This fall, the Innovation in Education Grant reached more LCPS educators and students than ever before. Our record breaking number of 82 applications illustrate the growing needs in our community. The key to the Innovation in Education Grant is directly in the title: creative teaching in the classroom – and beyond. Since our inception 30 years ago, the Loudoun Education Foundation has looked for ways to support and inspire our educators to teach beyond books.
Thanks to donors including the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation and HHMI Janelia Campus, we were able to increase the number of grants we awarded to 33, totaling $35,000.
I wanted to share a couple examples of projects that will spark students’ excitement and innovation.
Guilford Elementary School third-grade teacher Jill Carpenter won a $1,477 grant for a biome habitat and food chain exploration with owls. Through hands-on activities, this project invites students to investigate ecosystems that support a diversity of animals that share limited resources. The students will study the relationships among organisms in food chains and how adaptations allow animals to satisfy life needs and respond to the environment. We are looking forward to Mrs. Carpenter’s project report where she will share photos of her third-graders elbow-deep in exploring.
Another inspiring project is a mobile podcast studio at Lightridge High School, which was awarded a $1,500 Innovation in Education Grant. Amy Ivory and a team of 5 other educators have originated a project to build a mobile cart for students to podcast in any classroom. This project is a perfect example of an innovative way to implement LCPS’s five C’s to help every student become communicators, collaborators, creators, critical thinkers, and contributors.
The Loudoun Education Foundation is passionate about supporting educators and giving them the resources they need to cultivate an excitement for learning in the classroom.
As LEF prepares for the spring Innovation in Education grant cycle, we invite you to become a donor to assist in creating inspiring opportunities for community members. We expect another big stack of impressive applications. Just imagine if we could fund all of them? What an exciting way to build successful stepping stones for our future generations of leaders.
You can give here. Thank you and happy holidays from our team at LEF!
Letitia “Letty” Kayser serves as Loudoun Education Foundation’s Operations Coordinator. In that role, she oversees the Foundation’s scholarships and grants programs, as well as day-to-day office operations. After years of teaching early education, she joined the LEF team in April. She lives with her husband and 9-year-old son in Western Loudoun.
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