Cooking, Graphic Novels And Videography: NWRESD's Foundation Awards $25k For Teachers' Innovative Ideas (Photo) -02/22/24
We know not all kids learn the same way, but education budgets don’t usually include a line item for innovation.
That’s where Northwest Regional Education Service District’s Foundation comes in. The nonprofit distributes about $25,000 every year to educators in northwest Oregon. The funding gives educators a chance to test out ideas, equipment, supplies and curricula with their students. If the project works, that class or concept will grow and become part of the yearly budget.
That’s been the case with a therapeutic learning garden at Levi Anderson Learning Center. What began as a $2,500 grant about 10 years ago has become a mainstay for students at the social emotional learning school located on the St. Mary’s Home for Boys campus in Beaverton.
The foundation recently announced this year’s winners -- they include 19 educators and therapists who work in Beaverton, Gaston, Hillsboro, Knappa, Seaside, Sherwood, St. Helens, Tigard, Tillamook and Tualatin. The funding totals just over $25,000, and the projects range from $260 to $2,500.
The majority of the projects will help students who are experiencing developmental, physical, behavioral and/or mental health challenges. Other projects support language development.
This year’s grant projects include:
- A weekly cooking class that blends nutrition, culture and food exploration for middle and high schoolers
- Books, graphic novels and reading/language resources for students learning English and attending dual-immersion schools
- Video camera, laptop, video editing software and accessories for a media class
- Low-tech supplies such as piping, velcro and moldable plastic to make art accessible to children who use walkers or wheelchairs or who have trouble gripping art supplies
- An indoor play structure for a preschool in Tillamook County
- Sensory equipment such as compression vests and weighted shoulder/lap pads for preschoolers who have autism and other sensory challenges
- Uniforms and sports equipment for a unified sports team that brings together athletes with disabilities and typically developing peers
- Therapeutic swings for specialists to use with young children and their families
Benjamin Spofford, a special education teacher at Levi Anderson, received a grant for a media production class. The school is located on the St. Mary’s Home for Boys campus in Beaverton and provides specialized mental and behavioral support to sixth through twelfth graders.
With the funding, he’ll purchase a video camera, laptop and video editing software for the class. Students will learn about storytelling within the context of their own lives. They will create videos about school and sporting events, interview friends and teachers and highlight music and comedy performances. In addition to the technical skills they gain, they’ll also think about how stories are told and by whom.
In his application, Benjamin wrote: “We feel that it is essential now more than any time in the past to teach media literacy and media ethics. We want students to have media production skills but also the ability to gauge the reliability of media and how to make ethical decisions so that the purpose of their media is clear and transparent to viewers.”
“Every year we are delighted to see such energy, passion and creativity coming from our applicants. All of the proposals are designed to provide new experiences that adapt ways children can participate in their learning and education,” says Karen Foley, foundation president. “It is our foundation mission in action.”
Karen has served on the grant selection committee for many years and says the committee always takes such care in deliberating how to spend the dollars raised for these grant projects.
See below for a description of the grant, name of the recipient and their school district. Sign up for updates from the NWRESD Foundation to get notified about the next opportunity to apply for a grant at nwresd.org/foundation. The foundation typically accepts applications in the fall and awards grants in the winter.
Grant Title: Adaptive Art and Tools to Improve Access
Total awarded: $900
County: Washington County - Northwest Regional Education Service District
Educator: Danielle Benjamin
Grant description: Preschoolers with disabilities often struggle to participate in school art projects, but there are low-cost solutions for making these types of activities more accessible. This grant will fund supplies such as zip ties, pliers, piping, tape, velcro, moldable plastic and bendable hose for an early childhood center in Tualatin. Adapting painting, chalking, drawing and cutting stations will give children who use walkers or wheelchairs or who have trouble gripping art supplies the opportunity to participate and express themselves creatively.
Grant title: Auditory Filtering Aides for Sensory Affected Students
Total awarded: $260
County: Tillamook County - Tillamook School District
Educator: Dr. Erica Elledge
Grant description: This grant will fund eight specialized earplugs for middle and high school students with disabilities. Students who become overwhelmed with typical classroom noise are unable to focus on their work. The benefits of these earplugs is that they are inconspicuous -- some older students are self-conscious about wearing large, noise-canceling headphones -- and come in two styles for students to choose from. Students will learn to identify when they need to filter background noise and be responsible for cleaning and storing their earplugs.
Grant title: Class Study of Novel in Verse for Sixth Grade Dual- and Nondual-Language Arts Students
Total awarded: $891
County: Washington County - Beaverton School District
Educator: Shawn Parker
Grant description: When students have the opportunity to see themselves and their own family’s experiences reflected in the books they read at school, they are more likely to engage with the stories and have feelings of positive self-worth. When students have the chance to read stories about the experiences of people who have been historically oppressed, they learn empathy and unlearn harmful stereotypes.
This grant will provide classroom sets of a novel titled “They Call Me Güero” in English and Spanish for students at Whitford Middle School. This novel is about a Mexican American seventh grader growing up in a border town and follows him as he explores poetry and his own bilingual and bicultural identity. The grant will also provide funding for several supplemental graphic novels.
Grant title: Culinary Arts Program
Total awarded: $2,500
County: Washington County - Northwest Regional Education Service District
Educator: Soraya Saba
Grant description: Funding for this grant will provide a weekly cooking class at Levi Anderson Learning Center. The school is located on the St. Mary’s Home for Boys campus in Beaverton and provides specialized mental and behavioral support to students in sixth through twelfth grades. The class, which introduces students to foods and recipes from around the world, teaches students about cooking, culture and nutrition. The grant will also pay for 150 students to get their food handler’s card so they can work in the food industry in the future.
Grant title: Developing Interoceptive Awareness
Total awarded: $700
County: Clatsop County - Seaside School District
Educator: Kristi Roberts
Grant description: Children who experience autism can struggle to identify or be aware of sensations within their own bodies, including hunger, thirst and fullness. Developing an understanding about these sensations is called interoceptive awareness. This grant seeks to strengthen that awareness for a class of middle and high school students. Funding for this grant will give students the opportunity to explore food, hunger signals and community involvement, including matching their own hunger to an appropriate snack and visiting a farmer’s market, grocery store and food bank.
Grant title: Early Access to Communication Support for Lead Interventionists
Total awarded: $585
County: Washington County - Northwest Regional Education Service District
Educators: Christine Baird
Grant description: Funding for this project will provide 20 recordable button switches and one multimessage device for an early childhood center in Tualatin. This technology helps children who cannot communicate verbally share their needs and wants. Infants and toddlers with autism, cerebral palsy, childhood apraxia of speech, traumatic brain injuries and developmental language disorders all benefit from using this type of technology as early as possible. The switches will be loaned out to families so they can learn about using this type of alternative and assistive technology with their child.
Grant title: English/Spanish American Sign Language Instruction for New Language Learners
Total awarded: $500
Counties: Clatsop, Columbia, Tillamook and Washington Counties - Northwest Regional Education Service District
Educator: Laurie Harrison
Grant description: This grant will provide an American Sign Language curriculum for teaching ASL to families with children who are Deaf or hard of hearing. The curriculum, which will be purchased in English and Spanish, will ensure teachers have a consistent plan for working with families. The curriculum specifically focuses on at-home ASL use and basic school signs for students of all ages. Using this curriculum will support families who choose ASL for their family.
Grant title: Indoor Play Structure for Wilson River and NWRESD Pre-K
Total awarded: $2,000
County: Tillamook County - Tillamook School District
Educator: Autumn Jungling
Grant description: Wilson River Preschool and NWRESD’s Tillamook Service Center currently share a building with a small indoor play area that has toys and a few trampolines. This grant will provide additional equipment for the space, including an indoor play structure, a climbing dome and mats. The goal of the project is to provide preschoolers attending these programs with a fun, dry gym experience that will improve their balance, strength and coordination. Research shows that climbing builds not only physical strength but also cognitive skills such as memory and spatial awareness.
Grant title: Multi-Sensory Supports for Early Literacy
Total awarded: $550
County: Clatsop County - Knappa School District
Educator: Carrie Palenske
Grant description: This grant will provide 40 LCD writing tablets and 40 magna doodles for Hilda Lahti Elementary School. These tools will provide an age-appropriate, multisensory way for children, including those with disabilities, to practice reading and writing. When children use another sense while learning, it helps them remember new skills.
Grant title: Play-Brain Food
Total awarded: $2,428
County: Washington County - Northwest Regional Education Service District
Educator: Kara Rogers
Grant description: Young children learn through play. This grant will provide funding for dozens of toys that support early brain development. Items include magnetic trains, sensory tubes, sorting boxes, building blocks, play mats, board books, cars, baby dolls, a light center and more. The toys will be used at an early childhood center in Beaverton as part of the early intervention program, which supports babies and toddlers who are experiencing disabilities and/or delays.
Grant title: Reading/Language Resources for English Language Learner Students
Total awarded: $642
County: Washington County - Gaston School District
Educator: Colleen Paola
Grant description: Funding from this grant will provide journals, card and board games, dry erase boards and reading comprehension cards to the English Language Learner class at Gaston Elementary School. These resources will help students practice their English skills through fun, educational games.
In her application, teacher Colleen Paola wrote: “Most of these students have come to the United States from very traumatic situations in their home country. Taking time to laugh and have some fun while learning helps to build student-to-student relationships as well as student-to-teacher relationships.”
Grant title: Sensory and Regulatory Tools and Materials
Total awarded: $1,300
County: Washington County - Northwest Regional Education Service District
Educator: Kayley McDonald
Grant description: This grant will provide equipment and supplies to help preschool-aged children with autism and other sensory processing needs calm down. Items provided by the grant include compression vests, weighted shoulder/lap pads and chew toys (aka chewies), which all help children regulate their emotions and participate in school.
Grant title: Shoebox Tasks
Total awarded: $1,703
County: Tillamook County - Tillamook School District
Educator: Jenna Angelini
Grant description: Elementary-aged children with significant developmental delays often struggle with fine motor skills, which require coordination between a person’s brain and their muscles. Funding from this grant will provide the basic and advanced Shoe Box Tasks curriculum and activities for students in a life skills class. Activities include stacking, sorting, putting-in, pulling apart and matching small objects.
Grant title: Shoebox Tasks 2
Total awarded: $1,702
County: Tillamook County - Tillamook School District
Educator: Casey Coulson
Grant description: Elementary-aged children with significant developmental needs often struggle with fine motor skills, which require coordination between a person’s brain and their muscles. Funding from this grant will provide the basic and advanced Shoe Box Tasks curriculum and activities for students in a life skills class. Activities include stacking, sorting, putting-in, pulling apart and matching small objects.
Grant title: Social Emotional Learning Interventions
Total awarded: $433
County: Washington County - Sherwood School District
Educator: Leah Brushwein
Grant description: This grant will provide social-emotional learning curricula and book sets for the behavior team at the Sherwood School District. The books -- part of the A Little Spot and Social Thinkers sets -- focus on helping elementary-aged students understand their emotions and develop their social skills.
Grant title: Student Computer/Media Production
Total awarded: $1,719
County: Washington County - Northwest Regional Education Service District
Educator: Benjamin Spofford
Grant description: The funding for this grant will provide video equipment, including a laptop, video camera and video editing software, for a social emotional learning school in Beaverton. The school is located on the St. Mary’s Home for Boys campus in Beaverton and provides specialized mental and behavioral support to students in sixth through twelfth grades. Students will use the equipment to create videos about their own lives -- topics include school and sporting events, student and teacher features and music and comedy performances. Students will gain storytelling, video, audio and editing skills in addition to an understanding about how stories are told and by whom.
In his application, Benjamin Spofford wrote: “We feel that it is essential now more than any time in the past to teach media literacy and media ethics. We want students to have media production skills but also the ability to gauge the reliability of media and how to make ethical decisions so that the purpose of their media is clear and transparent to viewers.”
Grant title: Therapeutic Swing Access for Washington County EI/ECSE Programs
Total awarded: $2,494
County: Washington County - Northwest Regional Education Service District
Educator: Erin Dupuis
Grant description: This project will provide three therapeutic swings and mats for early childhood centers in Washington County. Swinging helps young children build strength, balance and coordination. When children swing, they also gain an understanding of their own body and how to right themselves. Depending on the child’s disability, specialists such as physical and occupational therapists will teach parents about how to safely swing and teach them about the various physical and developmental benefits swinging provides.
Grant title: Unified Sport Initiative
Total awarded: $2,400
County: Washington County - Tigard-Tualatin School District
Educator: Tori Alderman
Grant description: Funding for this grant will provide 18 uniforms, 8 soccer balls and 8 basketballs to the unified sports team at Tigard High School. The team is currently borrowing equipment and using old uniforms, so the grant will give students access to new uniforms and equipment. Unified sports teams give students with disabilities the opportunity to play sports with typically developing peers. The aim is to make sports -- and by extension school -- more inclusive.
Grant title: Wobbly Seaters
Total awarded: $1,320
County: Columbia County - St. Helens School District
Educator: Janelle Nelson
Grant description: This grant will provide 12 wobble chairs for McBride Elementary School. This type of alternative chair helps children build core strength and helps them get their wiggles out in a safe way. Wobble chairs also promote better posture, which helps blood flow -- improving the students’ alertness.
