Ashley Mruz, Darcy Johnson and Dana Fontaine have found creative ways to engage with students and promote learning.
The Fremont Public Schools educators’ efforts were recognized by the FPS Foundation with creative teaching grants.
Kevin Eairleywine, the executive of the Fremont Public Schools Foundation, said that starting in 2006, the organization put together a process for teachers in the FPS system to submit proposals for grants to be considered for passage by a committee.
“We’ve given away thousands of grant dollars to our teachers,” Eairleywine said. “They come up with some exciting ideas to engage kids. They have new and innovative ways to work with them. There are things that are kind of outside of the regular budget that the tax dollars can’t really help them with. It is a great opportunity for us to support our teachers and ultimately support the learning of our kids.”
Johnson teaches resource 3 at Milliken Park Elementary. Her grant plan led to the purchase of 2 Osmo – Genius Family Starter Kit and one Osmo- Coding Family Bundle.
“My kids are super excited,” Johnson said. “The kids do anything for a little bit of iPad time.”
The purchase has helped with the reinforcement of letter formation, vocabulary, phonics and fine motor skills. Also included are games that teach problem-solving, emotions and empathy. All are hands-on activities to increase engagement.
Mruz, who teaches first grade at Bell Field, is working on her master’s degree in reading.
“We were talking about that oftentimes children don’t enjoy reading and first-grade reading can be tough,” she said. “So I wanted to come up with a fun way to encourage reading and build my relationships with students. They all enjoy having lunch with me so I decided to start a first-grade book club.”
“The Literacy Lunch Bunch” was formed. There were purchases of four or five copies of different book titles. Students would then be grouped into bunches of four or five students. Each group would read a book, then have lunch together to discuss what they read.
“Once I got the grant, I let the students help me pick out the material that they wanted to order,” Mruz said. “We started the book club and all 18 of my students were super excited to sign up for a book to read. … They’ve had so much fun discussing their books.”
Mruz said the “Literacy Lunch Bunch” has only been in existence for about a month, but will be around for the 2021-22 school year.
“It gets them excited about reading and hopefully it instills a lifelong love of reading for them,” she said.
Fontaine’s grant led to the purchase of a new 3D printer for the high school media center.
“I’m so excited about it because it will affect the entire school,” Fontaine said. “I’m really grateful to the foundation for letting us have this opportunity to expand.”
The printer can help the students in many ways, including exposing them to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) skills as well as teamwork. Teachers can collaborate with other educators on lesson plans.
Scott Jensen, the executive director of secondary operations for FPS, credited Johnson, Mruz and Fontaine with innovative ideas.
“It is just so impressive to see teachers like this that are taking extra time and extra interest in students to provide them opportunities down the line,” Jensen said. “These three are a testament and an example of great things going on in (FPS).”
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