Teachers receive MUSH grants
Students in Trussville City Schools will soon be receiving innovative items in their classrooms to help with learning, including cameras, microphones, musical literature, computer programming software, LEGO based robotics, chess sets and more. These items were funded through a grant program created by the Trussville City Schools Foundation three years ago.
The MUSH (Motivational, Unique, Strategic and Helpful) Grant program allows teachers to apply for monetary grants for their classrooms. Twenty-six applications were received for the 2018-19 school year, requesting more than $23,000. In March, 10 grants were awarded, valued at more than $7,700.
TSCF board member Chris Theriot said the program was created to get teachers thinking beyond the typical textbook to what materials they could use to enhance their classroom teaching experience. He and other board members created the grant program, which is funded by money that parents donate when registering their children for school each year.
“The money that the parents are able to give goes right back into the classroom,” he said. “We are trying to figure out more funding sources and get the word out about the foundation in general to have the community know what we do for the school system.”
When deciding who will receive the grants, the board looks to see if the ideas presented are sustainable, can be executed with $1,000 (the maximum amount per grant) and how many students will be impacted. Theriot said the greater the impact to create change, the more likely they will be able to fund it.
“It’s a really great program and a way for us to shine a light on education,” Theriot said. “We have some great teachers in Trussville who are going above and beyond and encouraging their students and be creative and pushing the boundaries of what they can do.”
The 2018-19 grant winners are:
► Hewitt-Trussville High School 10th-grade English teachers Vanessa Romano and Chaney Bowers, along with school librarian Laura Massey, will use their grant for a recording and production lab allowing students to create digital media, such as video or audio podcasts.
► Mandy McIntosh, a seventh-grade English teacher at Hewitt-Trussville Middle School will use grant money received to purchase a Swivl C5 camera and microphones. With a subscription to the Swivl database, students can record conversations and replay them to improve in their discourse.
► HTMS Band Director Brandon Peters and Assistant Band Director Corinth Lewis teamed up with librarian Rachel Brockman for the Husky Musicians project to provide students access to a new collection of new musical literature. Student-led ensemble groups will encourage practice, individual student leadership and student musicianship, will benefit the entire band.
“Our band program will be partnering with our school library to utilize these funds to set up a collection of music books for our students,” Peters said. “These books will be collections of popular music, movie music and more that students can use to work individually or in small groups outside of the regular band class.”
► One of three Cahaba Elementary School grants was awarded to music teacher Tina Fortenberry’s Full STEAM Ahead program, which will be used to purchase a class set of Sphero “Specdrums.” These app-enabled rings turn colors into musical pitches or sounds and will help students practice pitch and rhythm, bringing STEM into the music classroom by allowing students to be creative.
► CES STEM teacher April Smith’s grant will assist students in becoming the “innovation generation” by building problem solving innovations using computer programming and BBC micro:bit technology with materials.
► Librarian Amy Prickett’s grant for STREAM @Home will provide 12 kits for CES students to check out. Each will contain a VR headset, parent instruction worksheet, at least one nonfiction book, one fiction book and a book connecting the topic to science, engineering, art or math.
► STEM teachers Susan Brandon and Janet Benson at Paine Elementary submitted proposals for programmable LEGO based robotics that will allow students in second through fifth grades who have been learning computer science skills through writing code and apply their skills by learning through different ways.
“Our students have been learning the Digital Literacy Computer Science standards and now it’s time to move forward in our learning by applying knowledge,” Brandon and Benson said. “The grant will assist us in purchasing Lego WeDo 2.0 Core Sets, a hands-on STEM solution that combines the LEGO brick, classroom-friendly software, engaging standards-based projects and a discovery-based approach. These sets will strengthen our students’ computational thinking and engineering principles in a fun and engaging way.”
► At Magnolia Elementary, librarian Rebecca Bishop’s “Let’s Grow Dendrites” program will provide 20 chess sets to promote the growth of dendrites (part of the brain’s nerve cells), heighten problem solving and logic skills, improve concentration and encourage creativity.
“We currently have one complete chess set in the library and students always rush to use this set, and many other students ask to reserve the set for future use,” Bishop said. “The 20 chess sets provided by the MUSH grant will open more opportunities for students to engage in games of chess. Chess will help strengthen our students’ deep focus, logic and interpersonal skills.”
► Also at Magnolia Elementary, counselor Lauren Blake’s project will allow kindergarten and first grade students to engage in imaginative play in the counseling classroom to develop social skills, vocabulary, acquire empathy and stretch their creativity with a Play-All-Around Dollhouse, Dollhouse Furniture and Pose & Play Families.
Patrick Campbell, president of the Trussville City Schools Foundation, said, “TCSF would love to be able to fulfill all of the requests and are always looking for donors that would like to help provide teachers with the funds to reach students with their motivational, unique, strategic andhelpful ideas.”