1.3 Policies, Procedures, Programs & Funding
Candidates research, recommend, and implement policies, procedures, programs, and funding strategies to support implementation of the shared vision represented in the school, district, state, and federal technology plans and guidelines. Funding strategies may include the development, submission, and evaluation of formal grant proposals. (PSC 1.3/ISTE 1c)
Candidates research, recommend, and implement policies, procedures, programs, and funding strategies to support implementation of the shared vision represented in the school, district, state, and federal technology plans and guidelines. Funding strategies may include the development, submission, and evaluation of formal grant proposals. (PSC 1.3/ISTE 1c)
Reflection
At the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year, we implemented a STEM specials program for all students in Kindergarten through Fifth grade at Harbins Elementary School. As the instructional technology coach, I assisted the STEM teacher in researching funding sources and we identified the GaETC Innovation Grant (up to $2,500 for 5 winners each year) as a good potential funding source. Although we found many other national grant opportunities, we decided to pursue this one based on our familiarity with GaETC and the fact that we were only competing against a pool of applicants from our state as opposed to the entire country. We worked together to write a grant that would meet the program’s criteria and support our identified learning goals for students in our STEM specials classes and provide a bridge to bring more STEM opportunities to all classrooms at our school.
The artifact above is the grant that we submitted in September 2014. We were notified in October that our grant had been funded, and we accepted the grant at the GaETC conference in November 2014. The funds were spent in December of 2015, and all materials had arrived by the end of January 2015. The success of our grant and the subsequent professional learning opportunities we provided for teachers led to our school hosting our first ever STEM day in May 2015. I helped in the implementation phase through instructional technology coaching with classroom teachers and with our STEM teacher, including model lessons using our new materials and professional learning sessions. This process shows how I was able to research, recommend, and implement a successful funding strategy that had a major impact on students and teachers.
If I had to go through this process again, I would identify several different grants and apply for them at or around the same time. There was a large amount of work that went into creating and editing the grant application, and if we could have applied the same work to other grants we would have been able to increase our chances of winning an award. I now understand how involved the grant writing process is, and I want to learn more about how to write effective grants in the future.
The implementation of the funds from this grant also led to our school being offered additional funding opportunities from our district that were implemented in the 2015-2016 school year, including the purchase of an additional 3-D printer, and 2 sets of robots, with a total value of $4,000. These grant funds helped to improve student learning by opening up many opportunities for students to explore and create that they wouldn’t have had otherwise. Although we don’t have an assessment that could measure this accurately, we could use interest data from after-school programs and student satisfaction surveys to help assess the impact of the STEM program.
The artifact above is the grant that we submitted in September 2014. We were notified in October that our grant had been funded, and we accepted the grant at the GaETC conference in November 2014. The funds were spent in December of 2015, and all materials had arrived by the end of January 2015. The success of our grant and the subsequent professional learning opportunities we provided for teachers led to our school hosting our first ever STEM day in May 2015. I helped in the implementation phase through instructional technology coaching with classroom teachers and with our STEM teacher, including model lessons using our new materials and professional learning sessions. This process shows how I was able to research, recommend, and implement a successful funding strategy that had a major impact on students and teachers.
If I had to go through this process again, I would identify several different grants and apply for them at or around the same time. There was a large amount of work that went into creating and editing the grant application, and if we could have applied the same work to other grants we would have been able to increase our chances of winning an award. I now understand how involved the grant writing process is, and I want to learn more about how to write effective grants in the future.
The implementation of the funds from this grant also led to our school being offered additional funding opportunities from our district that were implemented in the 2015-2016 school year, including the purchase of an additional 3-D printer, and 2 sets of robots, with a total value of $4,000. These grant funds helped to improve student learning by opening up many opportunities for students to explore and create that they wouldn’t have had otherwise. Although we don’t have an assessment that could measure this accurately, we could use interest data from after-school programs and student satisfaction surveys to help assess the impact of the STEM program.