CUES Principal Tabitha Walker, CCS Education Foundation Board members, and CCS Superintendent Dr. Mark Albertus surprise CUES teacher Mrs. Allie Sever and her students with an Instructional Excellence Grant.
The Carrollton City Schools Education Foundation awarded 76 grants to teachers through the Instructional Excellence Grant program this year, with awards totaling nearly $26,000.
Educators across the CCS campus detailed innovative ideas in their applications for Instructional Excellence grants, with many highlighting multimodal tools that will increase engagement and help students develop their skills. Teachers apply for the grants at the beginning of the school year. The grants committee, consisting of foundation board members and community representatives, then reviews the applications and selects recipients.
This year, teachers at Carrollton Elementary, Carrollton Upper Elementary, Carrollton Middle, Carrollton High School, Project SEARCH, Support Services, and the Harry Morgan Center received grants. The awards were announced in “Publishers Clearinghouse Prize Patrol” style, which included a team of foundation members along with school and district administrators surprising the recipients in their classrooms.
The Instructional Excellence Grant program began in 1994 with five teachers sharing $2,000 in funding. More than $400,000 in grants has been awarded through the program, which provides teachers with a funding outlet to support instructional projects or programs that are not funded through traditional sources.
These grants will fund a variety of supplementary materials to enhance student learning across the district. CES students will amplify their voices and articulate their ideas through in-class podcasting, while CHS will help strengthen problem-solving skills through literary escape rooms. At CMS, students will apply their knowledge of life sciences to collect biological samples and analyze them under their new microscopes supplied by the grant. CUES students will embrace flexible seating options for small group activities and expand their knowledge of geography and mapping through the use of new atlases.
“Each year, it is inspiring to see the innovative teaching ideas from our teachers, who are excited to plan and implement exceptional lessons for students,” said Brooke Mobley, executive director of the CCS Education Foundation. “The Foundation board and grant committee members are grateful to provide teachers with these extra tools to enhance learning opportunities available to their students. Watching the students’ and teachers’ reactions during prize patrol was a rewarding experience for us all.”
The CCS Education Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to provide financial resources to support programs that directly impact teaching and learning at CCS. To learn more about the foundation and ways to give, visit https://www.carrolltoncityscho
Author: Jamie Tuggle
