MEADOW HEIGHTS GETS $70,000 IN SCHOOL GRANTS

PATTON -- Before long, students at Meadow Heights Elementary School will send mail without a stamp.

The intraschool mail delivery program is just one of many innovative teaching methods begun this year through incentive grant awards.

Teachers at the elementary and high schools were approved for six of their seven grant proposals.

Amy Cook, who teaches third grade, will coordinate the "We Deliver" program at the school.

Each classroom will receive an address and a mailbox, she said. The program is coordinated with the U.S. Postal Service.

In an after-school activity, Cook's students will write, edit and illustrate their own books.

For example after reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," the students might write about chocolate, Cook said.

Most of the writing will be done using word processors purchased through a "Technowriters" grant.

Technowriters was written by Sharran Seabaugh, a fourth-grade teacher. It allows students to use individual word processors to learn the basics of writing and editing. Thirty word processors were purchased with the grant money.

A second grant written by Seabaugh, "Stimulating Simulations," will teach the basics of economics, geography and state history.

Donna Bristow brought everyday items like scales, measuring cups and clocks to teach her second-grade students the concepts of time, measurement and money.

She wrote a grant entitled, "Let Me Get My Hands on That." It allows each student to have practical math experience.

"If they work with the objects and get their hands on them, it improves their understanding," Bristow said.

Each grant was designed to reinforce a combination of reading, mathematics and social studies skills.

High school students are able to use scientific and graphing calculators in their mathematics and science classes. Teachers Judi Slinkard and Traci Foltz wrote the cross-curriculum grant for 50 Texas Instruments calculators.

"I tell my students that learning doesn't have to be hard, it can be fun," said second-grade teacher Lena Mae Fulton, who received a $20,000 reading grant.

In all, the district earned $70,300 with the incentive grant awards. The money will be used to buy materials, books, classroom computers and individual word processors.

The district wouldn't have been able to purchase much of the equipment and computers without the grants, said Superintendent Cheri Fuemmeler, adding that each grant is competitive.

Parents also have benefited from the grant proposals. Elementary Counselor Karen Gleeson wrote a "Practical Parenting Partnerships" grant that provides parenting tips and training.

When parents "see their kids getting excited about education, they get excited," she said, adding that members of the Community 2000 group are also involved in the program.