Junior League Grants Go to 69 DISD Teachers

FROM LEFT: Pamela Lear, DISD chief of staff; Jennifer Tobin, Junior League of Dallas president; Victor Mendoza, Nathan Adams Elementary teacher; and Tracy Steiner, IT director of sales communications and regional digital marketing, attend a Grants for Innovative Teaching presentation. Grant recipient Heny Agredo-Montoya did not attend. (Courtesy photo)

At Nathan Adams Elementary School, a $1,509.90 grant provides a kit of wireless microphones giving Victor Mendoza’s students new tools to use in the creation of videos.

As part of Mendoza’s Using Multimedia to Succeed RELOADED program, students will be narrating their own learning.

At Walnut Hill Elementary School, a $1,989.95 grant will support a project that will help teach students of the dual-language program — particularly those whose second language is English — coding using miniature robots to students attending a dual language program.

In Promoting Second Language Acquisition Through Coding and Cross-Curricular Experiences, teacher Heny Agredo-Montoya will design and implement bilingual (English–Spanish) modules that connect language learning, science, mathematics, technology, and arts education.

[pullquote-left]“We get to follow along and see the impact that these projects have on the schools, educators, and students.”[/pullquote-left]

Both gifts came through the Grants for Innovative Teaching program, through which the Junior League of Dallas (JLD), along with presenting sponsor Texas Instruments, encourages education excellence in Dallas by supporting projects that might otherwise go unfunded.

The JLD awarded 69 Dallas Independent School District educators with grants of up to $2,000 each.

This program, now in its 26th year, has awarded more than $1.7 million to Dallas ISD educators in funding for special projects addressing reading and literacy enrichment; diversity; special education; science, technology, engineering and math; or arts and culture enrichment across one or more grade levels.

“The Grants For Innovative Teaching program is one of the most rewarding projects for the Junior League of Dallas because we get to follow along and see the impact that these projects have on the schools, educators, and students,” said Eleanor Luna, the 2017–18 GFIT chair.

This year, $123,307 was distributed to fund deserving educators’ winning projects.

Sponsors also include MoneyGram Foundation; Agnes Cluthe Oliver Foundation; Harry W. Bass, Jr. Foundation; Roy and Christine Sturgis Charitable and Educational Trust, Bank of America, N.A., co-trustee; and W.P. & Bulah Luse Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., co-trustee.

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