The Foundation awards teacher grants once each semester. Our commitment continues to be helping teachers provide the best educational experiences possible for the students in this community. The purpose of the grants is to help teachers meet and/or expand educational goals. The emphasis will be on experiential opportunities and/or creative ways of delivering curricular standards. Some examples may be visiting authors, poets, artists, entrepreneurs, field trips (in-person or virtual), tapping into the local history, architecture, industries, museums. These proposals may include requests for materials needed to implement the experience or delivery.
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The following grants are awarded for the Spring 2025 Semester:
Nicole Spurlock, 2nd Grade, WLES
Structured Literacy Practice with a Hands-on Approach benefited the second graders at West Lafayette Elementary school. The adopted Science of Reading approach encourages teaching foundational skills through all modalities, including tactile skills. Grant writer Spurlock writes, “A tactile modality – physical blending boards with individual grapheme tiles – is the final addition to our daily three-part (visual, auditory, tactile) foundational-skills drill.” Rather than using the online/virtual blending board, the second-grade staff was able to purchase multiple sets of magnetic blending boards with magnetic grapheme tiles for each classroom so that students actually create words and blends using their tactile skills.
Celeste Fernandez, 4th Grade, WLIS
Fairy Tale Forensics (and Other Fabulous Fourth Grade Fun) was enjoyed by all the fourth graders at WLIS. Fourth graders celebrated National Fairy Tale Day (and days leading up to it) by doing various cross-curricular activities related to fairy tales. From taking a virtual “Fairy Tale Forensics” field trip through the Indianapolis Children’s Museum to writing their own stories, from integrating fairy tales into math and STEM challenges to creating a fairy tale map in social studies, students were reintroduced in multisensory ways to the joy of classic fairy tales from around the world. Funds were used to purchase the virtual field trip from the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, blank books for creating original fairy tales, materials for recreating the Three Pigs houses, and multiple copies of classic fairy tales.
Fran Heim, Family and Consumer Sciences, WLJSHS
Yoga and Mindfulness in the Classroom aims to include a yoga and mindfulness curriculum in Sports Nutrition classes. To achieve this, Ms. Heim will receive 200 hours of training and certification in Mindfulness, Yoga, and SEL (Social Emotional Learning) explicitly geared toward educators. This training will not only benefit Sports Nutrition students but may be implemented to benefit other students and staff. Research has shown that offering Yoga and Mindfulness to students immensely benefits well-being, school-life balance, attendance, focus, and many other areas. The grant funds also provided yoga mats to facilitate classroom Yoga and Mindfulness sessions.
Karla Gurk, Special Education, WLJSHS
Empowering Essential Skills Students Through Culinary Education is designed to help further equip the essential skills students with the knowledge and skills they need to lead independent and fulfilling lives, one of which is learning how to cook. Cooking is an essential life skill that empowers individuals to care for themselves, make healthier choices, and feel confident in their abilities. Funding was used to purchase essential cooking tools, ingredients, and instructional resources to ensure every student has access to meaningful learning experiences in the kitchen.
Allison White, Spanish, WLJSHS
The Legend Lives: Enhancing Spanish Language Skills with La Llorona funded the purchase of multiple copies of La Llorona de Mazatlán which all Spanish II students read together to conclude their second year of Spanish. This book includes both the past tenses that they learned in Spanish II, as well as incorporating Mexican folklore. The students read the books in class – some individually and some in small groups. Selected scenes were read together and then acted out. The students kept a summary journal utilizing preterite (one of two past tenses in Spanish) and imperfect tenses, recorded new vocabulary, and made predictions using the near future tense.
Connie Workman, Library Media Specialist, WLIS
Read to Grow is a school-wide literacy project designed to bring grade levels together in an all-school event through the joy of reading. Sharing a good book expands student knowledge, creates social experiences, and learning through the perspectives of other students, teachers, staff and even the author. Rather than everyone reading the same book, which the school enjoyed in that past, this project will be more of an author study with each grade level focusing on one book by the same author. John David Anderson of Indianapolis is an author of middle grade fiction, one of which is on the 2025-2026 Young Hoosier List. The project will conclude with his visit to WLIS next school year.
Julie Bauerband, English Language Learners, WLIS
Bauerband purchased several sets of the card game Ouisi. Her grant, Vocabulary/Conversation Builders, utilizes the Ouisi picture cards relating to nature, shapes, natural geographical formations, and everyday objects to make connections between the patterns in one picture with another. This activity fosters vocabulary growth and sentence building for our Multilingual Learners. Bauerband has extended the original game to include other vocabulary usage and sentence building activities.
Amanda Hart, Family and Consumer Sciences WLJSHS
Empowering Future Designers- Grant for Adjustable Mannequins in Fashion & Textiles provided adjustable mannequins and high-quality fabric for the high school Fashion and Textiles program. These resources allow students to explore garment design, pattern making, and fitting techniques with greater precision and flexibility. Coupled with a variety of fabrics, students will gain practical experience, while fostering interdepartmental collaboration with the photography students to showcase their designs in professional photo shoots.
