A few months back, my school was visited by Dean Vogel, the California Teachers Association (CTA) president, and various other board members. One member in particular struck a cord with me. Jim Groth, an elementary educator from Chula-Vista and the District P representative, took the time to visit my 1:1 classroom to see what was happening with my students.
As my students were strewn all over the floor, hallway, throughout my classroom and the empty room next door, writing scripts and creating iMovies, Jim, Theresa Grace (my principal), and I had an incredible conversation about 21st century learning and the opportunities CTA offers teachers. I learned during that conversation about the Institute for Teaching's mission:
"The CTA Institute for Teaching mission is to enhance, support, and sustain high quality teaching and high quality public schools for all California students. Through mobilizing teachers, special programs, research, conferences, networking, and community-based coalitions, the CTA Institute for Teaching seeks to advance public education and promote the common good of our students and communities."
Jim encouraged me to apply for an IFT grant and said, "The only thing that could limit us would be our own creativity." I reflected on that statement as I looked at my classroom filled with creators and began to imagine what my vision might be for a grant proposal. I began to dream up this crazy idea of traveling to see innovative educators using technology and bringing back the ideas and practices to our staff. I quickly emailed the teachers at Mt. Woodson Elementary looking for anyone ready and willing to work on the proposal with me. Within a few days the grant leadership team was established and five of us sat down to determine the vision and write the grant proposal.
The leadership team comprised of Jennifer McSparran, Cory Gilbreth, Joyce Evans, Barbara Spain, and myself worked to complete the proposal including a timeline and budget. After several weeks of hard work we submitted our proposal. Then, it was weeks of waiting for the email indicating whether we had earned the grant or not. We were skeptical because we were asking for $19,400 to go beyond our district and county walls to visit the "best" teaching all over California, and to hold our own book study with books that WE got to choose.
This type of request is not something educators are used to seeing come to fruition. In fact, the more I talk with educators all over California about the more I see the need for more of these types of experiences.
At the very end of June the special email arrived and I have to say, it felt like we had just won the lottery. I Tweeted about it, texted, posted it on Facebook, and called my mom and hubby. Talk about energizing a group of teachers! The months to come will be exciting ones, and as a group we can't wait to share our experiences with our staff, district, and the rest of the world.
Stay tuned for more grant posts to come.
Below is a small excerpt from our proposal's overview:
Mt. Woodson Elementary School is dedicated to creating a strength-based school culture. The goal of this proposal is to help the Mt. Woodson learning community successfully shift to Common Core Standards and commit to 21st century learning through the use of technology.
This grant will allow us to achieve our goal by teachers implementing the following action steps:
As a result, strength-based principles will intensify at the school site.
- Visit the most successful schools in California to observe the use of technology to improve student achievement.
- Collaborate with one another and develop curricular units and personalized action plans to create a blended approach for learning to meet the needs of all students.
- Create a teacher led book club to reflect on the most recent research and best practices as they relate to the school-wide technology integration.
- Implement teacher designed and led professional development, based on teacher choice, to improve upon previously established practices and continue moving us forward in our goal of 21st century learning.
