Kaj Holm, 5th grade teacher at Jefferson Elementary, received a grant from Excellence in Education Foundation to further his classroom teaching. He describes below how Cuisenair Rods and Hovercam, purchased from the grant, have made learning easier and a lot more fun for students.

1. Cuisenaire Rods
The goal of this project was to get students more involved with the learning of fractions. This mathematics manipulative certainly helped achieve a higher level of understanding then I had anticipated. The Cuisenaire rods helped students develop a way to look at fractions and recognize that all the pieces do not have to come from the same wholes. That a fraction of something can be either the same or different depending on what the whole actually represents. The students can try and understand this through traditional algorithms but visual hands on learning can certainly solidify that base knowledge the student needs to succeed. This additional tool certainly proved beneficial to the learning of the 5th grade classroom.

Hovercam Solo 8:
This piece of classroom technology changed the way I did many of my hands on activities across all of my subjects. More than just a document camera, the Hovercam is able to take screen shots as well as record what is happening under that camera. This allows instructions to be easily repeated without wasting additional materials in the process. Student placement no longer is an issue when showing examples because of the benefit of having these examples on the SmartBoard rather than being held up in the air in my hand. Any visual can now be shown with incredible detail. When sharing information with colleagues, these saved visuals help aid with explanations to help come up with best practice in our teaching. This small, easy to move piece of technology has been a blessing to have in the classroom.

The EEF has been supporting Charleston schools, students, and teachers for over 20 years. In that time, we have awarded more than $400,000 in grants to teachers in the school district. Learn more about our grants here.