Eleven projects selected from a total of 27 applicants in debut year to advance #TigerInnovation and #TigerGrowth at all buildings in district
Loveland, Ohio – The Loveland City School District has announced their selection of the 2016-17 Innovative Classroom Grant winners. Out of a total of 27 applicants, the district will fund 11 projects including flexible learning spaces, the investment of four new Chromebook carts, digital microscopes and MakerSpace – a hands-on, project-based learning tool for science, technology, engineering, math and art.
“This was an opportunity for our teachers to reimagine our classrooms for our students,” said Loveland Director of Technology David Knapp. “We are very impressed with the vision that was presented, and look forward to implementation in the fall of 2017. The investment reaches all buildings in the district and will focus on the areas of reading and language arts, math, science, art, and social studies.”
“I wanted to create climate change, and I’m not talking about global warming,” said Loveland Intermediate School Language Arts Teacher Kristi Swartz who was awarded a grant to fund a flexible learning space. “I’m talking about a classroom where students are at the center. We are setting up a learning space where students have choice for reading and where the space speaks to them as the 21st century learners that they are.”
[quote_box_left]The Innovative Classroom Grants were first announced in October of 2016 as a new district-funded initiative designed to empower teachers and positively impact student achievement.[/quote_box_left]The Innovative Classroom Grants were first announced in October of 2016 as a new district-funded initiative designed to empower teachers and positively impact student achievement. The Innovative Classroom Grants were available to all current Loveland City School District certified teaching staff, and selection happened through a formal application process. The district established a budget of around $70,000 to fund the projects.
“My students should be able to work seamlessly with the microscopes sending images straight to the Chromebooks,” explained Loveland High School Biology Teacher Tonya Nkhata, who wrote a successful grant for the investment in digital microscopes. “We’re hoping students can share these real images that they couldn’t normally see with other schools, other districts and potentially other countries – creating a global classroom.”
[pull_quote_right] “This is an investment in the future of our district.”[/pull_quote_right] “This is an investment in the future of our district with focus on making our student experience uniquely Tiger,” said Loveland Superintendent Chad Hilliker. “This opportunity engaged our No. 1 classroom resource – our educators – in conversation with us to tell us what they needed to advance Tiger innovation and ultimately our Tiger academic growth – two of our three big goals for the 2016-17 school year. We can’t wait to see the return on this investment this fall when our students have use of these new resources. It is definitely an exciting time to be a Tiger, and I want to thank our community for their continued support.”
The winning projects included (by building):
Loveland Early Childhood Center
MakerSpace – Melanie Laurent, Becca Eldred
Loveland Primary School
Chromebooks for Kiddos – Paula Hickey, Lisa Schulok
Chromebooks for Kiddos – Scott Koehler
Chromebooks for Kiddos – Traci Stubenrauch
Flexible Learning Space – Jamie Meyer
Loveland Elementary School
Flexible Learning Space – Kari Kaiser
Chromebooks for Kiddos – Kevin Rodriguez
Loveland Intermediate School
Flexible Learning Space – Kristi Swartz
Loveland Middle School
Flexible Learning Space – Louise Jordan
Loveland High School
Digital Microscopes – Jaclyn Jones, Tonya Nkhata
Flexible Learning Space – Alex Wanstrath
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