East Greenwich Education Foundation Announces 2017 Grants

By Jim Armstrong, East Greenwich Education Foundation

EAST GREENWICH, RI — The East Greenwich Education Foundation (EGEF) today announced its most recent round of grant awards for the 2017-2018 academic year. This year’s seven successful grants came from four of the town’s schools (details below) and total an impressive $40,436 in funding. This year, EGEF received 11 grant proposals amounting to more than $137,000 in requested funding.

“Once again, East Greenwich teachers put together thoughtful and compelling grant requests, each of which had the potential to encourage innovation and increase student engagement in our classrooms,” said EGEF’s President, Susan Riley. “It’s always incredibly hard to choose among such excellent proposals, and we thank our public school educators once again for their obvious dedication to our town’s children.”

EGEF provides grants that enhance classroom learning through innovative approaches to teaching in all areas of the curriculum, including math, science, social studies, English, reading, language, health, art, music and more. Key objectives of the Foundation include piloting promising programs and supporting their replication throughout the school district.

“The Foundation is able to provide these grants thanks to the generosity of our community,” Riley added.

Here is a detailed listing of the 2017 EGEF grants:

Meadowbrook Farms:

Meadowbrook by the Bay, Part 2 : An expansion of last year’s highly successful and popular EGEF grant, this program brings local marine science education and environmental awareness into every K - 2 Classroom at Meadowbrook. It also allows every Meadowbrook student a chance to do field research on and about Narragansett Bay.

Executive Functioning Classroom: Executive functioning and self-regulation skills are the mental processes that allow students to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and work on multiple tasks successfully. This grant introduces a variety of alternative furniture options and designs into a 1st-grade classroom, representing strong collaboration with general education and special education, supported by specialists in other areas such as occupational therapy and the school psychologist. Significantly, the teacher behind this grant also collaborated with the recipient of a similar grant at Eldredge, building on a previously-implemented successful program there and bringing it to Meadowbrook.

Stop-Motion Animation Studio: Located in the school’s library, this program will help all students and teachers create short, student-written, -directed, and -produced stop-motion animation films working in groups. Students will use technology and other information-gathering tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways that others can view, use, and assess.

Imagination Station: These stations will afford students in all four of Meadowbrook’s kindergarten classrooms daily opportunities to explore and engage in a hands on, flexible and differentiated learning environment. These stations will transport students in their imaginations to different community settings while practicing their communication and problem-solving skills in various community roles.

Frenchtown:

Where the Wild Things Are: Exploring Robotics Through Literature: Groups of children in every Frenchtown classroom will have the opportunity to participate in a series of lessons designed to introduce the engineering design process, robotics, programming, repeat functions, and sensors with the use of a robotics construction kit. These ideas will be explored in the context of a curriculum that utilizes the book "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak.

Eldredge:

21st Century Learning Environment, Part 2: This grant builds on last year’s success in one 4th grade classroom and expands it throughout the building. The classroom spaces themselves are transformed, taking advantage of moveable, multipurpose workstations for each student, rather than stationary desks. The 2016 pilot program for this grant was overwhelmingly well-received by students, teachers, parents, and administrators. Learn more here: https://www.egefri.org/news/2017/so-what-exactly-is-eldredges-21st-century-classroom/

East Greenwich High School:

Creating a Joyful Space: This pilot program supports a 100% paperless classroom by introducing desks and sling chairs that allow students to better incorporate technology while working and collaborating. The enhanced design also facilitates teacher interaction with students.

About East Greenwich Education Foundation
EGEF is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes excellence in public education by providing grants to teachers to fund creative, innovative and sustainable initiatives in the classroom. The Foundation supports educational programs at all six public schools in East Greenwich. It is through the generous giving of individual donors and fundraising events such as the annual Beach Ball Gala held at the Dunes Club that enables the Foundation to fund grants.

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