St. John The Baptist Teachers Receive Grants
Five teachers from St. John the Baptist School in Newburgh have received grants totaling $19,000 from the Evansville-based Mother Bear Charitable Foundation. The foundation’s mission is to enrich the lives of exceptional children in Vanderburgh and Warrick counties.
St. John Kinder Kountry Preschool teacher Leah Harbour earned a grant that will be used for technology in the preschool including two Promethean boards and a set of iPads. This will allow for alternative ways for the students to learn and let teachers meet students at their individual learning levels.
Fourth-grade teacher Stephanie Smith received a grant to provide students with mentor texts to target literacy skills and incorporate interests and independent reading skills. The grant will provide more than 75 children's books, teacher resources and some flexible-seating options.
Second-grade teacher Jennifer Dill’s grant will enable the purchase of small couches, a table, wobble stools, sit/work stools and lap desks. Dill is excited for her students to have a classroom that seems more like a second home, and offers an environment where each student will learn his or her best.
Two grants will help develop the high-ability programming at St. John the Baptist, the only Diocese of Evansville Catholic school with a focused high-ability program for these unique learners. Becky Humm, who teaches high ability math for K-8, will use her grant money to obtain the Breakout EDU program to use for two years in her high-ability math classes.
Breakout EDU is an escape-room-type activity with hands-on lessons available for multiple math skills across multiple levels. A kit comes with the physical materials needed for the lessons, and there also is an online component to these escapes. This program requires logical thinking, cooperative learning and creativity.
Maria Janney, high-ability language arts teacher for K-8 and high-ability coordinator, will expand her classroom library with new titles, picture books for writing exemplars and high-school-level literature. She also will purchase student publishing kits for her writers in grades K-3, and she will obtain materials and pay contest-entry fees for students in grades 4-8 to participate in the National Mythology Exam.
