Article 3

Article 3

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-east/schools-to-use-grants-to-create-colorful-interesting-spaces-693369/

Schools to use grants to create 'colorful, interesting spaces'

By Debra Duncan

Debra Duncan reports, “Two foundations are giving $500,000 to 25 school districts in southwestern Pennsylvania, and most of the schools will use the money to create places where students can employ the latest technology to learn.” Many of the schools use the money to strengthen STEAM- science, technology, engineering, art and math. Each district will receive approximately about 20,000 dollars each.

 The executive director of the Grable Foundation, Greg Behr, states that the grants will foster the “21^st century collaborative learning”.

 Duncan reports, “The overall goal is to support innovative learning ideas and to encourage students to use technology in cross-discipline projects.” The Grable Foundation grants inspire fresh ideas to be implemented. They provide districts with the tools they need in order to foster success.  

 

The grants are commonly used by developing a common room in which students, teachers, parents and others involved in the community are continuously welcomed. Next, they present the necessary tools for learning. Technology is used in order to “foster the learning process”, while mentors are available to assist students. The key to Behr’s grants is that is not only focused on providing technology to schools, but he is also focused on the learning that occurs.

Behr encourages collaboration in which many people are working and learning from one another. For example, he encourages a writer to work with a programmer, and an engineer working with an artist. It is a great way to get everyone involved in the learning process. Behr describes it as creating, “layers of learning.” The teachers are working with each other and the students act as mentors not only for themselves, but also to guide teachers. The goal is to have schools partner with universities in order to strengthen the learning process. Maybe they could partner in order to start up a robotics club as Behr suggests. Duncan closes the article by emphasizing, “This is the fifth year for the STEAM grants from the two foundations, which have totaled more than $1 million.”


After reading this article, I found myself wanting to move to Pennsylvania. I was thinking of all the wonderful things I could implement in my own classroom or even my school. I think Grable Foundation grants are a great way to inspire the community. Think of how motivated our students would be if we had technology tools available for them to use to create their own music video for a research project. These are the types of tools the grants can provide.  We can’t just provide learning tools to districts without encouraging and teaching along the way. Often times this approach can be very overwhelming. Providing the mentors is a great way to bring some teachers out of their comfort zones, and to ease into teaching with more technology. I feel that these are the types of grants that teachers everywhere should be seeking out. Students can integrate technology into every subject. I believe this would lead to higher involvement throughout the school day.