DOUG PERRY

Murray believes in teaching students collaboration – brainstorming and working together on projects. These experiences enrich education opportunities and provide layered learning of important skills they can take with them the rest of their lives. As such, Mr. Pugsley (Horizon) needed wipe book dry erase posters for his science instruction so he turned to MEF for funding. Now his students are creating displays about their reading assignments and he can display them around the room gallery style to build confidence and reinforce concepts.

Ms. Hardman (Riverview) is using her MEF grant funding this year to strengthen her special ed student’s executive function skills through specialized cognitive strategy games. These have long been held as a standard for executive function development in all humans to govern our decisions and social interactions. Executive functions are like a flight tower within each of us – coordinating and organizing millions of choices and actions. The better our brains listen to the control tower the better we function.

MHS’s Makerspace opens its doors to students as an opt-in FLEX period activity but also offers teachers curricular support for many different classes during instructional time. This innovative program allows students to explore a myriad of hands-on projects in safe and supportive settings.

Thanks to a grant from MEF, Makerspace was able to add a jewelry-making and beading station to its options this year. This was a #1 request by students last year but also expands art curriculum choices for teachers.

Ms. Granzin’s kindergarten headphones were in bad shape and needed to be replaced as her students needed to access important Lexia math and English curriculum this year. She applied for and received an MEF grant that was music to her and her student’s ears. 

Thanks to MEF funding, Parkside Elementary students were recently enchanted by the ever-popular Scales and Tales (SAT) team, giving kids hands-on experiences that reinforce important science curricula.

SAT instructors skillfully reinforced with students the unique life cycles of animals (Science Strand 3.2). While traits are different, they follow a pattern of birth, growth, reproduction, and death. An organism’s inherited traits are critical to its adaptability, and we humans can take actions to optimize their ability to thrive.