2021 Teacher Grant Program Awardees

	A	B	C	D	E
1	School	Staff Member	Grade Level	Grant Amount	Teacher Grant Program Project Description

2	Brookside	2nd grade team	2	$2,500	Art supplies and materials to provide our students with equitable access to collaborative project-based learning (directed art lesson by the teacher or free expression). We value the arts and feel it is essential for our students to further develop their social-emotional competencies through creative expression.
3	Brookside	Allie Elbaz	2	$750	Expand classroom library to contain more diverse, multi-cultural, and social-emotional literature at various reading levels.
4	Brookside	Sarah Rozenberg	4	$2,500	Update non-fiction book selection in classroom library to include more high-interest, diverse, and reading level options.
5	Brookside	Denise Keane	4	$2,500	Update non-fiction book selection in classroom library to include more high-interest, diverse, and reading level options.
6	Brookside	Diane Farlow	4	$2,500	Update non-fiction book selection in classroom library to include more high-interest, diverse, and reading level options.
7	Brookside	5th grade team	5	$2,500	Enhance classroom libraries with Book Club books at a variety of Guided Reading Levels.
8	Medea Creek	Tris Wenker	8	$1,500	Implement 3 of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Units of Study (Historical Fiction, Dystopian, and Literary Nonfiction) for 8th grade. Our book collections shold be designed to add multiple points of view for both characters and authors.
9	Medea Creek	Cyndi Smilor	6-8	$2,500	Convert the outdoor patio area into an outdoor space for students to use during counseling groups, workshops, individual counseling sessions, etc. We would want a cover if possible to be able to utilize the space when it is very hot or drizzling and make the space inviting and calming including outdoor cover, versatile tables and chairs, outdoor rugs, plants, privacy mesh, mural, etc. This would allow us more flexibility while adhering to COVID guidelines.
10	Medea Creek	Brittany Braverman	6-8	$2,000	Continue to build and develop our Friends Club at Medea Creek Middle School with additional resources, materials, and activities for our students. In Friends Club, we do our best to make an inclusive space for our students with disabilities and social emotional needs. It’s a place for the students to learn and build the skills to make and develop friendships with other students on campus. We can use some of the funds to plan and host activities in the club and on campus to increase engagement between general education and special education students. This funding can help us further develop our club into something more substantial.
11	Medea Creek	Michelle Weilbacher	6-8	$2,500	Purchase an array of evidence-based K-12 social-emotional learning (SEL) tools and resources. First, the funds would be utilized for a social-skills group curriculum (e.g., Second Step) to be used in small counseling groups and classroom lessons. The funds would also support the use of therapeutic tools and resources (CBT worksheets, assessment tools, social-emotional and social skill games, books, art therapy supplies, sand tray play therapy, etc.). These valuable tools and resources will not only be used in the special education counseling program, but a catalog of the resources would be available to ALL staff to utilize to support students in the classroom and individually. OPUSD staff would have access to the SEL resource and tools through a staff library.
12	Medea Creek	Brittany Braverman	6-8	$2,500	Enhance materials and training on new curriculum (Social Thinking and PEERS) to help students with social skills and/or social-emotional development primarily for special education students who struggle in these areas at the middle and high school.
13	Oak Hills	Eva Novak	4	$2,500	Replace my existing classroom furniture (a fabric sofa and loveseat) with school-grade leather sofas. This grant would help me to continue to offer my students this flexible seating option while upgrading to a cleaner and more durable alternative.
14	Oak Hills	Kristin Chobanian	4	$500	Join The Pen Pal Project through We Are Teachers and the United States Postal Service. The United States Postal Service will provide stationery, writing prompts, and envelopes. The students will learn how to write a friendly letter and take the time to use writing to make a new friend. This allows us to meet other 4th grade students somewhere in the United States. We will be expected to correspond at least 4 times during the year. Once we sign up, they will provide us with everything except the postage to mail our envelopes of letters. We are all excited about the opportunity to meet other students in a completely different part of the country.
15	Oak Hills	4th grade team	4	$2,500	Expand and update our classroom libraries. Every year there are so many new books published that cover new and relevant topics that our students love. A variety of books allows our students to choose just right books at their independent reading levels. One fourth grader, Ana, had this to say about her classroom library, “I enjoy our classroom library because it gives us many options to read. One thing I feel when I find a good book to read is excitement to have many options because if I do not like many books, I can always look at much more.” Keeping an up to date library also allows us to provide books that discuss race, ethnicity, relationships, families, culture and real issues that kids deal with. We love to keep our libraries current and exciting for our students.
16	Oak Hills	Katie Bailey	5	$700	Purchase math manipulatives to be used for Jo Boaler's Mathematical Mindset activities for the 5th grade at OHES.
17	Oak Hills	Michelle Williams	5	$900	Enhance classroom library. I am new to this classroom, but, I imagine books were loaned out and just not returned during the pandemic. I have been purchasing some with my own money but it quickly adds up. It was especially difficult to find books during Book Clubs when I need five copies of each book.
18	Oak Park High School	Jared Weintraub	9-12	$900	AxiDraw machines use computer software to draw precise images on paper. They use an x and y axis to draw two dimensional patterns defined by equations or images. I plan to use this in my geometry and math analysis classes. In Geometry, students will be able to model geometric constructions such as the incenter and circumcenter of triangles. In Math analysis, students will be able to use parametric equations to design "math art" and link art to mathematical equations.
20	Oak Park High School	Ian Fullmer	9-12	$2,500	Purchase more materials and tools for the students in Ceramics and 3-D art classes. The students this year are very thirsty for materials in 3D Design, so much so that we are running through clay and glaze at a much quicker pace than previous years. They come to me more than ever and ask for more clay to make more of the objects I'm showing them how to make. I think there is a lot of pent up creativity and expression because of the past few years. The social emotional aspect of our classroom is something that I often believe is more paramount than the tactile skills that are developed in the studio. We are going through more materials than ever. At the start of the year I tell my students that one of the greatest things they will walk away with from this class besides new skills is new life-long friends. It's one of the most wonderful things about my class to watch new close friendships develop.
21	Oak Park High School	Anna Mendez	9-12	$2,000	Purchase more materials to support the art as therapy on campus. This class has always been a therapeutic, non stressful opportunity for students, as they have no other academic distractions. It's my experience over 30 years that the social, emotional, therapeutic effects of the drawing and painting class has positively affected our students, in an innovative and experimental environment. I've heard it and seen it...art offers so much, it's the reason some kids come to school.
22	Oak Park Independent School	Kate Thompson	9-12	$900	Start a National Honors Society chapter at OPIS. This grant will help us purchase awards and activities.
23	Oak Park Independent School	Amy Kobayashi	K-8	$2,500	Bring live science and art instruction to OPIS (i.e. sub-zero ice cream experiment, touch tank, mad science, art trek, etc.)
24	Oak Park Independent School	Daniel O'Brien	9-12	$2,500	As the OPIS Science Specialist, I'm always looking for any and all ways to improve our program, particularly in line with the NGSS standards and UC A-G requirements for science labs. I am applying for this grant for two things specifically: 1) Additional Materials for our on-site Physics Wet Labs 2) Gizmos Virtual Labs site license: Physics, Chemistry and Biology (multi-year license preferred)
25	Red Oak	Kathy Strong	3	$1,300	Enhance classroom libraries in 3rd grade for TCRWP"s new Social Issues Book Club Unit of Study in the spring. In order to have enough books for "clubs" we need sets of 4. Scholastic has Culturally Responsive book sets at both 3rd and 4th grade levels. Each set contains two copies of 25 titles. We would buy 2 sets at each level for a total of 200 books to share across 4 classrooms.
26	Red Oak	Michelle Cass	4	$2,500	Create a Mobile Maker Space for Red Oak. Students of all grades and abilities will be able to go during a designated time and place to freely create their own projects. The grant money will be used to purchase storage, tools, materials, lesson plans, and adult support that will be provided for the students while using the space.
27	Red Oak	Stephanie Sandler	DK-5	$2,500	Having “Makerspace” opportunities in the Innovation Lab is the perfect environment needed to “address the social, emotional, and mental needs of students”. In this space students work together on group projects allowing students to hone in on the social skills of working with others in a non competitive environment. Students must use core social skills like collaborating and communicating with their classmates to find solutions. Often the goal is to use real world problems, making these lessons not about rote memorization but rather inspiring students to find another way to solve a problem that may impact them directly. Students' emotional and mental needs are met when they have the rewarding opportunity to solve a problem on their own. They also learn to fail without fear of being judged or graded. They are encouraged to try again and again building resilience within the student. Ideally they will learn that often it takes multiple attempts to succeed and how important it is to not give up. Students may become more engaged and motivated when participating in hands-on activities, turning learning from mundane to exciting. Students are forced to use critical thinking skills to find the solution to a given activity. Ideally the process of thinking critically will become familiar and a tool they can use in other subjects.
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29			Total Awarded	$48,950
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