Teachers need all the help they can get when it comes to outfitting their classrooms with the proper materials to help the learning process.
Thankfully, the Lakes Community Credit Union in Lake Orion understands this. That’s why they distributed a $250 mini-grant to second grade Leonard Elementary teacher Jillian Opalach, and Daniel Axford Elementary teacher Renee Green, last Wednesday.
Opalach, with the help of principal Joyce Brasington, wrote the grant so she could purchase books that would enhance her students? writing.
Leonard Elementary, like other schools in the district, uses the writing curriuclum developed by Lucy Calkins.
The books the grant will purchase will strengthen the Calkins writing program by providing multiple exposures to different types of writing and demonstrating various ‘writer’s crafts? through literary examples.
‘Children need images of what good writing looks like,? Opalach wrote in her grant. ‘We need to learn from … an author’s work.?
Green’s $250 mini-grant will help her purchase a Mobile Reading/Writing Center for her current second grade class, and for future students.
The center includes three large dry erase boards, shelves, tubs to hold books and clips that hold book pages open, all of which help give students more hands-on involvement with learning.
Currently, a bookshelf blocks the chalkboard in Green’s room, making it hard for students to write on the board.
‘The Mobile Reading/Writing Center will allow my students to actually engage in their reading and writing,? Green said.
Congratulations!