CFFC grants awarded to Laurel Highlands teachers
Courtesy of CFFC
Laurel Highlands Middle School reading teachers Kara Hixson and Jill John at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Inchy蘑菇视频 Bookworm Vending Machine, which allows students to earn coins to retrieve books.
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Students at Laurel Highlands High School use the flight simulator, paid for by a grant from the Arthur and Millicent Gabriel Legacy Fund.
Courtesy of CFFC
The Community Foundation of Fayette County recently awarded a $12,855 grant to fund educational projects in the Laurel Highlands School District. Pictured are CFFC Executive Director Renee Couser, LH Director of Curriculum and Instruction Randy Miller and district Superintendent Dr. Jesse Wallace III.
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A student takes part in interactive activities in the sensory room at Marshall Elementary School in the Laurel Highlands School District.
Laurel Highlands Middle School recently unveiled an Inchy蘑菇视频 Bookworm Vending Machine, one of several projects in the district funded by a $12,855 grant through the Community Foundation of Fayette County.
Stocked with all different genres of books, the machine takes coins awarded to students for good behavior, good grades, good attendance and other achievements. The first coins were distributed to students that completed the school蘑菇视频 February/March reading incentive.
LHMS Principal Mike Rozgony and Assistant Principal Bobbi Downs saw the machine online and told the school蘑菇视频 two reading teachers, Jill John and Kara Hixson, about it. John and Hixson applied for a grant through CFFC, and received funding through the Arthur and Millicent Gabriel Legacy Fund.
This book vending machine is part of the school蘑菇视频 PRIDE program (Positive, Respectful, Integrity, Discipline, Excellence).
鈥淲e look forward to an increase in reading and positive behaviors in the near future. Inchy the Bookworm Vending Machine will be an asset to Laurel Highlands Middle School for years to come,鈥� said Jill John, a reading teacher at LHMS.
Two other projects paid for through the legacy fund grant will help students with autism throughout the whole year, and for years to come. With a grant for their autistic support/life skills sensory room, Marshall Elementary purchased a bubble fountain, light projections, chairs and cushions that enable movement for students.
鈥淎 sensory room helps students to develop their visual, auditory, and tactile processing as well as fine and gross motor skills,鈥� explained Patricia Spurlin, an autistic support teacher at the school.
Spurlin has raised $8,000 for the sensory room over the past six years.
Hutchinson Elementary received a grant to purchase items like sensory water beads, activity books, an alphabet puzzle, and a squeeze and scoop ice cream set 鈥� all activities to help students with fine motor skills and sensory input.
鈥淚n the past couple of years, the [Arthur and Millicent Gabriel Legacy Fund] grants have changed the lives of so many of my students and enhanced and improved my classroom beyond belief,鈥� said Tia Wadworth, an autistic support teacher at Hutchinson Elementary.
The district蘑菇视频 senior high school received a grant for a flight simulator for their Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program (AF JROTC). The simulator allows them to 鈥渇ly鈥� indoors when they are unable to use their drone outside, and it creates the effects of weather during takeoff, in flight, and landings. The simulator also shows different emergency situations and how the pilot must react quickly and calmly.
鈥淪ince placing the simulator into our classroom, the students have been able to fly multiple aircrafts and see how they are all the same, but different at the same time鈥�. Overall the students have definitely become more interested in our flight simulator/drone/rocket program,鈥� said Master Sergeant Daniel Cervone.
Joy Frederick, a 4th grade math, science, and social studies teacher at Marshall Elementary, used grant funds for a variety of educational games. Purchased items include math flash cards, multiplication dominoes, states geography board game, a time-telling clock, and more to support the Common Core Standards she teaches.
鈥淲e created this annual grant program to help bring innovative and interesting new teaching tools into the classrooms at Laurel Highlands and Uniontown schools,鈥� said Ron Gabriel, creator of the Arthur and Millicent Gabriel Legacy Fund.
Teachers, school counselors, and administrators at Laurel Highlands School District and Uniontown Area School District can apply for this funding during CFFC蘑菇视频 annual fall grant cycle.