Kaneland Foundation grants enable teachers to enhance learning experiences

Alyssa Galvan, an eighth grade math teacher at Harter Middle School in Sugar Grove, wanted to get her students to think more about math rather than just apply the skills she was teaching.

She’s found a way to do it with whiteboards, which her classroom now possesses thanks to a grant from the Kaneland Foundation.

“I decided I wanted to bring in a way to teach eighth grade students to think more about math instead of just applying skills I teach them directly,” she said. “So we created an environment where students are thinking of math and not just doing problems. I applied for the grant and we got enough money for three whiteboard easels along with Expo markers.”

Becky Greenlee, executive director of the Kaneland Foundation, spoke during the Dec. 11 Kaneland District 302 School Board meeting along with Galvan and two other teachers whose grants were awarded.

“Twenty-four grants were submitted to the foundation and after review, 14 were awarded,” Greenlee said. “That doesn’t mean the other grants weren’t provided some form of income. That means another $15,000 were funded through other school budgets throughout the district.”

It was a good year for both the foundation and its recipients with the 14 grants totaling $9,543.

“In total, we helped the teachers find about $25,000,” Greenlee said. “It was a really effective grant cycle.”

Referring to her classroom’s new whiteboards as “vertical nonpermanent surfaces,” Galvan said students are more likely to take risks solving problems when they can quickly swipe away a mistake and try again.

“Research shows that kids are more likely to try and take the risk on math problems where they can erase their errors quickly and nobody else will see it,” she said. “We usually have one or two whiteboard tasks a week where students are put in visibly random groups. I hand out a deck of cards so it’s completely random with different kids every day and they work on a discovery task where instead of having direct instruction they work on exploring those math topics on their own.”

Mary Doranski, a fourth and fifth grade STEM teacher at Blackberry Creek in Elburn, praised the Calm Classroom program its been able to use thanks to a grant.

“We noticed our fourth and fifth graders last year were struggling with some of those techniques to be able to relax if they were feeling really stressed or anxious or if they were just really excited about something,” she said. “We found Calm Classroom, which is a great program.”

The Calm Classroom program combines the power of mindfulness with the research-backed benefits of brain breaks to strengthen mental focus and much more.

Tina Scherzter, a sixth grade language arts teacher at Harter Middle School in Sugar Grove, thanked the Kaneland Foundation for helping her furnish her classroom with flexible seating.

“Several years ago I reached out to them and was able to get some different kinds of tables,” she said.