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28 teachers awarded $65,050 funding
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Posted on Nov 19 2004
Gov. Juan N. Babauta announced yesterday the award of another 18 teacher performance improvement grants, totaling $62,550.28.
Public School System teachers, either individually or in groups, wrote the grant proposals that are receiving funding from the governor.
The grants are part of the Governor’s Education Initiative. Grant selections are made by an independent panel of five teachers.
“Once again, we saw how this grant program can speak directly to the needs of teachers and students in their classrooms and help them improve academic performance,” Babauta said. “I was also very happy to see that teachers on Tinian began to apply for Performance Improvement Grants—and won funding. That means that now students and teachers on Saipan, Rota and Tinian are all benefiting from this program.”
This was the third and final round of the Teacher Performance Improvement Grants. The original plan for four rounds was rescheduled because of summer vacation conflicts. So all round three and four applicants were judged by the teacher review panel as one group.
“The hope now,” according to Babauta, “is that the Legislature will pass a fiscal year 2005 budget with sufficient funding to continue the Performance Improvement Grants and the other programs of the Education Initiative.”
Both the House and the Senate have included $600,000 for the governor’s program, but the two bodies have not yet agreed on an overall spending plan for the fiscal year that began seven weeks ago.
The Education Initiative also provides grants for Teacher Out-of-Pocket Expense reimbursement, the Student Laptop program, the Healthy Student Initiative, the Development Director Pilot Program, and Teacher of the Year Awards.
Over 100 teachers applied for grants during this first year of the Performance Improvement Grant program and more than half of them were awarded grants.
The recipients of the Performance Improvement Grants are:
Grantee: Beth Nepaial
School: Hopwood Jr. High School
Grant Title: High School preparation
Amount: $2,500.00
Description: Provide textbooks and other curricular resources unavailable through regular PSS process to give 8th graders skills in problem solving, test preparation, conflict resolution, and other techniques necessary for success in high school. Also, provides indoor/outdoor carpet to spruce up classroom.
Grantee: May Antonette M. Cruz
School: Dandan Elementary School
Grant Title: Language Arts Learning Centers
Amount: $2,500.00
Description: Four learning centers (Listening Center, Reading Center, Writing Center, Arts Center) will be created in a 5th grade classroom with a variety of relevant resources and instructional materials in each.
Grantee: Katharyn Tuten-Puckett
School: Dandan Elementary School
Grant Title: Center for Young Writers
Amount: $2,500.00
Description: The grant supports the Center for Young Writers, which has already received grant assistance to produce two books, “One Commonwealth,Many Cultures” and “Save a Reef, Build a Sand Castle,” by providing the Center with a printer, toner, and camera equipment allowing for publication of the books.
Grantee: Lisa Black
School: Hopwood Jr. High School
Grant Title: Move to the Future
Amount: $2,500.00
Description: Supports the Hopwood Technology Program as it strives to meet the PSS requirement that all students receive 0.5 credits in computer literacy, despite a lack of sufficient and up-to-date computers.
Grantee: Fred Omengkar
School: Tinian Jr. Sr. High School
Grant Title: Math Booth Camp
Amount: $2,495.64
Description: Our math students rank in the bottom quarter nationally. To address this performance problem pay for a math teacher and math books to help Tinian students improve their math abilities.
Grantee: Ramona Calvo, Charina Hocog
School: Sinapalo Elementary School
Grant Title: Technology Literacy Challenge
Amount: $4,962.00
Description: This grant will allow approximately 20 Rota students to travel to Saipan to participate in large-scale forensic events. This will add to the intrinsic benefits of forensics, which encourages development of communication and research skills and of student self-esteem, by exposing Rota students to a large number of other students who are similarly engaged in and excited by drama, poetry, public policy debate and the other genres of forensics.
Grantee: Ramona Calvo
School: Sinapalo Elementary School
Grant Title: Technology Literacy Challenge
Amount: $2,444.00
Description: Elementary students will be given access to a variety of technologies, including portable CD and cassette players, video cameras, PA systems, “Leap Frogs”, and other devices in order to increase confidence with electronic learning aids and to improve literacy skills.
Grantee: Ryan D.Mortensen
School: Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary School
Grant Title: Music Instruction
Amount: $2,500.00
Description: Although PSS requires music instruction 60 minutes per week, GTC is unable to implement this requirement due to lack of funding. The grant allows for purchase of a Korg keyboard, composer rack, and speakers that will allow 4th through 6th graders to compose music and create CDs, thus developing critical thinking skills, encouraging cognitive development, and fostering basic math and reading abilities.
Grantee: Katrina Lizama
School: San Antonio Elementary School
Grant Title: Wireless Technology in the Classroom
Amount: $2,500.00
Description: Will demonstrate the effectiveness of using wireless technology that allows students to use computers at any location in a classroom, and in some cases outside the classroom, rather than being tied to a static, wired network configuration.
Grantee: Hilda Rios, Vilma Travilla, Fatima Lizama
School: San Antonio Elementary School
Grant Title: Digital Camera and Laptop
Amount: $2,500.00
Description: A digital camera and laptop combination will be used to encourage students in writing and creation of a variety of student projects and presentations.
Grantee: Ana Lizama
School: San Antonio Elementary School
Grant Title: Technological Support for STAR Math
Amount: $2,398.00
Description: The STAR Math program zeroes in on the skill level of each individual student, allowing for customized exercise that address each student’s particular needs. This grant supports full implementation of the existing STAR Math program by allowing for printing and display of the exercises and the results for the use of teachers, students, and parents.
Grantee: Gideon Williams, Sina Church, Merly Yamazaki, Dora Miura
School: San Antonio Elementary School
Grant Title: Music in the Classrooms
Amount: $10,000.00
Description: To encourage education in music, which not only raises students’ aesthetic and cultural understanding, but also correlates to improved academic performance, ukuleles will be made available for 210 students and their teachers.
Grantee: Theresa Barro, Caroline Lutu, Martina Alepuyo, Chibora Wasisang
School: San Antonio Elementary School
Grant Title: Leap Frog School House Programs
Amount: $10,000.00
Description: Provides funds for purchase of additional modules for the Leap Frog system that gives students a multi-sensory learning experience that offers immediate and corrective feedback and makes independent work more productive. Performance goal: improved reading skills.
Grantee: Charlotte Camacho, Leora Ngirablosch
School: Gregorio T. Camacho Elementary School
Grant Title: Environmental Awareness: Recycling Program
Amount: $2,558.00
Description: Program will encourage environmental awareness and promote household recycling by providing classroom bins and larger outdoor bins in which students can properly separate and dispose of trash.
Grantee: Thomas D. Wilkins
School: Marianas High School
Grant Title: American Literature and Oral Tradition
Amount: $2,500.00
Description: Goal of the program is to better prepare high school students to excel in US colleges by increasing literary interpretive skills. At the same time the program will teach the complementary value of the indigenous oral tradition. The program is noteworthy for its involvement of parents in the learning experience.
Grantee: Gaudelia A. Camacho
School: Kagman Elementary School
Grant Title: Multiple Intelligence Instruction Using Technology
Amount: $2,500.00
Description: In response to increased understanding of the varieties of intelligences and, hence, learning styles, a variety of technologies will be employed, each geared to particular styles, in order to improve performance in reading and writing.
Grantee: Emelie C. Untalan
School: Kagman Junior High School
Grant Title: Language Arts Department
Amount: $2,689.78
Description: In response to results of the Individual Reading Inventory of 7th and 8th graders this grant will focus on improving reading comprehension and writing skills through the purchase and use of the SRA Reading Lab Materials.
Grantee: John Sutfin
School: Tinian Jr. Sr. High School
Grant Title: Science Supplies
Amount: $2,502.61
Description: Our science students rank in the bottom one-third nationally. Part of the difficulty in improving this performance is the inability of PSS to provide basic supplies for science classes. This grant will allow the purchase of wide variety of materials to be used in teaching Physics, Chemistry, Environmental Science, and Biology.
Grantees were selected from 36 proposals by a review panel of five teachers. In order to be eligible, grants must show a link to improved student academic performance and have a method to evaluate whether improvement has taken place. Grants are also favorably scored if they demonstrate creativity and imagination, pushing the bounds of the normal methods being used in PSS. A fourth factor in grant selection is whether there is no funding for the proposal through the regular PSS budget allocations to teachers.
