Altus Public Schools Foundation Awards Grants to Classroom Teachers

Receiving funds through the Altus Public Schools Foundation’s Grants-to-Teachers Program were (from left) Altus teachers Jennifer Hoogstra, Tina Williams, Kimberlee Dickson, Lisa Byrd, Amanda Davis, Mindy Hawthorne, Rallene May, Ana Gutierrez, Listena Prickett, Kaylee Thornbrough, Susan Bradley, Cindy Bishop, and Bridgette Wheatley.

The Altus Public Schools Foundation awarded thousands of dollars in classroom grants to local teachers at the Altus Schools Staff Recognition Program on May 25, 2012.  Dr. Rebecca York and Rosalyn Hall, Foundation board members, presented the seven grant awards, which are for projects that will be conducted during the 2012-2013 school year.

Receiving grants were Jennifer Hoogstra, Tina Williams, Kimberlee Dickson, Lisa Byrd, Amanda Davis, Mindy Hawthorne, Rallene May, Ana Gutierrez, Listena Prickett, Kaylee Thornbrough, Susan Bradley, Cindy Bishop, and Bridgette Wheatley.

Listena Prickett, a Title I Reading teacher at Altus Junior High School, will use her grant funds to provide a literary unit that integrates science and history as students learn about the Oklahoma Dust Bowl.  Grant funds will purchase novels about the Dust Bowl and pay for a field trip to explore the first shelterbelt planted by the U.S. government, which is in Greer County.

Susan Bradley, Cindy Bishop, and Bridgette Wheatley, Reading teachers at Altus Junior High School, will use their grant funds to purchase a set of the novel, The Wizard of Oz.  They plan to make this an interdisciplinary unit, working with the English, Math, and Special Education departments at their school.

Altus Intermediate School teachers Kaylee Thornbrough, Amanda Davis, Rallene May, and Tina Williams were awarded a grant to help fund the second annual AIS Battle of the Books.  These teachers have selected a list of 18 books for their 2013 competition, and grant funds will purchase multiple copies of the books for the school.  Participating students will be divided into teams and will answer questions about the books in a quiz-bowl setting.

Lisa Byrd and Jennifer Hoogstra, Pre-K and kindergarten teachers at Rivers Elementary will use their grant funds to purchase items to teach sight words using music, rhythm, art, and movement.

Mindy Hawthorne, a Special Education teacher at Sunset Elementary School, received a grant to fund the purchase of manipulatives and hands-on learning tools to help teach severely handicapped children who are visual learners.

Altus Junior High Spanish teacher Ana Gutierrez’s grant, Gaming to Learn Spanish, will fund interactive software that her students will use over the Smart Board in her classroom as they learn Spanish.

Kimberlee Dickson, a sixth-grade teacher at Altus Intermediate School, was awarded a grant to fund a new “Stackademics” program in the sixth grade school next year.  This program will create a short physical activity break that will translate to improved attention spans, classroom behavior, and academic achievement for these young students who are getting used to their first school year without recesses to break up the school day.

The Altus Public Schools Foundation has awarded nearly $80,000 in grants for classroom projects since its inception.  The grants are funded using the interest earned on the Foundation’s endowment.

For more information about the APS Foundation or for donor information, contact Jeff Greenlee, at NBC Bank, 477-1100.