Joy in Teaching Grants

The art room is a hub of creativity, innovation, and self-expression for our students. However, traditional seating arrangements can sometimes hinder students' artistic exploration and collaboration. With this grant, we seek to introduce flexible seating options to foster a more dynamic and inclusive environment where students can comfortably engage in artistic activities, collaborate with peers, and find inspiration in various settings.

Flexible seating will empower students to choose seating arrangements that best suit their learning style, creativity, and comfort, which is essential in the arts. Whether it's standing at an easel, sitting on a cushion, or gathering around a collaborative table, flexible seating promotes engagement, choice, and movement are key elements in fostering artistic expression.

By implementing a fiber art center into my art classroom, which is set up as a maker space, student artists would have added choices to create and bring their personal ideas to life!  Being able to offer fabric and sewing tools as well as knitting, felting,  and stitching materials would not only expand our curriculum but also allow current artists a connection to the past and the lost art of fiber work. Many students enjoy working with fibers! They find it calming. I see the therapeutic side and how much it helps students who sometimes struggle with mental health to focus and enjoy the art making process. Sewing tools can be used year after year in the art room, benefiting many students and the learning will have have life long application! 

With the grant, I plan to continue integrating 3D printers into my STEM classroom to enhance hands-on learning and creativity among elementary students. We will use the printers for interdisciplinary projects, allowing students to design and create tangible objects that relate to science, math, and art concepts.

For example, students can create models of ecosystems in science, geometric shapes in math, or prototypes for art projects. Additionally, we'll incorporate lessons on design thinking and problem-solving, fostering critical skills in a fun, engaging way. This hands-on experience will not only ignite their interest in STEM fields but also promote teamwork and collaboration as they work on group projects. Ultimately, the grant will help create an innovative learning environment where students can explore and express their ideas through technology.

I would use this grant to redo our classroom library so I can build a love of reading for my students past and present. Our library was depleted after I removed books that were 20+ years old. I'd love to add books that students find relevant, add book bins that aren't broken, buy a bookshelf that's not broken, and buy some spots for our classroom library so students can sit and read peacefully.

I plan on using the funds to purchase musical instruments for my students to use. Since I teach in an urban school district, it is imperative that the teaching tools I utilize are engaging to reluctant learners and/or students with trauma induced behaviors. One of my goals as a music teacher is to expose my students to unknown musical instruments. There aren't a lot of instruments for the students to use at one of my schools,  so having this grant would benefit my music program.  There are multiple ways the students will utilize the instruments such as: accompanying singing, creating original songs, creating ostinato patterns, ear training exercises, music games, etc. The instruments  that I select will help promote academic excellence in music education.

First I would like to purchase an item or two to improve our outdoor playground. Our playground could benefit greatly from a sandbox or water table as our children have a lot of interest in sensory and S.T.E.M. play. Depending on the cost of items at the time of purchase I would ideally like to get a sandbox or water table and also purchase a sheet of plexiglass to mount on our fence for children to paint and color on. While our playground is fun, it could be so much more engaging with some added opportunities for learning!

The last thing I would purchase for my classroom would be seating for my staff. We spend time each day doing table top learning activities and lessons with the children and my staff and I are seated in child-sized chairs to do so.  This isn't ideal and I would love to show my hardworking staff some appreciation with seating that is adult-sized to make a small difference in their day. 

 

I plan to use it to buy classroom supplies to support my organization system with our new math curriculum. Magnets, cardstock, and laminating packages will be part of this new organization system. I will purchase new mailboxes for my students to improve my school-to-home communication. I plan to buy writing utensils for my students such as highlighters, pencils, crayons, colored pencils, and markers. I would purchase extra snacks for my students who are unable to bring snacks from home. Lastly, I would like to purchase outdoor games for my students to enjoy at recess.

I would use this grant money to purchase a subscription to an online research based Math Support Program for my students to use during our small group rotations. It is a wonderful program and the children love it! 

I would use the funds to purchase cooking utensils and appliances for the preschool classroom. Many families do not have the time or energy to share cooking experiences at home with their preschool child. This grant would allow the classroom to get a toaster oven, blender, induction burner, crockpot, utensils and pans. This grant would provide the opportunity for students to get cooking experiences they may otherwise not receive. Just this morning a student asked how the applesauce they were eating was made. This grant would allow the students to get real-life experience cooking a variety of foods. Students will also learn safety in the kitchen, learn recipes to bring home, and spark excitement and creativity. 

Students enrolled in IB Environmental Systems & Societies at Midland High School would take a field trip to Midland's City Landfill. A field trip to the city's landfill would greatly benefit IB Environmental Systems and Societies (ESS) students by providing them with a tangible understanding of the waste management systems they study in class. Seeing the scale and complexity of landfill operations firsthand helps students grasp the environmental impact of human consumption and waste generation. It offers a real-world example of concepts such as ecological footprints, pollution, and resource management, which are central to the ESS curriculum. By observing how waste is handled, from sorting to disposal and potential recycling efforts, students gain insight into the challenges of sustainable development and the importance of reducing waste at the source.

Moreover, visiting a landfill exposes students to the consequences of poor waste management, such as methane emissions, groundwater contamination, and habitat destruction. This can spark discussions on how environmental policies, technology, and individual behaviors can mitigate these effects. The field trip can inspire students to engage with solutions, such as waste reduction, recycling initiatives, or more sustainable product designs. Ultimately, the experience makes environmental issues more personal and immediate, motivating students to think critically about their own consumption habits and how they can contribute to a more sustainable future.

We would repair school instruments that are desperately needed for our students to succeed. School instrument repair usually costs our district $2,000 for the school year. 

I teach a social-emotional learning class for kindergarteners at West Godwin Elementary in Wyoming, Michigan. It is a play-based learning class. The students learn how to communicate their feelings and emotions while playing with each other. The goal is to give the right tools to kindergarteners to express themselves in a safe way. This is something that they may or may not have experienced in their homes. Each month introduces a new theme they learn about and try to apply to their play. November is gratitude. December is respect. I would use this grant to purchase crafting supplies, dolls, play kitchen items, sensory bins, etc. to support this play-based learning as we currently do not have much in the classroom.

I would use the grant to purchase a class set of another book that we can read together as a whole class, my students LOVE to follow along when we read. I would use additional funds to purchase various supplies like folders, notebooks, coloring supplies, etc.

This grant will be used to refurbish and revive our tired and exhausted book library.  Many of our books have been lovingly used and are beyond repair.  Since we are a small, nonprofit preschool serving the Midland community and surrounding areas, many of our current books have been donations from families throughout our 59 years of operation.  With this grant, we would replenish our library with the most popular titles, including hardcover and softcover story books.  We would also introduce a "Lending library" into our curriculum, where children will take home a book bag, read it with their families, and do an activity based on the story.  This will create a love of reading, parent/child interaction, and early literacy skills.  Our goal is to promote less screen time and more lap time. We feel that by using this grant to promote a love of reading, it will continue throughout the child's life and have a long lasting effect - which is far more than any toy ever could.  "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." ~ Dr. Seuss

Our middle school special education students are significantly behind their general education peers in the reading skills. The reading material we have to work with at their reading levels (2-4th grade) is quite juvenile in interest level. I have found some books on line that are short reads, low-level, and high interest. I would love to purchase some of these for use with my small groups. The higher interest topics will give them more of a reason to read, as opposed to reading about Spot chasing a ball, while Jane watches.  

This would help to fund our Semper Fit program. The program is an advanced fitness and leadership course designed to use military type training to teach students cohesiveness, collaboration, responsibility and perseverance. The money granted would purchase our uniforms. 

We would use the grant to purchase materials for the welding program. It could be used for supplies needs for the program.

We are in a low income area with kids that present a variety of needs! Any help I can get to provide my students with equipment they need and love, I take advantage of.

The grant will be used to help 400 students get new physical education equipment. Many of my students are low income and do not have access to sports outside of school.  I need new equipment for the students because many of my basketballs  have no grip and do no hold air anymore. Basketball can help kids build muscle, improve their balance and coordination, and increase their endurance. It's a weight-bearing sport that can help strengthen bones. Basketball can help kids learn to work in a team, communicate, and listen to others. They can also learn how to treat their teammates and teachers with respect. 

Many of our classroom supplies are just plain old, dried up, bent, or hardened. The plan would be to purchase new scissors, paint brushes, fresh markers and tempera paint, construction paper and hopefully a cricket cutting system or a laminator to protect and preserve student work.  I have a cross curriculum art project with social studies, history,  and  geography that ties into self-awareness that I’d like to introduce in March & complete by our all-school art show in May that would benefit from all of these supplies.  Being a part of the joy my art students experience is worth whatever it takes to provide the best for them.

We started a new STEM program at our high school 4 years ago from scratch.  We were able to get some funding to get the program started, but we are still in need of a number of basic tools and supplies (pliers, batteries, drill bits, tape measures, etc.).  We would like to have full classroom sets of these tools.
Some of our electronics are beginning to need to be replaced as well (Makey Makeys, Edison Robots, etc.)  We wouldn't need full sets of any of these, just a few replacement parts.

This money will be used as a supplementary budget for aiding the creation of a new course within our high school. The creation of the Outdoor Recreation and Education class will be able to simultaneously teach our young people how to enjoy the outdoors while educating them how to conserve and protect it! This opportunity will guide students through units of stewardship and outdoor ethics to recreation and knowledge required to successfully enjoy our state's great outdoors. This is a brand new course that I have been developing for the next year and is likely to begin with around twenty total students. One example of a potential program that the money would be used for is introducing the MDNR's Salmon in the Classroom program. Students will research and understand the influence that Chinook salmon have had on our Michigan ecosystems, care for them throughout the entire year and get to release them back into the fishery. Another example on how the money would be used to obtain resources for teaching wilderness survival. These can be things from land navigation, knot kits, learning how to start fires or build basic shelters out things that are available. This money could also be used in obtaining an instructor or materials for wilderness medicine/emergency response. Funding could allow the teacher to purchase kits for students to learn wound packing, how to use tourniquets, bracing, splints etc or have an individual come in from the Stop the Bleed program. Additionally, the money could be used in providing for any of the recreation sports that are possible within our state. Recreation activities that would be pursued are archery, backpacking, snowshoeing, ice and fly fishing, geocaching, and many more. Many of these activities require equipment which would be critical for our students who likely do not have the means to supply for themselves. 

I am a first year Spanish teacher and each week my students are tasked with studying a culture within the Spanish speaking world. I have approached it through art, music, geography, language, and food. The most engaging and requested method has been through food. We have made a Spanish tortilla, walking tacos, Venezuelan arepas, and have tried churros from Mexico. I have a kitchen in my classroom and come from a background in the restaurant industry, so it only made sense to have the students study cultures in this way. So far, the ingredients and materials needed for these projects have been procured with my own money. I would love to continue to have my 142 students cook culturally relevant foods in my class, and this grant would allow me to do that. 

I am seeking funds to purchase wired headphones students can use with their school Chromebooks. We are doing research for National History Day projects and this will help us with transcription of video interviews and audio information students have chosen for their research projects. We no longer use/allow wireless headphones and cell phones in our building during the school day which has been a great move, but most students no longer have wired headphones or the funds to purchase them. This would be a great help to our History classroom and projects. 

I want to purchase a line burner for cutting bevels on metal plate for my welding students to practice open groove welds. Doing so will advance the program and service 60 students per year.  The addition of this equipment will better align with the curriculum at Delta College and the needs of the local workforce.

We are in need of some updated chemistry supplies. We are currently using a periodic table on the wall from the 1970's and many new elements have been added and named! The newest elements are written in sharpie and the wall table is deteriorating and falling apart. This is an integral part of teaching chemistry and an important visual throughout the year. 

I have partnered with the DNR of Michigan to run the Salmon in the Classroom program at Western Middle School.  This program helps classrooms across the state to raise, learn from, and release young Chinook salmon in approved waterways. It is an amazing program that allows the student to witness and study the growth and development of salmon, which are so popular in our great lakes. This is the second year that I will be participating in the program, and I am currently the only teacher in the Bay City Public School District that is part of the program. The only drawback of the program is the cost to maintain the environment for the salmon. The grant would provide us with the necessary equipment and chemicals needed to keep this program going for years to come. The Salmon in the Classroom program gives my students a hands-on educational opportunity that is directly related to Michigan.  

In 2023, I was able to attend a professional development on Modeling Mobility through MiStem. The main piece was about coding and programming a microbit, and then using that microbit to make a Maqueen Plus robot perform tasks (such as follow a line, use sonar to detect obstacles, display caution lights, perform turns, etc). Currently, I have been able to obtain a microbit for every student in my physics class to code, but I only have obtained 8 Maqueen Plus bots. I would like to purchase 8 more bots, that way only 2 sets of hands will be engaged in the bot instead of 4 having to share in the activities.

The more hands on my physics students can have in the classroom with coding tangible objects and performing tasks, the better. Many will need coding skills in their next step (majority of the physics students are pursuing  STEM careers and going to college) and being able to make an object do a task you tell it to do is so empowering. Last year, even though we had to share, the students were engaged and I was amazed at what they put their minds to when it came time to do a free-range project with the bots. Finally, this unit hits on mechanical engineering, computer science, and civil engineering, which are many in demand careers that we need students to catch that "spark" to work in. This unit gives them that opportunity for that spark.

Effective communication and accessibility are paramount in today's increasingly digital learning environment. I plan to use the grant to acquire a Samsung Tablet S9 FE equipped with a stylus pen, which will transform how I deliver instruction to my students. 

Digital Whiteboard: This powerful device would act as a digital whiteboard, allowing me to write notes in real-time during virtual math classes. This would provide students with a clear and visually engaging representation of the material. I would write equations, diagrams, and explanations directly on the screen, ensuring clarity and visual appeal for students.

Real-Time Sharing: The tablet's screen will be shared with students simultaneously, allowing them to follow along and take notes. Students can use their own devices to capture screenshots or record the shared screen, ensuring they have a digital record of the lesson for future reference. 

Enhanced Accessibility: In today's increasingly digital learning environment, effective communication and accessibility are essential for students, especially those with learning disabilities like dyslexia or dysgraphia. Traditional note-taking methods can be challenging for these students, hindering their ability to grasp mathematical concepts. Digital notes can be downloaded, shared, and printed, providing flexibility for students, especially those struggling with traditional note-taking methods.

Assessment and Feedback: The ability to save and share digital notes would streamline assessment processes, enabling me to provide timely and targeted feedback to students. This would help identify areas where additional support may be needed.

Investing in this innovative technology can create a more equitable and effective learning environment for special education students. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE will enable real-time problem-solving demonstrations, enhance student engagement, and provide a more efficient method for distributing instructional content. Additionally, it will allow students to revisit the material in a format that accommodates their learning needs.
 

Items purchased using the grant money will be used to enhance our outdoor space, as we are working on making this space an extension of the learning environment. We are planning to revamp our pre-existing mud kitchen as well as sensory experiences. Leftover grant money will be used to provide real-world experiences through field trips, classroom visitors, as well as bringing real-life items into the classroom.

I teach both language arts and social studies.  I hope to purchase books that connect the two subjects with the grant money.  Geography is the main topic of social studies, and we focus on how our experiences compare to the experiences of others in language arts.  I would purchase informational books about various countries from each continent along with fiction and nonfiction books that focus on the lives of people around the world.  These books would be useful resources as the students study the world and its people and help the 6th graders with a year-end project.

This grant would benefit my classroom by allowing me to purchase materials I would need to implement a new approach to teaching math in a way that improves student engagement. Our district is incorporating the educational approach of building thinking classrooms during math instruction developed by Dr. Peter Lijedahl.  This approach enhances thinking, collaboration, perseverance and risk-taking. I plan to purchase large magnetic dry erase boards to use in my classroom. These boards are placed around the classroom so students are up and moving. They are put into collaborative teams to complete a task.  The boards are large enough so that the students can use magnetic manipulatives as well as markers to show their work. As each group finishes they are encouraged to share how they completed their task while the others gather around their board.

I have not had money I can spend on decorating my classroom. I would use the money to give the kids a warm place to call home for the day.  I would decorate with some hanging vines on the walls.  Some plants and some fun posters with encouragement.  I would also buy some seating options that they can use by spending their Class Dojo points.  I have great kids and I want to be their person to depend on.  

With this grant, I plan to purchase outdoor hammocks that will be used to create a peaceful, comfortable reading space for my kindergarten students. The hammocks will be set up outside during reading time, allowing students to enjoy fresh air while engaging in stories. This outdoor reading area will provide a calming environment that promotes mindfulness, focus, and a love for reading, while giving students an opportunity to connect with nature as part of their learning experience. By incorporating hammocks, I aim to enhance both their academic and emotional development in a unique, engaging way.

While attending professional development and working toward my Masters Degree in Reading, I have been learning more and more about the Science of Reading. This is a way to teach phonics and reading that focuses a lot on manipulating sounds and words. To do this effectively, I need to have a lot of resources for the kids to actively use. These resources can be very expensive, but are very beneficial to learning process. 

I would like to be able to purchase a few apps for our iPads that go with a program that we already have.  The program is called Osmo and it is a hands on learning tool for math, literacy and STEM.  My students are fully engaged in the apps that we have for it currently but there are a few more that will help the struggling learners boost those concepts that they are lacking in.  It is a self paced program that will allow them to learn at their level.  The 3 apps that I would like to implement are for literacy and math.  

I teach a Life Skills class for students with disabilities. We learn many life skills, such as sewing, laundry, safety, and cooking. Usually, I buy the ingredients myself, but if I were to win this grant, I would use the money to purchase grocery items to cook with the students. We have made very fun meals, such as spaghetti and meatball, breakfast burritos, and pancakes. I like to do a wide variety of foods with the students so they can feel confident in the kitchen and be safe. 

I have been a teacher for 3 years, and I absolutely love my job! In our school we are fortunate to have a very clean and well maintained building, however due to lack of updated systems it is extremely warm in certain classrooms. This condition leaves my students to enter a hot, clammy, and undesirably tiring learning environment. In the warmer seasons I will be teaching in front of the class, and I can watch sweat poor down their poor little red faces; as they simply sit at their seat. Understandably this effects their engagement as it leaves the students tired and even at times unmotivated. So I have worked to try and problem solve. Opening our window blowing in any cool morning air, as well as using fans to allow hallway air to be forced in. Yet with security heightening in schools we are not to leave our classroom doors opened and unattended. After Physical Education and recess I try to leave the lights off for a while to cut down on any energy coming from the lights. However, each plan has just not worked well enough to keep the warm heat out. Some teachers in our building have purchased their own air conditioning units. Unfortunately, due to various reasons I currently don't have the extra funds to purchase an air conditioning unit. If awarded money to do so, it would be amazing to surprise my students with an ac unit to beat this heat! .

At Dow High School we have a program specifically for students with Cognitive Impairment (CI), these students receive a Certificate of Graduation at the end of high school instead of a Diploma.  As a result, much of our programming is focused on vocational and independent living skills.  The funds will specifically be used in our Food Service Class.  This year we would like to implement a program where the students make an item, take orders from the staff, then hand deliver the items.  The plan is to implement our first ever 'Charger (school mascot) Cafe' to help the students learn organization skills- by taking and managing the orders; food preparation skills- by making the food and drinks; and service skills- by delivering with politeness and a smile.  

Hands on learning is a key component to success with students who have experienced trauma in their lives. A Skutt Legend pottery wheel in the art classroom would provide stress relief as well as allow for self expression. These students have the talent--just not the equipment.