Fraser teachers awarded annual grants

FRASER — On Nov. 11, the Fraser Educational Foundation surprised five teachers in the district with its annual educational grants, providing schools and classrooms with new resources not included in their regular budgets.

Kristin Ledford, the secretary of the Fraser Educational Foundation, said the foundation received five applications this year for the grants.

“The FEF does a grant program every year to teachers. Any teacher can apply, and the application process window is open in September. They try to find grants that encourage creativity in the classroom and are something that is a little beyond the scope of what the normal budget would allow for,” she said. “Due to some generous donations we received from the community, the foundation decided to award all five of those grants.”

Ledford said that the grants will go toward a variety of projects that will help enrich the education of students in Fraser’s schools.

“One was for a social emotional learning program for our Young Fives class, one was for some chemistry lab equipment, and one was even for building a sensory room for a break so they can have some fidget time,” said Ledford. “Once the grants were awarded, what we’ve done the last few years was print out some big checks, and we go and surprise those teachers. It’s such a fun thing to surprise them in front of their kids.”

Marisa Fett and Kara Michael, who run the Special Education Resource Room at Twain Elementary, received $1,600 to provide more social emotional learning opportunities for students. With this grant, the team will purchase specific sensory materials to create a new sensory room.

Kate Pionk, a chemistry teacher at Fraser High School, received $982.55 for lab resources and data collection technology to provide a learning advantage and help deepen the understanding of scientific concepts.

Christina Vrzovski, the cybersecurity teacher at Fraser High School, received $975 to hire a teaching artist in dance to design and facilitate creative movement activities as a means to explore the topic of “successes” and “failures” in both learning and life.

Jacquelyn Carter, an English language arts teacher at Richards Middle School received $1,000 to enhance classroom libraries with high interest books in seventh grade and eighth grade classrooms to cultivate a passion for independent reading.

“I was so excited. I never applied before,” Carter said. “This is my first year as the department head for language arts. When I saw the application notice go out, I had nothing to lose. I can’t wait to put the money to good use.”

Amy Laidlaw, the Young Fives teacher at Eisenhower Elementary, received $582.35 to purchase Kimochis tool kits to teach students how to recognize and manage their emotions, demonstrate caring and concern for others, establish personal relationships, make responsible decisions, and handle challenging situations constructively.

“I was thrilled,” Laidlaw said. “I will be able to help my kids regulate their feelings and learn about their emotions. These are COVID kids, so it’s the first exposure to school for most of them, so this social emotional aspect of school is very important right now. They were just home with mom and dad most of their lives.”

Carter said that these funds will aid her ongoing efforts to help encourage reading and literacy skills in her students.

“In seventh and eighth grade, all students are challenged to read 20 books throughout the year, and this money will help build up our in-classroom libraries to encourage reading,” she said. “When we started the reading challenge about five years ago, we learned that students need an opportunity to read for enjoyment as opposed to just as an academic goal. We found lots of research that students who read get much better test scores, have higher vocabularies and score higher on college entrance exams.”

The Kimochis learning program that Laidlaw will be implementing will help young children learn how to manage and understand their emotions and improve their social skills.

“At the beginning of the school year, an application goes out. I wanted to add a social and emotional learning aspect to my classes. What happens when you’re mad, what you can do, etc.,” Laidlaw said. “I work with very young kids. Some of them don’t even know what their feelings are, they just know they have these big feelings. It shows them appropriate ways to help yourself calm down. The goal is to use it in conjunction with Second Step, which is another social emotional learning program we do in the district.”

The Fraser Educational Foundation awards the grants based on the needs of the schools and the resources available in that given year.

“The board makes the decision, and they try to do as many as possible,” Ledford said. “They have to sometimes make calls about who will get grants and who won’t. Last year, there was a request for furniture, for instance, but the district was already planning to purchase some new furniture, so the grant was turned down. If the funds are limited, they try to pick what would have the most impact.”

Ledford added that the program is possible thanks to the support the foundation receives from the Fraser community.

“It’s a testament to the Fraser community for helping provide the funds for this program,” she said. “We had families of graduates, graduates themselves and some of our employees perform fundraisers. It’s the Fraser community supporting its schools.”