DAPHNE, Ala.—Supporting Education Enrichment in Daphne’s Schools—SEEDS—at Monday’s City Council meeting, awarded $37,500 in classroom enrichment grants to the five Daphne public schools and Christ the King Catholic School.

Foundation representatives said the funds will be used to pay for 23 classroom projects throughout the schools, as well as supplies, technology and instructional resources.

“State Rep. Randy Davis, state Sen. Marc Keahey and state Sen. Tripp Pittman contributed generously to this year’s grants program, making it possible for us to not only continue our $3,000 block grant to each school, but to also fund 23 different classroom projects developed by Daphne teachers,” SEEDS President Ashley Hammond said.

Some of SEEDS’ Enrichment Grant projects include: Sherry Bittinger’s “Public Art 101” at Daphne Middle; Terrie Weinacker’s “Is That How I Sound When I Read?” at Daphne East Elementary; Keri Shofner’s “WJCI Live” and Pam Earle’s “Behind Every Word There’s a Story” at W.J. Carroll Intermediate; Elizabeth Tindell’s “Camp Read-a-Lot” at Daphne Elementary; and Leigh Anne McPherson’s “Getting Ready for the World of Work” at Daphne High.

Help with special education

With the SEEDS money, Daphne High’s special education teacher, McPherson, can prepare her special-education students for what they can expect upon leaving school. Like most special-ed students, they will enter the Association of Retarded Citizens, where they will be trained for work and supported by a network of friends and specialists.

“What I’m trying to create in the room are skills necessary for life,” including laundry skills and how to be courteous to one another, McPherson said.

Her project will also include simulations of home scenarios—some of the students may eventually live independently—like folding towels and pillow cases.

“They’ll also learn how to make chairs and slings,” she said.

Art imitates life

 “Some of the supplies include materials for cutting, wrapping, covering, labeling, and displaying art works,” Bittinger said of the supplies used in her “Public Art 101” project. “The grant proposal that I wrote for ‘Public Art 101’ will allow me to enhance the presentation of student art that is on display throughout the school, restaurants, businesses, libraries, hospitals, and for competitions.”

She added that art teachers county-wide this year have the goal of presenting, “art in a unified, professional manner and SEEDS makes it possible for me to do this.”

Better listening

through chemistry

The donation will allow first-grade teacher Weinacker to execute her “Is That How I Sound When I Read?” project.

“With our SEEDS grant, all six of the first-grade teachers will be purchasing headsets with microphones and mp3 players,” Weinacker said. “Our goal is to increase our students’ reading fluency by having them record themselves reading into the microphone, downloading the story onto the mp3 players, and then listening to the recording.”

She added that, by hearing themselves read, students will be able to evaluate their own oral reading and self-correct to improve fluency.

‘Live from W.J. Carroll…’

The SEEDS grant money will afford W.J. Carroll Intermediate’s assistant principal, Shofner, to get the school’s production studio functioning.

“We will be producing announcements and working with students to help them gain a basic understanding of broadcasting,” Shofner said. “This will allow our students to be a step ahead of others when they move on and it will help them explore their interest in this career field.”

She added that the school will also be able to post its announcements on the Web to increase public awareness of activities and events at the school.

More than

story time

W.J. Carroll sixth-grade teacher Earle’s “Behind Every Word There’s a Story” reading series involves a weekly story along with grammar and spelling quizzes.

“My project is that each week students will look up the meaning of the words, then use the words in a story,” Earle said. “Each week I will choose the best story; then each quarter, I will give the ‘best of’ stories to a local writer to choose one for publications such as ‘This, That and the Other.’”

Earle added that the funding will cover a request for a class set of dictionaries to be used in conjunction with the project.

“There are a number of daily spelling lessons that focus on the meaning of the word; however, the students are very unfamiliar with many of the words,” Earle said. “I want them to know what the words mean as well as spell them.”

Making plans

for camp

Daphne Elementary’s librarian, Tindell, said the award will support the school’s “Camp Read-a-Lot” project.

“To encourage students to continue reading throughout the summer months, ‘Camp Read-a-Lot’ will enable students to check out books from the Daphne Elementary School library and then take an Accelerated Reader quiz on each book,” Tindell said.

“Teachers will be available to students each Tuesday during the summer for a brief story time and to help students check out appropriate age-level books and complete a certain number of quizzes in order to meet a set goal,” she said. “Keeping the excitement up over the summer will no longer be a problem for our students thanks to the generous SEEDS grant we received this year.”

Hammond added that the funds will also help SEEDS expand its grants program, “in spite of the current economic downturn.”

The SEEDS Enrichment Grant Program—in its fifth year—encourages educators and administrators to develop classroom initiatives beyond the core curriculum, focusing on four criteria: innovative teaching; instructional impact; professional collaboration; and community partnership.

In addition to technology improvements and dropout prevention efforts, SEEDS grants will fund items such as sheet music for the middle-school choral program, transportation for the high school Scholars Bowl team and maintenance of school copiers., according to Hammond.

“We’re pleased that with growing community support, our annual grant program has invested more than $121,000 in the Daphne schools since 2005,” Hammond said.

Upcoming:

<‘Mamma Mia Cook-off,’ celebrating Daphne’s Italian heritage: 7 p.m. Nov. 14, Daphne City Hall.

<6th annual ‘Classic Rock 5K and Fun Run’: March 6, 2010.

Daphne Elementary

W.J. Carroll Intermediate

Daphne East Elementary

Christ the King Catholic School

Daphne Middle

Daphne High