By Josh Atherton, Executive Director
Frederick High School Art Teacher Ms. LaSage recently applied for funding for Teacher Innovation Grants from the Education Foundation and wrote about how the project, if funded (Spoiler Alert: Ms. LaSage received FULL funding!), would dramatically impact over 800 students at FHS:
My Students: “I absolutely adore my students! They are enthusiastic about making Art and aren’t afraid to take risks when trying new media and techniques. They have the most interesting ideas and I love seeing them bring these ideas to life in my classroom!“
“My Project”: “During these difficult times brought on by COVID19, students and teachers have had many opportunities to adapt to our changing environment. I imagine many of these changes will impact us as well as our best educational practices for years to come. As a Visual Arts teacher, I am learning to find new ways to set up and operate the way we share and store materials in a safer manner. One challenge I’ve recently encountered is realizing just how much contact students have with materials and projects in the Art room that can be difficult to sanitize without damaging. I am hoping to secure funding for some new mobile storage equipment (specifically, two mobile drying racks costing about $800 each) to ensure that all Art students have a place to safely store their work while minimizing contact between projects and students. These two new drying racks will help us add storage for up to 6 Art classes, which will allow us a complete set of safe storage for every student who chooses to enroll in Art courses!”
Did you know that St. Vrain Valley Schools Education Foundation partners with 501c3 DonorsChoose.org to help complete funding for St. Vrain Teacher Innovation Grant’s teacher projects? This allows us to help fully fund projects with the support of private individuals from around the world and major companies like Google and Samsung along with large foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative! Ms. LeSage recently received FULL funding support from the St. Vrain Valley Schools Education Foundation, family members, and former students, and a match funding from Donors Choose! This is a great example of how we work with key partners to find additional resources for our teachers, and help achieve our goal of Student Success and Teacher Excellence. #StVrainStorm #StVrainFoundation
To see Ms. LaSage’s project and funding comments: https://www.donorschoose.org/project/safe-storage/5362365/?utm_source=dc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=feedback_thankyou_standard&rf=email-system-2021-01-feedback_thankyou_standard-donor&lightbox=ity&pma=true&pmaType=ity&pmaId=6871517&pmaHash=7QWWrt0qiotlu3mArOFtcQ%3D%3D&utm_swu=9168#project-activity