Amazing Grants Award Schools With Innovative Digital Projects
The Lightspeed
Systems Foundation, the charitable arm of the
Lightspeed Systems firm, will distribute just under $100,000 to four
schools or
districts via its Amazing Grants program.
Through its foundation, Lightspeed annually gives out
financial awards to K-12 schools which are planning digital learning
projects
that, in one way or another, result in inspiring teachers, engaging
students,
challenging IT staffs and involving parents.
The
Anaverde Hills Middle School won for its flipped math project.
The school in
the Westside Union School
District in Quartz Hill, CA, plans to involve the entire
school in a modified flipped class for its mastery-level math program.
With a
$25,000 Amazing Grant and using mobile devices and other digital tools,
students will watch videotaped lectures on the math content at home and
then
use classroom time for more individual one-to-one interactions between
students
and teachers and more detailed workshop-structured instruction.
Cyber
Snow Days earned a grant for the Conneaut
School District. Since the school district in
Linesville, PA already has a cyberschool in place, it got permission from
the
Pennsylvania Department of Education for a pilot program called Cyber Snow
Days
that will enable students to work virtually from home on the winter days
when
schools will be closed because of bad weather. A $25,000 Amazing Grant
will
help the district get a learning management system from Lightspeed that
will
allow students to turn in assignments, complete assessments, collaborate
on
group projects and ask questions of their teachers — all from home on snow
days. Along with keeping students engaged while at home because of bad
weather,
it will also require the school district to schedule fewer make-up days at
the
end of the school year.
The Effingham Unit 40
District Schools won for its ACCTT: Addressing Common Core Through
Technology program. The Effingham, IL, district will use a $22,204
Amazing
Grant to develop a professional development program that will help
teachers
prepare to meet Common Core standards. Using a flipped-classroom model
with
online training modules and collaborative workshops, the program will help
teachers draw up technology-infused, inquiry-based lessons that will be in
line
with Common Core standards.
John
L. Compton Junior High School secured a grant for its technology-based Common Core training
and
journalism and public relations elective. As part of its larger goal of
establishing a 1-to-1 Chromebook initiative, the school in the Bakersfield City
School District in Bakersfield, CA, will use a $25,000 Amazing Grant
for two
projects. First, it will develop a bimonthly professional development
program
to help teachers incorporate technology in preparing lessons that are in
line
with Common Core standards. Second, it will use a number of digital tools
and
resources to create a new journalism and public relations elective for
students.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.