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Friday, July 30, 2010 |
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SISD receives grants for math, PE
Published March 9, 2010
SEGUIN — Seguin ISD has received two separate grants totalling $282,500 to be applied toward mathematics and physical education.
Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Jolene Yoakum said two schools and a handful of teachers within the district will benefit from the Texas Fitness Now Grant at $32,500 and the Mathematics Instructional Coaches Pilot Grant at $250,000.
The Mathematics Instructional Coaches Pilot Grant Program was created to aid teachers — from sixth through ninth grades — in their efforts to guide their students through the mathematical portion of their education, Yoakum said.
“The TEA (Texas Education Agency) — focuses the state funds into the areas that really need it — had a competitive grant process that leans to math, which is an area that we need to continuously improve in,” she said. “This grant is going to provide some wonderful learning opportunities for some of our middle and high school math teachers, specifically around instructional coaching — like a football team has a coach.”
While there are a lot of educators who will benefit from the funds, they will not all receive the instruction at once, Yoakum said.
“We will have sanctioned times and we will be able to provide some coaching in the areas of continuing to build their content,” she said. “We are giving them opportunities to have professionals observe them and give them feedback on their teaching, helping them to set personal goals and then try to structure some opportunities for them to observe and learn. The main goals of the grant are for them to be able to strengthen their content knowledge. “
Time will be the key element for all of the math grant to be properly spent, Yoakum said.
“We are going to be rotating groups of teachers through the process and in order to have an impact it will take two years, at least,” she said.
Giving kids a helping hand in maintaining an healthier lifestyle, the Texas Fitness Now Grant is allowing two schools in the district to purchase more equipment for their exercise programs, Yoakum said.
“With that, we will have great things going on in our physical education courses,” she said. “For example, we have some rowing machines at Saegert and this grant is going to allow us to add 16 more rowing machines. They are also going to be able to add treadmills and bikes and a lot of different physical activity equipment.”
Physical activity has been linked with keeping children in good shape — physically and mentally, Yoakum said.
“One of the reasons we are so excited we know that if we work on the physical side of our children, it affects the academic side, as well. They are healthier and ready to learn,” she said.
Saegert Sixth Grade Center and Briesemeister Middle School are able to participate in the grant, Yoakum said.
“The state has set guidelines and criteria for which schools would be eligible to submit the grant,” she said.
With the application of both awards, an assessment will be conducted to analyze effectiveness of the programs, Yoakum said.
“Physical fitness, everybody knows, occurs over time, as well as with our professional advancements. What we would like to do is evaluate the impact each year,” she said. “We are always going to be doing constant evaluations and continuous improvements, so this will be something we will see over time.”
Yoakum added that, while the schools had a big role in receiving the grants, a team took on the task of preparing and sending off the applications.
“We had a great team of go-getters — people who collectively worked on the grant for professional development for middle and high school teachers,” she said. “We were able to make this happen with a great group of people — a grant writer and the campus-level people — who worked very diligently together to write these.”
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