Three Edison Local teachers receive ESC grants | News, Sports, Jobs – heraldstaronline.com

GRANTS AWARDED — Three teachers in the Edison Local School District have received Best Practice Grants through the Jefferson County Educational Service Center. Teachers included from left, Julie Cronin, Kelly Dopp and Alicia Hartman, who each earned $660 for their classroom projects. The trio was recognized during the district’s November board meeting at Edison High School’s fieldhouse.
— Julie Stenger

HAMMONDSVILLE — Teachers in the Edison Local School District were recognized for their out-of-the-box learning ideas after earning the 2023 Best Practice Grants from the Jefferson County Educational Service Center.

Julie Cronin and Alicia Hartman of Stanton Elementary and Kelly Dopp of John Gregg Elementary each earned $660 grants to further their causes in their buildings and were recognized during Edison’s regular school board session Nov. 16.

The district had eight applicants submit a project for the grant.

Cronin and Hartman’s projects focus on technology and the environment while Dopp’s gifted and enrichment students will learn about entrepreneurship.

Cronin, a second-grade teacher at Stanton, will establish a “Re-Write Max” reusable kids’ writing tablet that is perfect for classroom participation and can replace individual whiteboards.

She said the equipment has a reversible template that can allow her 28 students to switch between a blank template for completing math problems to a lined template for writing.

“Students can write on the tablet with the stylus, a pencil or even their fingernail,” she stated. “These ‘tablets’ are not like the tablets currently used for gaming and entertainment. This product will be used from year to year with the students in my second-grade classroom. The grant will allow me to purchase enough for a 1:1 ratio in my classroom. The writing tablet is very sustainable over time.”

The first-time grant recipient was thankful for the award and being able to implement the writing tablets with her students.

Hartman, a third-grade math, science and social studies teacher at Stanton Elementary, is utilizing her grant to finance the “Smarty Plant Project.” The idea is to have 50 third-grade students become more environmentally-conscious entrepreneurs by planning, maintaining, advertising, packaging and selling plants they grow in the school’s greenhouse.

“This project can continue indefinitely with students planting late summer seeds when they begin the school year for a fall sale to the public,” Hartman said. “They will do the same when they return to school after the Christmas holiday for a spring sale of various vegetables, herbs and flowers. They can welcome in the upcoming third-graders at the end of each school year to teach them how to work appropriately in the Stanton greenhouse, as well as how to use a compost bin and rain barrel to aid in their own entrepreneurial endeavors and lessen their impact on the environment,” she added.

“I am so excited to begin moving forward with these plans,” Hartman continued. “Students will be put in charge of advertising, packaging and selling their plants at school functions throughout the year. They will need to accept payment from their customers and make correct change with real money.”

“Receiving the Best Practices Grant means many students will benefit from these real-life lessons acquired through hands-on activities,” Hartman continued. “I teach almost 50 students this year, and the Smarty Plants Project has the ability to impact students each year for many years to come.”

Hartman said she has received Best Practice Grants before, noting they have positively aided her teaching endeavors.

Dopp, a gifted and enrichment teacher at John Gregg, will assist 15 students through “Entrepreneur Market.”

Fifth-and sixth-graders will plan, propose, budget, design and create an entrepreneur project and business logo. Dopp said the concept was inspired by a book on gifted learners, “A Meaningful Mess,” which emphasizes the importance of meaningful, relevant and student-driven learning.

“The Entrepreneur Market will empower students to budget for and follow through on an authentic project of their own,” she added. “The enrichment students will budget, plan and carry out their own Shark Tank-inspired project to sell at the annual art show. They will actually sell their homemade products at the art show.”

This was Dopp’s first grant award. She said she was excited to receive the allocation, adding that her students will enjoy the project.

Meanwhile, JCESC Superintendent Chuck Kokiko congratulated the recipients, stating the Best Practice Grants are intended to support innovative ideas that inspire students.

“Our schools have many great teachers with innovative lesson plans and instructional strategies, and we at JCESC are happy to be able to fund many of those ideas so they may become a reality for the students in the classroom,” Kokiko said.

JCESC has disbursed more than two-dozen Best Practice Grants this year. Other recipients include Buckeye Local, Harrison Hills City, Indian Creek Local, Steubenville City, Toronto City and Southern Local school districts and the Utica Shale Academy.