Students in Mrs. Yates' class at Kerman Middle School participated in Project TI Nspire Science, a science and technology project. This project gave students hands-on experience with Veneer Probes. They graphed results of temperature change, pH neutralization, heart rates when exercising, and conductivity in the science classroom. In the science club, after school students applied these concepts to better understand the dynamics of the local ponding basin.
The library at Clay Elementary School underwent a transformation bringing it in to the 21st century and making it a more inviting place for students. The school increased the library's hours of operation to include time before school and during lunch. Students can also visit the library to read or to use the computer lab for Accelerated Reader quizzes before school. New non-fiction titles that support the Common Core curriculum were purchased and “The Daily Special” board was implemented to encourage students to read outside of normal genre choices.
By increasing the selection of high interest books at Centerville Elementary in Sanger Unified, students in Tier II and III were motivated to participate in the elective Accelerated Reading Program. The new books, made possible through the Innovation Grant, offer low level reading text to improve fluency and comprehension. These books will remain an important part of the Tier II and III intervention for the 2013-14 school year. Students will continue to be encouraged to use these books to help them meet grade level reading goals and improve comprehension and fluency.
Rural living is desirable for its small community appeal, but one of the undesirable characteristics of rural communities is limited access to technology and limited access to the Internet. Through the Innovation Grant, students at Laton High School were given an opportunity to experience 21st Century learning that connected students to the community and technology. Grant funds were used to purchase an iPad 2, an iPad Mini and accessories, which connected students to multi-media applications and web-based tools.
Building upon the project that was funded through the Innovation Grants the previous year, the APPS project at Burrel Union Elementary was phenomenal in assisting students with increasing their reading proficiency and their math knowledge. With funds from the Innovation Grant, ALL students were given access to grade level applications to help them with their weaknesses in each subject area. The teachers were deeply appreciative of the funds because it gave them additional resources to ensure that students are reading at grade level.
The NED Show comes to West Park Elementary! The Show, based on the acronym NED - Never give up; Encourage others; Do your best, is an elementary school assembly program promoting positive attitudes and behavior, and academic achievement in school. The Show’s character, named NED, had students amazed with his yo-yo tricks, laughing at his jokes and motivated by his message of always doing your personal best. The presentation was hilarious, inspiring and engaging, and teachers found a common language to encourage students in every class to never give up, encourage others, and do their best.
High school students in the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corp (NJROTC) at Parlier High were introduced to the SeaPerch program. They learned the concept of buoyancy and were engaged in many areas of STEM through the hands-on experience of building their own Remote Underwater Vehicle (ROV). Students received in-depth training on the use of various hand tools, to include soldering irons, ohm meters, and electric drills.
Cooking was the highlight of the week in Paula Larson’s kindergarten class at Monroe Elementary. The Innovation Grant was used to purchase a kitchen cart, small kitchen appliances and tools, as well as some food items. This cooking project helped to reinforce measurement, fractions and other math standards. The children enjoyed reading recipes and following the sequential steps to make food items. Each week's lesson made nutrition and health a topic of discussion and reinforced learning of previous science units.
Eleventh grade science students at Firebaugh High School learned to use their curiosity and creativity to become innovators while participating in their first science fair. The students were given guidelines, examples, and a grading rubric, and they were required to develop their own topics and investigations for their projects. They worked hard since CSTs, conducting research and developing new ideas or new twists on projects that have been done in the past. Student projects were judged and prizes were awarded for exemplary projects.
At Orange Center, 7th and 8th grade students learned a new approach to writing. Picturing Writing: Fostering Literacy Through Art, is an art-and-literature-based approach to writing that integrates visual modes of thinking at every stage of the writing process. Picturing Writing utilizes simple crayon resist art techniques and quality literature in a progression of mini-lessons that teach essential literacy skills to students with diverse learning styles. With this approach, students draft their ideas in images first.
Students in the the Fresno County Office of Education Adapted Physical Education (APE) Program are visual and kinesthetic learners. They need the visual demonstration and constant feedback to understand what is being taught and/or asked of them. The Foundation @ FCOE Innovation grant provided the opportunity for the APE Program to integrate the use of “Video Skill Analysis” into the APE Skills Challenge Curriculum. By providing them with visual feedback of themselves performing a gross motor skill they were able to better identify the performance errors.
Video is used in numerous ways at Big Creek Elementary to provide a multidisciplinary approach that will enable a deep understanding and retention of academic content at all grade levels. One way that cameras were used by 1st-8th grade students was to videotape the phases of conducting a research project and embed the video into a flipchart to be projected and presented. Another way cameras were used was that after reading a piece of literature, students worked in collaborative groups to choose a scene from the story to write an original script based on that scene.
Legos as a learning tool? Yes, that’s correct! In Mr. Brotnov’s classroom at Washington Colony Elementary students put together robots using Lego Mindstorms. With the new robotic kit, a team was formed of 4th and 5th graders. The team familiarized themselves with the robotics platform, the parts, the programming language, and the different models that can be made with the set. In the fall of 2013 the team from Washington Colony will participate in the First Lego League, attending local tournaments.
At Jefferson Elementary in Kings Canyon Unified, students in Ms. Alvis’ second grade class used an iPad to improve reading fluency and comprehension. One of the excersises the students did was Reader's Theater, which allowed the children to practice a play in small groups and then their performance was recorded and shown to the class on the Starboard. They loved seeing themselves on the big screen! The children also used the iPad at Reading Workshop time navigating through the many educational apps. that I have provided for them.
Mr. Chamberlain’s third grade class at Caruthers Elementary was in need of a projector that would work effectively with a promethean board that was donated to the classroom. The Innovation Grant made it possible for the school to meet the need! The classroom now has a short-throw projector, which is the newest and best technology for great connectivity between computers, promethean-type interfaces, and projectors. Mr. Chamberlain now has another avenue of teaching standards that he didn’t have last year and he and his students love it!
The goal at Polk Elementary in Central Unified is to have every kindergarten student reading at grade level by the end of the school year.
The T-shirts purchased through the Innovation grant incorporate school spirit and encourage students to work toward grade level reading goals. Students who can read all fifty sight words were awarded a T-Shirt in Polk school colors that show twenty five benchmark words on the front and twenty five words on the back. On the front it says "Polk Pioneers are Readers."