Teachers Receive Foundation Grants.

By Patsy Ford
Sand Mountain Reporter
April 3, 2007 

 

Many Teachers Request Grants for Items Related to Technology and Learning.

 

The Albertville City Schools Foundation awarded nearly $38,000 in grants to teachers this school year, bringing new technology and more opportunities to classrooms throughout the school system.

Kristi Pair, community education coordinator for Albertville City Schools, said every school in the system received grant awards “thanks to teachers who took the initiative to write the grants to the many people in the community who contributed money to the Foundation to meet these requests.”

Eighteen grants were written for a variety of requests, including literacy bags, math programs and choral and drama equipment, to name a few. But many teachers requested items related to technology and learning.

Spring Charles, a second-grade teacher at Albertville Elementary School, co-wrote a grant with fellow teacher Mona Smith for the ELMO Visual Presenter. The $2,902 presenters arrived in their classrooms in December.

“I use it for everything,” Charles said. “It’s at my desk, and it’s convenient.”

The ELMO Visual Presenter includes a projector, which projects onto the whiteboard at the front of Charles’ classroom. She said she uses the technology for group reading, teaching measurements and working on speed math.

Another benefit is that Charles can project one worksheet on the projector to avoid making copies for every student in the class. They go over the worksheet as a class, and students are even able to go to the whiteboard and write their answers on the projection.

“Being able to show them actual pictures, instead of drawing them myself is a relief,” Charles said.

The ELMO Visual Presenter is PC-compatible, so she is also able to teach through the Internet, using Web sites, such as unitedstreaming.com, which offers educational videos. Charles said projecting a movie through ELMO is much more effective than using a regular-sized television set.

Charles said her students thought the projector was a toy at first, but after showing them many new learning methods, they have a better understanding and are more confident students.