A grant has been awarded and distributed to more than a dozen schools in the William S. Hart Union High School District, Saugus Union School District, Newhall School District and the Castaic Union School District this year to help make learning more innovative for students and teachers.
The Santa Clarita Valley Education Foundation’s Teacher Innovation Grants are to help educators find different ways to make school more engaging for children.
“Our goal is that people take the things that we bought them, and they probably range from $500 to $1,500,” said Jim Backer, president of the SCV Education Foundation, “and try to find new or innovative ways to connect kids to learning. We want to be a supplement to what the districts do.”
The grants, totaling $10,198, were distributed to 13 different schools within all the districts and will help children grades TK through 11 and special education.
One fifth-grade teacher from Castaic’s school district, Michele Silverlake, was awarded $1,432 to invest in flexible seating for 30 of her students.
“I chose some wobble stools and some cushioned seating for the ground. I really want to try out flexible seating. I know in other classes, it’s been really good for engagement and focus for students. So, I wanted to give it a little try,” Silverlake said.
A Valencia High School Spanish teacher, Jessica Thompson, used her $456 grant for more Spanish class curriculum materials and plans to help 180 students.
“Mine is an invisible thing. Mine is a digital curriculum that I was granted and I am going to be using it next year for my AP Spanish course. The textbook we have now is a textbook and it’s a lot of articles to read. And that is not always engaging to read for high school students, especially those that are native speakers and those that are not native speakers,” Thompson said.
The SCV Education Foundation uses this program to give teachers the resources to do something different.
“I think what we are trying to do is embrace the learning process and make sure that we are doing everything we can to engage kids,” Backer said.
With the grants, the foundation looks for new teaching methods that provide long-lasting benefits for children year after year.
“What it [the grant] does is it allows them to kind of go for tools or like flexible seating, where they might not get the funding from the districts. Furniture and things are hard to get funding for in class,” said Joe Satorhelyi, executive director of the foundation.
