Funding Paper

Kari Cregger, Ashley Mauck, Sean Kinney

Harmony Hills Elementary School

June 28, 2016

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The technological need we would like to address through grant funding is getting

one-to-one devices for low income, high needs, English Language Learners in grades

kindergarten through second. Currently, our students in third through fifth grade have

Chromebooks to use at school individually. We have seen the benefits and learning

opportunities that one-to-one devices have and would like to open those opportunities to

younger students. Students can receive differentiated instruction and differentiated

assessment through the effective use of technology on one-to-one devices. Students

can also take more ownership of their learning and the rate at which they learn

according to their needs. These devices also open up the opportunity for technology

based projects in the classroom. They can also help prepare students to feel more

comfortable and skilled in using the devices, as they use them for testing in the older

grades. Teachers can communicate with students, students can access and

communicate with teachers, and students have the opportunity for collaboration

amongst students.

One grant that would be applicable in helping fund our one-to-one devices, is the

Maryland Society for Educational Technology (MSET) grant. MSET awards up to

$2,000, which could provide 12 Chromebooks for example. This grant suits our needs

because one-to-one devices will personalize learning through educational technology.

The program focuses on providing software, applications or hardware which is exactly

what we need at this stage. The requirements of this grant are to be a paid in full and

up to date member of MSET, and only one application per school. They require a short
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(75 words or less) proposal with a title that describes the project. The proposal must

include a table outlining the price, model number, and quantity of the devices purchased

as well as an additional plan for how we plan to obtain the remaining funding for the rest

of the devices. The grant application must have an example assessment and

explanation for how the technology and content will be assessed. The grant application

also must include the Maryland College and Career Readiness standards and any other

content standards addressed. It must also explicitly state the Maryland Teacher

Technology Standards and Maryland Technology Literacy Standards for Students it will

address. Finally the grant application must have an Action plan that outlines a timeline

for the implementation of the plan that details activity, person responsible, start date,

completion date, and evidence of successful completion. The most important piece of

the grant application that really speaks to our project is, the grant must, Clearly

describe how implementation of the proposed program will improve student

achievement, address an instructional need in a new and creative way, and promote

21st Century Learning. An interesting part of this application process is a written

description of the applicant qualifications to run this implementation. The person or

persons applying must present this at a conference in Ocean City, Maryland in August

(Common Ground Conference). They must also create an iLearn account through

iTunes University. The purpose of this is to share and connect grant applicants with

others who are trying to accomplish similar innovations. The grant explicitly states that

the grant money will not cover any of these additional expenses (conference

experience, membership, professional development, curriculum, salaries, etc) but only

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the software, hardware, or apps used. I think that this grant is a good option for us to

begin our one-to-one device rollout in younger grades because it focuses on the

equipment necessary and its goal is in line with ours, personalizing learning for students

with technology. We would need to specify the free resources and websites we plan to

use to teach content, differentiate instruction, and individualized assessment to make

sure the grant readers understand that the technology is out there but we need students

to have access to it on their own devices. The application is not open for 2016-2017

school year, however information can be accessed at:

http://www.msetonline.org/grants.html

Another grant that applies to our implementation of one-to-one devices is through

Digital Wish. Digital wish allows teachers to create a digital wish list of technology and

devices that you would like for your classroom and you receive full or partial donations

from donors. Donors get to read about various projects and choose what they want

their money to go towards and for whom. The other part of this website is grant

opportunities. They offer a one-to-one computer support grant. Each month, the 1:1

advisors choose up to four schools to receive this grant. They provide support and

resources for evaluation, implementation, and other sustainability tools for your schools

program. The grant actually includes 10 hours of technical support to help evaluate and

create a 1:1 plan that works for your classroom. They provide a sustainability tool, help

in finding other grants for further equipment, video conference, and the IT curriculum

package from Digital Wish. They also provide discounted onsite trainings for staff and

students on Digital Citizenship and Cyber Safety Training. The grant applications are
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accepted on a rolling basis and can provide $4,500 -$5,000. Applicants are encouraged

to apply during the summer, when 1:1 device plans are planned for the upcoming

school year. This grant is unique in that they help you put together a plan that is unique

for your school and help find grants that will get you the proper equipment. They match

you with a 1:1 expert and encourage schools that are interested in piloting a 1:1 device

rollout at their school. For schools to apply they just need to write a brief description of

the school including number of students, grade range, demographics and schools

website. They want to know what progress your school has made with technology, for

example the ratio of computers to students, the infrastructure (network, hardware, type

of computers, servers, and any tech staff or teachers) and if the school has a tech plan.

The last piece of the application is explaining the support for technology in the district.

Is there a supportive board and administration? How enthusiastic are teachers? The

mood of the students? Motivated principal? Any existing tech budget with local grant

sources, foundations, or supportive business partners? A supportive PTA willing to do

fundraisers for the technology? I think that we would have a good chance at winning

this grant since it seems that they grant a lot of opportunities for schools. The biggest

asset would be help structuring a plan for our K-2 classes rather than relying on our

county to complete the roll out. We are also interested in looking at other devices, aside

from chromebooks that might be better suited for younger learners, like ipads or other

kinds of tablets. The other important piece that this grant opportunity offers us is the

Grant Search where they actually help us find the funding for the actual equipment. The

trainings for teachers would be really helpful and benefit the staff. The technology
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curriculum would help guide teachers in what skills to teach and what IT skills they need

themselves, to prepare our students for a 21st century career. Another plus to this

grant is that the application is only one page are school is high needs, low income, high

minority and ELL school. We should qualify fairly easily considering our situation and

the great benefits that one to one devices would bring for our students. The primary

teachers are excited about technology and very much want access and training on

implementation into their classes. I also believe that we would benefit from creating a

digital wish list on the website in hopes of getting matched with donors. We would be

most likely to be successful by doing this per classroom teacher instead of ordering a

bulk number K-2. Another option is to request devices per grade level, which might

entice more donors to give money to our cause. More information can be found at:

https://digitalwishes.wordpress.com/grants/

A third grant option that might benefit us to apply is the The teacher Grant

Program: The Foundation for Blended and Online Learning. This grant is to reward

teachers and counselors that have mastered the ability to blend online learning with

face to face teaching. The grant is to support technology-driven learning environments.

The grant proposal must be focused on an implemented technological innovation done

to enhance student learning. Teachers must demonstrate that their digital tool had

measurable outcomes, what they were, and the effectiveness of the program through a

detailed summative video. We could use the already implemented chromebooks at our

school in grades 3-5 classrooms, to highlight through a video, a teachers success of

the implementation of their one-to-one devices. If we were successful and awarded the
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money, we could use the funds to purchase additional devices to implement one-to-one

devices in the early childhood rooms or some of the grade levels depending on the

awarded amount of the grant. Our best chance at success is to focus the successful

implementation of one-to-one devices in a classroom with high number of special

education students and a high number of ESOL or English Language Learners that

uses technology for successful remedial math strategies and a successful literacy

intervention. We have plenty of teachers that enhance student learning through

technology resources and websites like Google Classroom and other GAFE apps, to

communicate and foster collaboration amongst students. Some teachers use

Xtramath.com or tenmarks.com for math fact practice and fluency. Other teachers have

their own personal websites that house all of the reading, literacy, and math support and

practice websites for students to access in class or from home. Some teachers

successfully use apps for teaching typing and other necessary tech skills. Some

teachers use the hour of code and code.org to teach a self-paced computer science

curriculum. Not only does the technology clearly enhance the content of education and

curriculum, teachers are also using it to differentiate and individualize instruction and

assessment. It provides students more choice in ways they want to show what they

know. More students now have access to speech to text and dictionary to provide

necessary supports for their learning styles. More students are engaged in the learning

process. There are countless successes to choose from to highlight that many teachers

already do at our school in the upper grades. It is vital that we do the best possible job

in articulating what teachers do to blend online learning and face to face teaching with
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measurable outcomes. We keep lots of data like MIRL (reading levels) by month, math

formatives and indicators, as well as growth on standardized tests (MAP-M and

MAP-R). We would easily have access to all the information necessary to apply for this

grant and access to teachers who implement this well. This would be a very good,

unique opportunity for our school to showcase what we do well and open the eyes to all

our teachers so that more teachers implement technology in a way that benefits

students.

A fourth grant opportunity that could help fund one to one devices in the early

childhood grades is through the NEA Foundation. They offer Student Achievement

grants that you can apply for that range from $2,000 to $5,000. That could supply us

with up to thirty chromebooks, enough for more than one classroom in the younger

grades.To apply for this grant it is required that you are a current NEA(National

Education Association) member. Most if not all teachers at our school are NEA

members. The grants they provide are to improve the academic achievement of public

school students in the United States. Our school is a lower income public school in the

United States and has data to support the need for improvement in academic

achievement throughout our school, including grades kindergarten to second. NEA also

says the use of the grant should engage students in critical thinking and problem

solving, and provide a deeper knowledge of subject matter. This grant would be helpful

for us because the use of one to one devices in grades kindergarten through second

would help achieve this. We want one to one devices in our schools because we have

seen what it can do to help our students with critical thinking, problem solving and
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deeper understanding of subject matter. It is helpful that we can speak on what the one

to one devices have done to help the older students in our school, and how it has

improved their achievement. In the guidelines of the grant it also says that the

proposed work should improve students habits of inquiry, self directed learning and

critical reflection. Those are a part of the reason we want the chromebooks for the

students. We have seen how helpful they can be with inquiry, and the students ability to

direct and guide their own learning. As a school that is moving towards a more

Universal Design for Learning, the students ability to direct their own learning is very

important to us.

Applications for this grant can be submitted anytime throughout the year, and are

reviewed three times per year. If they receive your application by February 1, you will

be notified by April 15. If they receive your application by June 1, you will be notified by

September 15. If they receive your application by October 15, you will be notified by

January 15. It is important to pay close attention to the timeline of our grant when

applying. If an application includes anything that should happen before the date of

notification, then the application will not be considered. The notifications are in writing,

and the do not want you to contact the Foundation regarding the status prior to the

notification date. The fact that you can apply anytime throughout the year is very

appealing, and great for our school because we dont have to worry about meeting a

specific deadline. They do provide specific restrictions on what the grant funds cannot

be used for, but technology does not fall under those restrictions.
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The application process of this grant is important to pay attention to, and failure

to complete the required information will automatically disqualify the application. To

start, there needs to be a lead applicant, this person will be the NEAs contact person.

There also needs to be information on a partner, this would be someone prepared to

assume the leadership role if the lead applicant is unable to. Both must be NEA

members, and neither can be administration. There also needs to be a fiscal sponsor

designated, which in our case could be the school or the lead applicant.

The application involves a narrative part, which in includes summary, goals,

sustainability, students need and activity. For the summary there needs to be a 100

words or less describing the proposed work. When describing the goals, the student

learning goals and how they will be measured need to be included, as well as the

standards that will be linked to it. There also needs to be a part of sustainability,

explaining how the project will be maintained beyond the grant period and how it can be

used by other educators. Student need should also be addressed, starting with

academic need then moving on to sociological, economic, emotional, and culture. The

activities that will be engaged in by teachers and students also need to be explained,

and how they will help students reach the goals. There also needs to be an explanation

on how the activities using the chromebooks will help students engage in critical

thinking and problem solving. This whole section of the application could easily be

completed. Our school is a low income, high needs, Title One school with a high ELL

population. There is data to back our academic needs as well as sociological,

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economic, emotional and culture. Giving our students the opportunity to have

chromebooks in the lower grades will open up many opportunities to their learning.

The last part of the application is the budget, which needs to be provided for the

proposed work. The request can total $2,000 to $5,000, other additional supports that

will be provided need to be identified as well, even the support from the school district.

The budget needs to be in a specific form, whether in Word, Excel, or PDF. The budget

should be realistic, and cost efficient.

A fifth grant opportunity that could help fund the chromebooks is through The

Google RISE Awards. The Google RISE Awards is an annual grant program for

education organizations that promote computer science in grades K through 12. The

grant is specifically for participation from girls, youth in low income communities, or

minorities who have historically been underrepresented in the field of computer science.

Our school is a title one low income school and over 80% of our students our hispanic,

therefore it would qualify under those specifications. We have STEM class for grades

first through fifth, as well as STEM after school programs that could be worked around

this grant. These specifications are for this year and the application process opens

sometime this month, which is not specified.

If you are awarded this grant, you have to keep google updated on progress

through mid and end year reports. You are also responsible to share resources and

ideas through the RISE community. The United States does fall under a country that

qualifies for application of the grant. Our STEM program would need to start a

computer science outreach program, which would not be difficult to implement into our
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afterschool program we currently have. The program should have potential to have a

broader impact, which I think is possible starting with the surrounding schools and then

sharing throughout the county. Attainability is also important, the school should have a

good track record, showing they will carry out their plan. I dont think this would be a

problem with our school, as we are very innovative and have started a lot of new

programs and implemented many things throughout the last several years that are still

in place. I am not sure how they want us to represent this, it did not specify and the

application is not open yet. Since google is a data driven company, it is important to

show record or impact, or to give a plan on how you would measure the impact on

students.

I think it would be helpful for our school to apply for this grant. Our school

already does some computer science through coding in STEM. Adding more interest in

computer science, through programming or computational thinking is a reachable goal

for our school. RISE grants are also annual, so you can apply more than one year,

even if you have already been awarded a grant the previous year. It is mandatory to

provide a budget, as well as an account of monies spent throughout the year and the

impact it had.

Although this grant doesnt fall under our specific goals for the one to one

devices it would be able to provide them to grades kindergarten through second. There

would also be a possibility for additional money to help support the computer science

integration with STEM. The students would still have the availability and use of one to

one devices and would be able to use them for a variety of subjects and uses.
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Focusing on computer science would not take away, but add to the inquiry, problem

solving and critical thinking we want to deepen in our younger students.

We were able to find many small grants that put together could help us fund one

to one devices for grades K-2. The Google RISE grant could fund all of it by itself, but

seeing as though the application was not currently open there were some specifics that

were unsure. Through researching the grants it is evident that it is possible to get one

to one devices from grant funding for our low income, high needs, English Language

Learners in grades kindergarten through second. All of the grants seem like they would

be helpful to apply for to fund our need for one to one devices in the Early Childhood

grade levels. We hope to open the same opportunity for learning that the older students

in our school have, through technology by applying to these grants.