In late summer / early fall the mayor asked me to get involved in his proposed HSE educator grant program if the city council approved his idea. Of course, I said yes…I mean my schedule is pretty open with my only real obligation to be a babysitter for my grandson once or twice a week. 

Noah and Grandpa!!

In conversation with the mayor and his chief of staff we hammered out what the mayor was looking for in the grant program.

First off the focus of the program is to encourage teachers to bring innovative ideas into the classroom. As I thought my classroom it occurred to me how much conference professional development played in my development as a teacher. It was at a conference that I was introduced to the idea of an interactive notebook that pushed my use of formative assessments and would organize learning for almost my entire career; in my second year of teaching I attended a conference to hear Jay McTighe speak on his and Grant Wiggins work on understanding by design that challenged me to teach with enduring understanding goals that would define my lessons for the next 25 years; my teaching partner and I spent a week writing lessons with Roger Taylor in Michigan that would help me construct thematic units that integrated across disciplines with divergent thinking; later it was at a conference that I was introduced the concepts of Cornell notes and visual notetaking that would change the way my students took notes from simple transfer of information to interacting with the notetaking with a focus on understanding and engagement.

The grant program is not just about professional development. This grant can also be matched to a teacher’s individual subject passions and authentic learning. Deb Kletch’s long-term program to study the American Chestnut (an endangered species) by tracking data on the American, Chinese, and hybrid-Chestnut trees. This program involves students in recording and reporting data authentically across school years. The program makes the scientific method more than just memorizing steps on a work-sheet but makes it three-dimensional to her students. 

The city wants to foster and encourage Hamilton Southeastern teachers to bring innovation to classroom.

Take a look at the one-pager on the program. I would love for every teacher to bring innovation to their classroom. You can find the application at: https://townoffishers.formstack.com/forms/innovationgrants