Community Fund for Innovation


Grant Recipients
Seven Dreams Foundation
Progress and Innovation Grant Recipients - 2010

Grant Title Grant Description Author School
Community Literacy Approximately 150 children between the ages of birth to five, currently reside within a large apartment community in our district. The majority of these children are part of families without transportation. It is our desire of our staff to provide on-site facilitated Parent-Child Interaction opportunities in collaboration with this apartment company. We will provide parent education and a two-day preschool to 3-5 year old children. We believe that early exposure to quality early childhood programs leads to children attaining kindergarten readiness skills. Kerry Froehlich Eden Park Apartment Community, Brooklyn Park
MATHLETES Mathletes will use a multisensory approach to supplement the existing elementary math curriculum. Multisensory techniques are recommended by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. The newly purchased material will add music, movement, and visual aids to the teaching of math. The materials will be used to help students who are struggling to learn the basic math facts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. These basic facts are essential to the development of higher level math skills. The building instructional coach will provide teachers training in the use of the materials. Beth Overstad Noble Elementary School
Listen Up Teachers in grades 1, 2, and 3 will utilize listening center equipment and material which includes cassette/CD players, MP3 players, headphones, books, cassette tapes, CDs, and storage units in their classrooms as part of research based, balanced literacy instruction. All students in the participating teachers' grade levels will have access to the equipment and materials. These centers will provide the flexibility for students to work in small groups as they listen to one book together or as individuals reading appropriately leveled books. Increasing fluency and comprehension for our students is the primary goal of this project. Marsha Klimes Meadow Lake Elementary School
Using BrainPOP.com to Enhance and Support Social Studies and Science Curriculum BrainPOP is a web-based program that has been proven effective in motivating all students and increasing student achievement. It can used in numerous ways, from introducing a new lesson/topic, to illustrating complex subject matter. With BrainPOP, students will be learning through the use of highly entertaining animated short films, which can be followed up with interactive on-line quizzes, writing exercises and other activities. The content is aligned to state standards, and is searchable. Although all subject areas will benefit, our focus will be science and social studies, areas lacking in student interest, achievement and curriculum resources. Kara Johnson Forest Elementary School
Power Up with Netbooks A recipe for Twenty-first Century Learning! Mix one group of fifth graders with six motivating Netbooks, quality planning, instruction, and video production. Gently stir in core content knowledge in math and reading. Blend small group and one-to-one instruction with videos creatively produced by students and teachers that demonstrate research-based teaching methods. Your result will be media and technology literate students with increased capacity in reading and math. Mary Jane Adams Lakeview Elementary School
Kindle Reading Project The Kindle will enhance reading instruction for our students with disabilities by providing an adaptive device designed to eliminate or minimize some of the physical and cognitive barriers to reading that they face on a daily basis. We believe that using Kindle in our reading program will help to improve our students' phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension and communication skills. Paul Amundson New Hope Learning Center
STAR Enrichment and Expansion Begun last year, the STAR reading reform initiative is still in its fledgling stages in our program. Targeting intermediate-level readers, STAR uses research-based assessment and instructional strategies to address the alphabetics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension issues that hold learners back from achieving high school completion and moving on to post-secondary education and training. Due to the nature of the type of instruction and the grouping needed to address multiple levels of learners, this project requires materials and teacher collaboration time beyond that is normally allotted. Kristine Kelly Robbinsdale Adult Academic Program
Technology in 7th Grade Math Classrooms We live in the 21st Century and need resources to provide a cutting edge education for our students. Today's students were born in the age of technology. Many of which are familiar with facebook, mySpace, texting and skyping, pod casting and more. They should be taught using technology that they will be expected to be familiar with as adults. The interactive SMART Board, SMART Response 32 Clicker System, SMART Airliner Wireless Slate and the SMART document camera are necessary to update the instruction of our math students so they can have the tools and the expertise to excel and compete with the rest of the world. Tamara Lawson Plymouth Middle School
Peer Leadership Coaching Program This grant will support the training of 80 Cooper High School Peer Leadership Coaches in grades 9-12. Student coaches will be given 12 hours of coach training and then assist other students to improve student learning. Student coaches will meet community volunteers from the business and education community who use coaching in their work. Coaches and the students receiving services will be surveyed to assess how coaching has impacted their life and used to identify the effectiveness of the coaching program. With the pending budget cuts, there may be less staff available to meet the needs of the students, this program directly utilizes the resources currently in the school. This program creates a win-win situation for students and staff by providing leadership development through student education. Heidi Chiodo Cooper High School

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