SCHOOL GRANTS
The Nebo Education Foundation has given 12 grants to various schools within Nebo School District to aid teachers in their efforts to provide students with the best education possible. Nebo Education Foundation board members meet each month to review and award grant requests, consider fundraising avenues and discuss other items that advance the educational opportunities for Nebo School District students. The Nebo Education Foundation functions through generous donations made by individuals and businesses. Congratulations to the following teachers:
Foothills Elementary School Gabrielle Wilson
Wilson said, “I have received a grant through the Nebo foundation to receive headphones for a listening station during my literacy group. ... A listening station will greatly benefit my students because they will be able to listen to great reading which will improve their own reading fluency and listening comprehension.”
Mt. Loafer Elementary School Leslie Ewell
“The guided reading resource I am purchasing will give the teachers at our school materials to dive into numerous nonfiction genres. They will provide leveled short texts to use in guided reading, helping students to experience many types of nonfiction writing and allowing teachers to deepen comprehension,”
Ewell said. Salem Junior High School Tiersa Ward
Ward said, “This grant will help provide fiction and nonfiction books for our eighth-grade English students at Salem Junior High. In the past, we didn’t have enough books for students to have their own personal copy, so students had to read a class copy of a book and had to read it during class. Now, students can have their own book to take home and read.”
Spring Lake Elementary School Denise Ray
“Thank you so much for granting the technology grant for an iPad. ... I will be using the application for running records on a daily basis. The iPad will not tie me to my computer at the back of the room. I will be able to roam around the room, help students, and students will also be using the iPad while connected to the server and using the document camera,” Ray said.
Spring Lake Elementary School Ben Atkin
Atkin said, “This iPad will help with reading in the classroom. Using apps like Raz-kids, students can read books on their reading level. There are many ways this will help student achievement. ... I am also implementing Google Classroom this year. It will be another resource that students can use to do assignments instead of doing them in the computer lab, which is often booked up, or at home, which some students do not have computers at home.”
Mapleton Elementary School Thresa Holthaus
“The money will go towards purchasing eight more Chromebooks for our sixthgrade classes. Sixth-grade students use Chromebooks frequently throughout the day for anything from math differentiation activities and computer coding, to research and writing on various topics. This money allows us to double the number of Chromebooks we were going to purchase for our sixth grade,” said Principal Julie Peery.
Mapleton Junior High School Lori Marett
Marett said, “This grant from the Nebo Foundation will provide a great resource for both teachers and students to connect content area material with real-world concerns. I ordered three classroom subscriptions to various Scholastic magazines. These magazines provide current, interactive information to our students.”
Springville Junior High School Lindsey Shepherd
“My students and I are extremely excited to have this grant so we can buy calculators for our classroom! Without calculators, students have had to spend a lot of time doing busy work to complete calculations such as long division and multiplication out by hand. These calculators will eliminate that wasted time so we can have more time to focus on new concepts!” Shepherd said.
Brockbank Elementary School Janae Wilson
Wilson said, “Thank you Nebo Education Foundation for helping our upper grades purchase Nonfiction Leveled Guided Reading Short Reads! These nonfiction cards are designed to benefit upper-grade Guided Reading Levels (Levels M-Z) and will give the fourth- through sixth-grade teachers at Brockbank more materials to explore many nonfiction genres.”
Canyon Elementary School Jeanette Maughan
“This money will be used to purchase books on CD for first- and second-graders to listen to during their reading time. While the teacher is working with small groups of students, the other students in the class are busy with other literacy activities. One of these activities can now be listening to books on CD,” Maughan said.
Rees Elementary School Dixie Spresser
Spresser said, “The money will be used to buy MP3 players and headphones that will be used to put my books that are on tape or CD onto them. ... Each of the MP3 players along with the corresponding book and a headset will be placed into an individualized bag. I will be training my students how to use them so that they will be able to go get a bag independently and to listen and follow along with the book.”
East Meadows Elementary School Shandy McQuivey, Natalie Mecham, Suzanne Aguero, Penny McEntire
This grant is to help fund field trips to Salem Pond for students. In years past, this has been one of the students’ favorite field trips. The students have done experiments, created a small wetland and learned about pollution and how it affects this habitat.