Putting Children First - Math Grant Winners

	2011/2012 Math Grant Winners
Teachers Name and School	Grant Title and Brief Synopsis

Chanda Austin / 5 Avoca Elementary	Pushing to Proficiency It's game time!! What students wouldn't love to play a game with their own personal "buzzer" in class everyday? Promethean Activote student response handsets allow each student to respond to every question in class without fear. These hand-held devices are easy to use and allow for instant feedback. Activotes allow students to gain confidence to participate daily. They empower students to take risks in their own learning without the fear of being wrong in front of the class. The best part is for the teacher, it provides instant data after each lesson of students understanding. With the data, the teacher can tell if they can move on to a new concept or if time is needed to review the material again. The nature of Activotes makes students eager to participate. They feel they are playing a game, in actuality, they are practicing concepts and showing their knowledge by "pushing" in their vote.
Lindsey Golden / 4-6 Hilton Elementary	Experimental Math The Experimental Math program is a set of hands-on, inquiry-based activities that investigate mathematical principles in real life situations through the use of manipulatives and technology. This program is geared for grades 4 through 6 and specifically addresses SOLs that have traditionally been the hardest for the students to grasp. The student will use manipulatives to directly interact with the lesson content. Activities will be set up as experiments where they will obtain data that is pertinent to their lives. The wireless tablet technology component will allow the students to immediately communicate their data with their peers and teachers. It can also be used in the classroom on a regular basis, not just on days in which experiments are being conducted.
Dr. Barbara Gamble / Pre-K Jackson Elementary	Let's Get in Shape, Manipulatives on the Run This program is a collection of activity boxes for Pre-K math enrichment, math centers, and math home connections. The activities will align with the state/national math curriculum standards taught in the classroom units, covering counting, identifying shapes and patterning with shapes. Activities and math manipulatives will be placed in running shoe boxes and the students choose boxes they have not yet completed. After the students complete the box in a center, the student will place the manipulatives under the classroom's document camera projected on the smartboard to share their learning experiences with the class. The box will then be taken home to connect learning with the family. The assessment checklists will be on a runner theme to "get in shape by running to the finish line" (crossing the finish line when all activities are completed). Pictures of numbered running shoes matching the completed running shoe boxes will keep track of student progress toward the finish line.
Laura Pyne / 5 Weber City Elementary	Improvement with an iPad Program Many students struggle with mathematical concepts simply because they do not know their basic facts. Not having a strong grasp of multiplication and division facts leads to many problems and math deficiencies. An iPad will be purchased along with an I-Tunes gift card for downloading applications. Appropriate applications will be downloaded. The teacher and math coach will develop a schedule in which students are given time to use the iPad in a mathematics center. In addition to the regular math class center time, the math coach will work with students using the iPad in the mornings during homeroom. Ten students will be given a timed weekly fact assessment each week. This assessment will track progress of basic multiplication and division facts. The data will be recorded by the teacher. The teacher will monitor and track student data on certain iPad applications to check for progress and look specifically for improvement in mathematical skills which require the knowledge of basic facts.
Penny Reece / K Woodland Elementary	Ideas on Wheels: Professional Resource Cart for Mathematics The goal of this grant is to create a mobile resource library that can be utilized by teachers in planning for quality instruction, as well as to provide resources that can be checked out and read in order to increase ones professional knowledge on mathematical concepts and the trajectory of mathematical knowledge. The first objective would be to have a cart of resource materials available to teachers to be utilized during their common grade level planning. The second objective would be to select researched based resources, which focus on teaching mathematics, which would be available for professional development purposes.
Beth LeRoy / 9-12 Cherokee High School	Using the iPad to Make Math Fun!! The goal of this proposal is to make learning math fun for all students through the use of technology that kids enjoy using. By utilizing the iPad in the classroom, math curriculum standards will be met through a fun and interactive process. The iPad will allow the teacher to teach math lessons in many different teaching strategies. Students will be more engaged and be more motivated to learn. Ipads offer a multitude of applications. There are algebra apps where students can practice specific algebra skills at different levels of difficulty, a graphing calculator that can be projected onto the white board, a DataPlot app where data can be analyzed with various statistical procedures and tests. It even has apps where students can learn how math is used in the real world and learn math concepts while answering some of life's trivial questions.
Misty Joyner / K Church Hill Elementary	Math Detectives Being a math detective will motivate and inspire students to challenge themselves in the field of mathematics. Students will be faced with real world mathematics through the use of an iPad 2. The class will be given projects on a weekly basis requiring them to research, create, design, develop, etc. all which are important higher order thinking skills that are needed for future success. Students will work in small groups to obtain the goal set for the week. During these weeks of study, students will be reinforcing the math units of study by completing projects that require students to work in groups to create e-books, comic strips, publish postcards, create photo memory match games and create musical patterns. The grant will allow my class to become math detectives for life.
Janice Russell / 7 Vance Middle School	Math Live Math Live began as an initiative by a seventh grade classroom teacher to improve math scores. All students on the teachers team met in the cafeteria for extra math time to review, remediate, and enrich their math skills. An extra 40 minutes a day of Math! No, way! Yes, way! Students work in small groups specifically designed to meet their learning needs. Tasks are assigned based on areas of need for each small group of students. Students solve problems, work on TCAP preparation, and use manipulatives to practice math skills. The purchase of additional materials will further enhance the instruction and learning time of Math Live. In addition, materials will be used by all math teachers to engage students in each teachers own version of Math Live during 40 minute daily sessions. The further use of these learning tools will be used during a 3-hr. daily math tutoring session funded through a different grant source. Training for the use of these materials will take place on November 8th. The school system has contributed $2,000 to cover the cost of this training.
Stephanie Miller / 7 Colonial Heights Middle School	Getting A Grasp on Math This grant proposal is to purchase hands-on math manipulatives in order for students to explore abstract mathematical concepts in a meaningful, concrete method. The use of these manipulatives will target visual and kinesthetic learners who were not Proficient on TCAP in the previous grade level, through investigative and exploratory learning. This will allow them to bridge gaps in basic math concepts and develop higher levels of comprehension, past a simple memorization of facts and formulas. My proposal is that if each student could get a better grasp of 2 or 3 abstract math concepts through the use of manipulatives, they could move from "Basic" to "Proficient" or from "Proficient" to "Advanced" and so on. The number of students that will have direct access to the manipulatives is 81. However, these resources can be shared among the 175 7th graders (where our school is lacking) and with the 6th/8th grade math departments to maximize effectiveness.
Jessica Posey-Dowty / 8 Church Hill Middle School	Media Mania in the Cyber World Students need to be able to recognize and evaluate truth in reporting data, whether it is in science, advertising, economics, politics, history and to use mathematics and statistics to help them determine fact from fiction. The goal of this project based learning is for all students to develop critical thinking skills while learning how statistics are used to answer key questions. The project will have instructional materials that each student must use to further his understanding of statistics, while answering key questions about mathematical statistics concerning his subject of interest as well as how to represent the information graphically. It is essential to teach students how to think, how to use mathematics to help them answer questions and to relate math to the real world. Scientific calculators will be purchased allowing for each student to check out a calculator home use during project work.
LeAnn Lane / 6 Sullivan Middle School	Learning Math Through Center Stage Center Stage Math is an educational supplemental product that provides support for teachers through manipulative-based centers where investigations challenge students at any level. These activities keep an entire class focused on specific math skills, reinforcing skills as well as providing problem solving activities. The centers provided through Center Stage Math also meets the needs of students that need small group cooperative learning or individual attention. Each center contains grade level material on a specific topic that covers state standards and beyond. Center Stage Math is not just a great tool for student learning but is also convenient for the teacher, providing materials for all learning centers into one package. Students of today's classroom are filled with learners of all diversity. Each student learns math from a different perspective and is in need of different opportunities to learn. Center Stage provides students with a combination of hands-on learning experiences with cooperative learning groups that capture the needs of many diverse learners.
Sunshine Light / 7 Ross N. Robinson Middle School	I Can Do It Now Many students are intimidated by mathematics and often give up if they do not get it the first time. In the classroom, time to review concepts is often limited and some students are not willing to ask for help. The LiveScribe pen will remedy both of these issues. Teachers can create pencasts (written explanations and visuals with auditory content) so that students can review materials as often as they need to without the feeling of being singled out or embarrassed. Students can also have the opportunity to create pencasts. While creating the pencasts, students will also increase their use of math vocabulary and deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts while building confidence with mathematics in general. These pencasts can then be uploaded to the school website allowing parents and students the opportunity to review and practice additional practice problems.
Tracy Easterling / K-12 Bristol TN City Schools	Building a Foundation Students must obtain certain skills to be successful in math throughout their education and their lives. Just as you build a house with a solid foundation, early childhood teachers are charged with building a strong mathematical foundation for students. How can we engage students in meaningful practice, so that they accurately and fluently recall basic math facts and have an understanding of place value and estimation strategies? One way to improve basic numeracy skills is to provide students with engaging practice through the use of manipulatives in math stations and tutoring sessions. To accomplish this goal, I would like to follow up with the professional development opportunity offered by the school system by purchasing materials demonstrated in the session. Only teachers who attend the inservice session will receive the activity book and the manipulatives to go with each activity. In addition to classroom use, teachers will be able to use the materials in the after school tutoring program that is 15 hours each week.