Kaj Holm, fifth grade teacher at Jefferson School, shares how a new 3D printer, math manipulatives and Bill Nye DVD's have impacted teaching and learning in his classroom.
Thank you generous donors who honored your favorite teacher, coach, administrator or staff member who works for the Charleston Unit School District #1. The board members distributed scrumptious Kathy's Cookies and handwritten thank you letters to 43 appreciative employees. This netted over $1,600 for teacher grants that will be given out in the spring. A special thanks goes to Tim Hutti, Tim McCollum and Melanie Mills of the board who went above and beyond helping to make this first year fundraiser a success.
You can still give online to honor an employee of CUSD#1. They won't receive the cookies, but will receive an email that shares your thoughts. Click the Donate button for more information.
Jeanne Dau is EEF fundraising chair and teacher of the regional entrepreneurial class called ClassE. Please feel free to contact Jeanne at jeanne@dauconsultingservices.com to discuss the Honor a Teacher Program or other ways to give.
Blog written by Jodi Cline
I am very thankful for the Excellence in Education Foundation grant award I received in the Spring of 2015 for 10 Raspberry Pi, monitors, and keyboards. I am the district’s Gifted and Talented Education teacher and we use these credit-card sized computers every day in our classroom. Students in our classroom complete math assignments and then have the opportunity to use the Pi to access a variety of computer coding languages like Scratch and Python through games and coding websites.
Computer-science related fields have been rapidly growing throughout recent years. By 2018, the CS field is projected to represent 51% of all of the jobs in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) areas. Having access to the Raspberry Pi in our classroom has allowed students to gain experience in this growing field.
Ms. Holly Pantle, Media Specialist, and Mr. Chris Bily, Social Studies teacher, at Charleston Middle School submitted a grant to purchase new and updated non-fiction, primary, and secondary source materials specific to World War I. Since a wide variety of resources about WWI are often less readily available in schools than those for WWII, the students greatly benefited from the grant.
The diverse needs of middle school students were considered as leveled texts, a range of formats, and a wide-range of high-interest topics were selected. As a result, students were able to research, investigate, and create projects for CPI propaganda posters and speeches. The projects included creating an imaginary advertisement agency and poster along with writing a two-minute persuasive speech.
THIS BLOG WAS SUBMITTED BY EEF BOARD MEMBER TIM MCCOLLUM.
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.
Kaj Holm
5th Grade Teacher – Jefferson Elementary
Cross-Country Coach – Charleston Middle School
Assistant Girls Track Coach – Charleston High School
Welcome to the new website for the Excellence in Education Foundation! We have moved from the CUSD#1 page to increase our visibility, inform you how our grants support students and teachers in the community, and call attention to ways that you can join our efforts to enhance excellence in education in the Charleston schools.
Visit us regularly to learn how we are working with teachers to improve educational opportunities for Charleston students. Future blogs will include “grants in action” reports of how local teachers are using grants awarded by the EEF in their classrooms. I think you’ll be impressed with how our teachers are using money from our grants to create innovative and creative learning opportunities for students. Many of the grant projects also provide direct benefits to the community. For example, the Lincoln Funeral Train exhibit at the Coles County Fairgrounds last spring was not only a learning opportunity for hundreds of local students, but it was also open to the public for three days.
The EEF has been active in the Charleston community for over twenty years, enhancing educational opportunities for CUSD#1 students, and enriching the creative environment in our schools by supporting teachers through grants that are awarded each year. Strong schools promote strong communities. In tough economic times in our state, it has never been more important to support our teachers so they can maintain excellence in their classrooms.
Last year, the EEF board committed to a major fundraising campaign to ensure the sustainability of our grants well into the future. Toward that end, we sponsored the first “Homecoming Happening” event as a way of honoring Charleston alumni and raising money for future students. We plan to continue holding this event every three years. We have a bold goal of increasing the amount of money granted to teachers in coming years. We need your assistance to make this happen. Support our fundraisers. Attend our events. Donate to our cause.
Thank you for visiting our page today. Share our website and come back again soon.
Warmly,
Melanie Mills
2015-2016 President, EEF
EEF was established in 1993 as a nonprofit organization. It is an entity separate from the Charleston Unit School District System and is managed by a 12 member Board of Directors.
Through the educational grant program, EEF endeavors to:
· Enhance the educational opportunities offered to each child
· Enrich the creative and supportive teaching environment within Charleston Community Unit School District #1 Schools
