Panhandle Alliance for Education

Nearly $72,000 was awarded to 34 teachers for projects that provide educational experience for hundreds of students in the Lake Pend Oreille School District.

The project is the creation of an after-school math club for interested 6^th graders. The students would engage in advanced math skill exercises, following a planned curriculum, in preparation for their participation in the Washington State Math Olympiad in the spring. The monies go toward registration for the competition, supplies and a teacher stipend for the after school hours.

To provide life jackets, oars/stirrups/gunnels to be used in an ongoing student boat building project with the goal of exploration and research for 3^rd through 6^th grade students.

For supplies to be used in the continuation of a water testing project PAFE funded last year with a computer and supplies. The students spend 2-3 weeks in the water units, learning how to test, testing in the field and ongoing updates to the web sites.

To fund the purchase of materials to create a series of bags, each containing a book and related activity, which the kindergarten children will take home to use with their parents.

5. Challenge Master Kits - Farmin Stidwell Elementary - Pam Lippi - $5535.00

This is for the purchase of an additional Challenge Master Kit, the Challenge program, also known as TEAMS (Together Everyone Achieves More). The grant also includes a one-day training session, targeting all schools in the district and introducing new drug education curriculum.

To fund after school programs for middle school students to learn the basics of robot design and programming. The monies will be spent to purchase kits and components as well as fund teacher time for the after school course design and instruction.

To fund a continuing unit PAFE funded last year to study the adolescent human brain. Through a 3-4 week workshop which includes a variety of labs (including dissection of sheep brains) and sending two staff members to a Brain Expo conference which gathers top learning experts to share findings in brain research and translate them into effective tools for teaching.

Academic Decathlon is a national organization which promotes learning and academic excellence through individual as well as team preparation and competition. The monies are to fund a portion of the budget for materials and for expenses related to the State competition.

The establishment of a lab and the purchase of manipulative materials for student use and corresponding teacher guides.

Music utilizes both the right and left sides of the brain when one is playing a musical instrument and simultaneously reading musical notes. The Sagle School will introduce students to reading and playing music. The grant funds the purchase of 8 Yamaha keyboards

11. Trucker Buddies - Farmin Stidwell Elementary - Andrea Berliner - $987.00

To expand geography knowledge of the United States, the class will create a partnership with 3 long haul truckers from Litehouse. The drivers will send postcards to the classes from a variety of locations along the trucking route. The students will map their routes and return correspondence to their "buddies". The grant will buy pull down political maps of Idaho, the US and the world.

12. Accelerated Writer Software - Clark Fork Jr/Sr High School - Delores Matthews - $5000.00

This is for software which allows students to improve their written communication skills with focus on the Six Traits of writing adopted by the State and our local school district. Accelerated Writer provides lessons and immediate feedback for each of the qualities.

This is for web-based software which supports the teachers' ability to design, monitor and evaluate a student's writing progress and provides immediate in-depth feedback.. The grant money will be used to purchase the initial year's subscription, including on-site training and on-line and phone support.

14. Multi Media Projector - Sandpoint Middle School - Patrick Lynch - $1617.00

The school has one SmartBoard system which is a digitally interactive screen mounted on a wall surface and run through an interface with a computer and multimedia projector.

15. Art, Authors and Us (Diehl Grant) - Washington Elementary -Shirley Moore - $1000.00

This is an ongoing school program which includes all teachers, students and many parent and community volunteers. Through this program students read, listen, create and participate in the arts and literature. The grant request includes money for the guest artist ($1000) as well as money for books and supplies which is not funded.

This grant requests funds for an electronic whiteboard with projector and "SchoolPad" with digital pencil. This technology is a modern chalkboard which allows students to draw solutions to problems from their desks, and will become the centerpiece of this web based/computer interfaced lab for chemistry and physics.

17. Learn and Serve Program - Clark Fork Jr/Sr High - Connie A. Kimble - $3100.00

Students are offered the service project class as an elective. This is a pilot class that focuses on leadership and character building and focuses on volunteer community service. Half of the grant money is requested to serve as seed money for the service projects which will be determined collaboratively by the class and will be divided among projects. The remaining money is for training and supplies.

This proposal would provide a projector and a microscope that plug into a laptop computer allowing presentations to be shown to entire classes. The instructor will be able to point out general information and direct students to look for particular items.

19. Visual Art Classes - All Schools POAC (Diehl Grant) - Lizzy Hughes -$1000.00

POAC is asking for money for artist fees and supplies in the Kaleidoscope visual arts program for grades 3-5 and the Perspectives program which addresses the high school students.

This grant request proposes building a schoolyard habitat for birds, butterflies and bugs which can be used as a garden classroom, too. Students working with teachers will be the planters, caretakers, scientists and the owners who will set up bird-feeding experiments, research plants in different seasons of the year or observe the different shapes, colors and textures of nature to draw or paint.

The Pack River Community Project is a partnership of students, landowners and natural resource professionals working together to gather data, interpret and report results and recommend solutions to water quality problems. . There is a need for a second computer in the classroom to support the data gathering, analysis and presentation, as well as some additional consumable supplies for test kits and monitoring equipment.

Funds requested would be to help with the purchase of robotics equipment. An understanding of robotics is an essential component of technology literacy.. With this new equipment students will be able to built robots capable of performing a wide variety of tasks. Students will be able to compete and collaborate with students in other high school and university programs.

This is a Master Class grant which in intended to allow every student at SMS to participate in at least one live, multimedia presentation from Living Voices. Living Voices "uses a unique combination of theatre, video and live interaction to create a high impact experience." The proposal is to present "Through the Eyes of a Friend" telling Anne Frank's story, and "Northwest Passage" telling the story of an immigrant family's Northwest experience. Both of these performances complement the social studies curriculum.

24. Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Expedition - Hope Elementary - Marha Kelley - $1050.00

All students will be participating in hands on activities throughout the year which will trace the Expedition of Lewis and Clark. The project will include all disciplines, and activities included will be: school drama, creating a time line, writing journals, research, reports, murals, Indian crafts, food preparation, mapping and guest presenters.

Research literature states that kindergarten students benefit from flexible grouping and differentiated instruction. In order for students to participate in this school wide program and have the time required for the mandated state curriculums, we need to have an extended kindergarten day. The money from this grant would provide part of the matching funds needed to supplement the current half-time teacher's salary.

26. Arts & Crafts for the Emotionally Disturbed - Special Services - Michelle Nader - $1000

Students from different classes and schools throughout the district will receive hands-on experience in pottery, jewelry making, weaving, drawing and water colors, and picture framing.

This grant will fund the purchase of a high-end HP 9500hdn color Laser-Jet printer which would be the centerpiece of a student-operated working print shop. This would allow the journalism students to take the next step; creating and printing publications of different types for various programs district-wide for the price of supplies and a modest fee. The students in the journalism program would get both the design and business experience. The program would become self-sustaining, with income to offset equipment and supplies needs.

28. Classroom Performance System (CPS) - Washington Elementary - Susan Lee - $3200.00

This is a 24 pad response system which ties into the teacher's computer and provides a tool to engage all of the students in the class at any point. The teacher can pose a question and get immediate response from all students at once. It also provides collaborative game features to review for a test or reinforce difficult materials. The software records all of the data to let teachers know how students are doing so that they can review any items repeatedly missed.

Students will apply curriculum-based units to investigate, explore, and analyze the literary elements contained in both the short story and the novel. They will use this information a springboard to produce and publish student generated literary websites. These sites will analyze the story and challenge students to produce creative pieces that relate to the spirit, voice, and themes contained in the story. In publishing their own websites, students will be exposed to a variety of skills inherent to the technological world; producing layouts, still and scrolling text, forms, images, graphics and links. The grant will be used for the purchase of a laptop, Avarkey software used to display information on a television screen thereby allowing entire class to view instruction, and 50 copies of the project novel.

Funds will be used for the purchase of multiple copies of fiction and non-fiction books, especially those on the Accelerated Reading Program along with test disks. Some additional library supplies are also included. The purpose is to create easy access to popular books to build on students' reading interests and encourage increased reading, leading to improved test scores.

2004 GRANT ROUND