen room would support teachers by offering a space to manage stress, enhance focus, and maintain emotional health, ultimately contributing to a more positive and productive teaching environment.
First Grade Compost Project: The projects and curriculum at Maple Crest STEM Elementary encourage curiosity, increase innovative thinking, inspire creativity and ingenuity, foster collaboration and communication, build confidence, and teach acceptance. The composting project’s purpose is to foster critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and a deeper understanding of environmental science concepts through a hands-on, inquiry-based project. Students will investigate the impact of human activities on local ecosystems and propose sustainable solutions.
Their first-grade students are the compost experts of the school-wide Maple Crest STEM Garden Project. Last year’s first graders gained serious grit and perseverance by working on the compost portion of the garden. They researched and launched the school’s breakfast compost program and created informational videos about composting for the school. They designed compost cans for each of the school gardens. Students became agro-ecologist compost experts, collecting leftover breakfast scraps to feed our compost bins. As a final project, they layered materials in compost bins and buried them in the garden to begin adding wonderful nutrients to the soil.
Veterinary & Animal Science Field Trip: Students have a unique opportunity to tour the Indianapolis Zoo’s Veterinary Facility and observe several species within the zoo. They were the pilot program for the Indy Zoo program in 2017 and the first school program to tour the zoo hospital.
During their hospital tour, second-year students had the chance to speak with Veterinarians, Technicians, and support staff about their careers in Zoology and Veterinary Medicine. Students also viewed the nutrition area and learned about the special diets of all the animals. While touring, students gained knowledge of the diagnostic procedures and special techniques used for the different species within the zoo.
First-year students chose three habitats and species to complete behavior observations and inferences on their health.
Wheel of Weather: This project is called “The Wheel of Weather!” Its purpose is to allow students to make forecasts using the Sager Weather casting algorithm based on various meteorological observations. Students will see that it is possible to forecast the weather accurately with just simple tools and without the need for complex computer models. Students will record their observations and forecasts in their weather journals: they already record automated weather data from the Kokomo Municipal Airport AWOS station daily. Recording weather data using analog methods will be great when compared to data from the school’s new automated weather instruments.
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