Students in Kathy Onnen’s classroom at Tranquility Elementary participated in the Peach Blossom Festival, a competition where students collaboratively work together. This competition helps students gain confidence in public speaking and develop the skill of oral interpretation of literature. They read from a variety of literature during practice, and then picked their favorite for the competition. In addition to the Peach Blossom Festival, students also enjoyed a visit to the San Jose Tech Center where they participated in a class to create their own roller coasters.

All four Coalinga Elementary schools participated in reading books as part of the California Young Reader Medal Club (CYRMC). Every year, children and teens in California help to nominate, read, and vote for the CYRMC winning books. Coalinga Elementary School students participated in the Primary and Picture Books for Older Children categories; and this was the first time that students voted for the CYRM books and 87% of the students qualified to vote.

If You Build It They Will Learn, featured Lego® in Beth Alvarado’s 8th grade classroom. Students had the opportunity to see how content standards work in relation to motion, space, and energy. If You Build It, They Will Learn took science out of the pages of the classroom textbook and into a life lesson and learning experience. Students worked in groups to build various Lego® Robots and then they had to program each robot to do individual activities. Ms.

It was A Touching Time in History for students with Ramona Cheek at Central High School West. The goal of this project was to help students gain a deeper understanding and knowledge of past world events by connecting it to the present. Reproduced primary documents were given to groups of students to research and prepare a product for display. Each group engaged in a discussion and wrote about what they discovered from the primary documents.

Dana Berg at Addicott Elementary was able to provide special needs students with educational academic curriculum to supplement specially designed lessons that are aligned to the Common Core Content Standards. Literature boxes were created with lesson plans and hands-on concrete items such as toy animals, puppets and items that can be used with many books in the classroom to bring the book to life.

Students at Kerman High School have added a skill set that they might not have had the ability to do without the Innovation Grant. Through the Lion TV project, students learned basic principles of videography, lighting, editing, interviewing, and working in teams towards a common goal. Students wrote, filmed, and edited weekly episodes on their own under the guidance of an adult, which made the material a true reflection of their own skills and creativity.

The Reading ReKindled project provided 10 Kindles for students at Oasis High, as well as the ability to purchase a variety of current books available online. The Kindles offer the benefits of technology by meeting individual learning style needs that could instill a lifelong love for reading. One of the immediate goals for Reading ReKindled was to provide students with a library of current literature in a variety of genres.

Students in Timothy Gann’s biology class at Selma High School participated in the Raw Materials for the Construction of DNA Model Blocks project. An accurate working model illustrating the abstract processes of DNA Replication and Protein Synthesis provided students with a three dimensional, hands-on, interactive, visual opportunity to work through the steps of each process. For the first time ever, students were able to conceptualize very abstract ideas with hands-on manipulatives. This concept helped students understand ideas that are challenging for biology instructors to teach.

Lynette Simon’s Lights! Action! Learn! project at Madison Elementary incorporated theatre to student teaching. Using a brain researched technique; students learned a variety of concepts in language arts, math, science, history, and even character education through the use of reader's theatre type musicals that reinforce standards-based teaching. Students were engaged in learning tasks through dramatic intonation, singing and acting, giving them an experience on which to "hook" newly acquired information, all the while having fun learning.

Fifteen students from San Joaquin Valley High Alternative School participated in the Parlier Unified School District Ivy League Project Leadership training program and were mentored by Martin Mares, CEO/Founder of the Ivy League Leadership Project. Participating students learned about leadership strategies alongside the Ivy League Project Scholars. The students were trained on 30 exemplary leadership training strategies and will in turn train participants of the Parlier Unified School Ivy League Project K-6 cohort on vision, networking, and team-building.

Students in William Magnusson’s ROP Construction Technology class at Firebaugh High School were able to design and construct a school barbeque. The project incorporated many units including, excavation and layout, form building, reinforcing of concrete and concrete pouring, stamping, screeding, edging, rough, and final floating. This project helped students develop the foundation and concrete unit skills portion of the construction curriculum and was an excellent experience for students to build teamwork

Hank Guiterrez, Principal of Fowler High School was honored to receive the Innovation Grant to fund the Redcat Men’s Alliance. More than 20 teenagers were given an opportunity to take part in this class for at-risk boys to help build leadership skills and ways to give back to the community. Students received extra mentoring from teachers to help them succeed in school and life. This past Christmas, they carried packages from room to room in the children's oncology unit at Children's Hospital Central California.

Kingsburg Elementary School District purchased a rolling wall that could be used to display student art work and to establish a National Junior Art Honor Society. The portable art wall created a fabulous buzz on campus, and teachers were eager to have the art society display their students’ content-based art on the art wall. Innovative arts education at its best!

Washington Colony Elementary was able to give kindergarten students early access to technology by using it on a daily basis at center time. They practiced the fundamentals of reading and mathematics. The iPad Minis promote visual, tactile and auditory experiences, which are also integral to young children's learning styles.

Students at Alvina Elementary Charter Schools explored music fundamentals through class instruction, solo, and group performance on piano keyboards. Keyboarding will serve to introduce young students to music basics and prepare them to transition into other types of instrumental and vocal ensembles in 5th through 8th grades. Students who attended learned basic keyboarding concepts including note names, finger numbers, five-finger positions and pitch notation for piano.

Project First Hand was an enrichment program implemented at Indianola Elementary in Selma Unified to connect students to community members who are willing to share their life stories. Students strengthened their understanding of historical events by interviewing people who have lived during the time period. The Innovation Grant made it possible for the school to acqire the necessary tools to videotape the historical experiences of community members to create a DVD library of interviews for the district.

Preschool Nights provided activities and materials to parents of children who were not participating in a preschool program to help prepare them for kindergarten. The activities included CDs and concept cards for children to practice identifying colors, shapes, numbers, and letters. They also received playdough, portable white boards and dry erase markers to practice letters, shapes, numbers and writing their name, which all help improve fine motor skills.

Rafer Johnson Junior High launched its first Media Production and students in Ms. Perkins classroom were given an opportunity for hands-on learning experiences with media production equipment. The Innovation Grant made it possible for the school to purchase digital video cameras, microphones, and staging equipment for the classroom to produce episodes of "News to You". The students enjoyed taking control of projects and joined together to create some powerful documentaries and drafting individual autobiographies that were produced and given to students on DVD's.