The Santa Clarita Valley Education Foundation awarded 12 local teachers across all school districts with nearly $14,000 worth of materials altogether aimed to implement creative and engaging classroom projects that promote learning on Friday at the Newhall School District office.
An annual tradition since 1985, the SCV Education Foundation organization with the mission of enhancing K-12 public school education with literacy programs, student teacher recognitions, and community engagement, has awarded almost $700,000 in teacher innovation grants, according to Joe Satorhelyi, the organization’s executive director.
On Friday, teachers from all five local school districts gathered to learn more about the materials requested through the grant and their goals using them in the classroom. Materials awarded included dollhouse and book characters, animation studio, scientific calculators, and round tables, among many others.
For the innovation teacher grants, the organization is able to average about $20,000 and “we’re able to do this because of the Newhall Family Foundation,” Satorhelyi said. The foundation provides additionalfinancial assistance where needed for the teacher grants specifically.
The grant application process began in November, which includes a proposal and can be up to $1,500 in value and the applications are then reviewed by a committee. This year, the committee looked for projects that were innovative, creative and collaborative, according to an SCV Education Foundation flyer published last year.
Leslie Garcia, an extensive support teacher at Mountainview Elementary School, wanted to connect literacy components with dramatic play.
“One of the things we see a lot within that environment is students who need repetition, that ability to access language and literacy, and able to turn everything together,” she said. She was granted dynamic storytelling, and “one of the biggest components I’m looking forward to is really embedding different methods of communication with these items,” she said.
From Valley View Elementary School, Lilit Bayramian applied for a grant to fund hands-on phonics, tools and activities to look “for different ways to make phonics more engaging, more hands-on, and trying to pull more things out of my bag with tricks for students to make it fun when practicing our letter sounds,” she said. “So I really appreciate this opportunity.”
The SCV Education Foundation has served the local area since 1995 and since has fostered relationships among schools, educators, students, and businesses to promote the appreciation of public schools, according to a news release.
Other programs held throughout the year include the annual Teacher Tribute, the Read with Me Program, Bag of Books initiative, and scholarship awards to local high school students pursuing higher education.
