LCEF GRANTS
The Lake Cities Education Foundation awards grants to teachers and teams of teachers at Lake Dallas ISD. These grants are designed to encourage, facilitate, recognize and reward innovative and creative instructional approaches for educating LDISD students.
The Lake Cities Education Foundation recently awarded $34,000 in grants to Lake Dallas ISD educators to fund unique and innovative projects designed to further strengthen classroom experiences for students, with each district campus earning at least one grant.
To see photos of grant recipients, click here.
The Lake Cities Education Foundation annually works to support Lake Dallas ISD and enhance educational opportunities through two primary initiatives, student scholarships and educator grants. Since its founding, the foundation has awarded more than $618,000 in scholarships for graduating seniors and more than $424,000 in grants for educational projects and initiatives.
| Indoor/Outdoor Integrated STEM lab Funds made possible through the CoServ Teacher Assistance Grant and Carole Heidemann Memorial Teacher Grant |
|
| Bethany Hoffman, Cynthia Salmons, Corinth Elementary | |
| Grant Amount | $5000 |
| Description | The purpose of this grant is to design an indoor/outdoor integrated science lab where teachers teach activities designed to link students' unit objectives to hands on STEM activities. The indoor lab will consist of shared materials for K-2, and unit tubs for 3-5 that include materials to target units of study and manipulatives to create STEM activities to increase learning through active engagement. The outdoor lab will provide a unique learning space for grade-levels (K-5), where students can learn about plant growth and conservation. |
| It's All Fun and Games: Family Math Night Lake Dallas Elementary School Funds made possible through the Drozd Family Grant and LCEF Directors Grant |
|
| Kristi Webb, Lake Dallas Elementary School | |
| Grant Amount | $5000 |
| Description | To increase parent/family engagement, Lake Dallas Elementary School will host a Family Math Night. During this Family Math Night, students and their families will come together for an evening to learn fun and engaging mathematics games to practice and strengthen fact fluency skills. Students, families, and teachers will engage in a hands-on math workshop where they will play math games and learn ways to support mathematics learning at home. All families will receive take-home materials (cards, dice, and instructions) to continue playing the games at home. All teachers in attendance will also receive materials and professional development support in the instructional areas of fact fluency, algebraic reasoning, and numeracy concepts. |
| Take-Along From School to Home Funds made possible through the Robin Hasserd Memorial Teacher Grant |
|
| Frances Bassham, Lake Dallas Elementary School | |
| Grant Amount | $1,700 |
| Description | This grant will service Kindergarten classes from Jan. 2023 to future classes. Through this grant, students will have the opportunity to further develop their understanding of crucial math and literacy skills. They will receive foundational instruction in class, and then with the use of activity boxes be able to improve their skills through at home application. This arrangement will also foster improved home-school relationships and create another opportunity for parents to deepen their involvement and understanding of their students' academic progress. These activity boxes give all families, and especially at risk students, the chance to experience activities that target skills that they may struggle with at school and practice at home. |
| Vex Engineering Robotics Program Funds made possible through the CoServ Charitable Foundation Grant |
|
| Travis Waddell, Lake Dallas High School | |
| Grant Amount | $4,980 |
| Description | The purpose of this grant is to prepare our students to earn an IBC (Industry Based Certification) in the Engineering Programming language and attain the much sought after and recognized skills that industry professionals are looking for in their candidates for employment. This project will bring fun and multi-layered learning opportunities to our students. Through collaboration with industry professionals, we know what skills our students will need to be successful in Manufacturing and Engineering. The VEX Robotics Competition Kits is an initial building block that is paramount to student learning and readiness for student progression. Industry professionals are working to ensure they can fill their jobs with qualified team members. |
| Social and Emotional Skill Building for 3rd, 4th and 5th Grade Elementary Funds made possible through the Gary and Dena Peppers Teacher Grant & LCEF Directors Grant |
|
| Dr. Kathy Schaeffer, LDISD Special Ed. Dept. | |
| Grant Amount | $5,000 |
| Description | The purpose of the grant is to provide opportunities for the successful development of social emotional health in young children by implementing a research-based social emotional learning (SEL) program for elementary age students. Social emotional health – the ability to understand and manage one’s emotions, reactions, and relationships – is a critical determinant of personal and school outcomes. The achievement of social emotional health requires a repertoire of skills such as self-awareness, self-regulation, problem-solving, perspective-taking, conflict resolution, communication, persistence and coping. Increasingly, young students are entering the education system without these skills. Disproportionate learning time is therefore spent on managing students’ maladaptive social, emotional, and behavioral responses to the school environment. A research-based social emotional learning method will equip teachers with proven strategies for the successful development of social emotional health in young children |
| Sketch Pad Boards Funds made possible through the LCEF Directors Grant Grant |
|
| Shirley Frase, Corinth Elementary School | |
| Grant Amount | $275 |
| Description | Sketching is a vital part of art and developing drawing abilities is critical to developing young artists. Sketching is a great way to get students to see things differently and clearly. Having the ability to move from a table setting to a more flexible arrangement allows creativity to flow. These boards will allow students more freedom for sketching and will be a resource for students to use when going outside to create nature sketches.td> |
| STEM-Falcon Innovation Station Funds made possible through the Walmart Teachers Grant & Boeing Teachers Grant |
|
| Carylan Bell and Jennifer Ramsey, Corinth Elementary School | |
| Grant Amount | $1,615 |
| Description | The purpose of this grant is to provide students with hands-on and technology-based learning experiences during morning arrival, math block, and science block with the proposed creation of an after-school STEM program. STEM based electronics and hands-on materials will be used to introduce students to STEM learning. Many jobs of the future require these skills, so developing an early interest will help guide them in their future careers. Hands-on learning and technology have been known to increase engagement and interest, so offering these opportunities to students now will be beneficial to their future success. |
| The World of Books Funds made possible through the DATCU Teacher Grant |
|
| Karla Sanchez, Deborah Estrada, Sandra Adkison, Lake Dallas Elementary | |
| Grant Amount | $4,600 |
| Description | The World of Books project aims to provide books in Spanish, as well as multicultural books, for student use through the Library at Lake Dallas Elementary. Having Spanish titles in the campus library will ensure an opportunity for Emergent Bilingual students on the campus to participate fully in the reading experience we want all students to have. This grant will also provide multicultural titles that all teachers and children can access, broadening our cultural knowledge and understanding of the experiences many of our students have gone through themselves. |
| Engaging Students in Diverse Books Through Lone Star Reading Funds made possible through the Robin Goodale Memorial Teacher Grant & TW Hicks Teacher Grant |
|
| Juli Bartley, Heather Chambers, Lake Dallas Middle School | |
| Grant Amount | $4,830 |
| Description | The purpose of the grant is to purchase classroom sets of books from the Lone Star Reading list for the students at Lake Dallas Middle School. The Lone Star books list is created by public and school librarians from the Young Adult Round Table. The purpose of the list is to encourage students to explore a variety of current books which engage readers and broaden their horizons in reading and different genres. Providing students with a wider range of diverse and popular titles allow them the opportunity to read for leisure or required school assignments. it is our goal to provide our middle school students with a diverse set of titles students can read in the classroom for independent study. Purchasing books for the classroom will give them the opportunity to explore new ideas and concepts. |
| NEST (Calming Center) Funds made possible in part through the Lora McCarty Henderson Memorial Teacher Grant |
|
| Meghan Czarobski, Elisha Holmes, Lake Dallas High School | |
| Grant Amount | $1,000 |
| Description | This grant will provide items to create a calm and more soothing physical environment for LDHS special education students through the NEST classroom. The purpose of the NEST (Nurturing Environment for Social Teaching) is to provide students in special education with emotional disturbance who experience anxiety, depression or emotional outbursts a place to self-regulate, practice coping strategies, and process emotions. By reducing stress, students are able to return to class and refocus on academics, thus increasing their academic functioning and overall wellbeing. Students who receive NEST support increase their coping abilities and are able to return to class, focus, and complete academic tasks once they are emotionally regulated. The NEST is also utilized as a place where students with social skills goals in their IEP receive direct social skills instruction in order to improve their social functioning with peers. |
Funding for these grants was provided through contributions to the Lake Cities Education Foundation from individual donors, businesses and corporations. All donations are tax deductible. For more information, contact the Lake Cities Education Foundation at 940-497-5233.