Brushy Creek Elementary

Brushy Creek Grant Winners!

Our school and PTA work closely together to submit grant applications, that if awarded, will help fund programs, materials, and training to increase student achievement at Brushy Creek Elementary. If you would like to volunteer to help or have questions, please contact Pam Clark, Assistant Principal.

2009 RRISD Partners in Education Foundation "Excellence in Education" Grant
Brushy Creek Elementary received an award for their proposal "Bringing the Curriculum Alive with Visual Technology". This project will improve fifth grade students’ ability to comprehend and retain information by providing a more engaging learning environment that accommodates different student learning styles, encourages classroom participation, and allows students to participate in visual presentations that they otherwise would be unable to experience such as live demonstrations, Internet websites, and PowerPoint presentations. A portable presentation system that all fifth grade level classes can share will be added for visually enhanced TEKS lessons that bring the curriculum alive for students. Awarded to 5^th grade teachers Wendy Greinke (main grant contact), Jenny Estes, Anna Hudson, Liz Janish, and Katie Maybaum.

2009 Dell Open Grant
Awarded the school $1000 (of a requested $4999) to incorporate digital technology into school art, providing 4^th and 5^th grade students with the opportunity to learn to use technology to create visual and graphic art. Students will use technology (digital cameras, Photoshop, Frames clay animation software) to create their own clay animation movies as they learn about visual art. Students will also use Photoshop to learn art elements and design principles, edit and manipulate images, and create graphic art as they design their own magazine covers. Grant submitted by Pam Clark, Assistant Principal working with art teachers Deby Childress and Rebecca Story.

2009 Dollar General Back to School Grant
Awarded $1572 to Brushy Creek Elementary to add an interactive whiteboard to the school’s Library Media Center to interactively engage students with different abilities and learning styles to make learning more accessible for all, resulting in increased student literacy and learning. Teachers in grades K-5 rely on the Library Media Center for instructional support lessons and materials as they strive to teach library usage, reading vocabulary, comprehension, research, and information skills to 760 students at Brushy Creek Elementary. Lessons are taught by the librarian or collaboratively by the librarian and the classroom teacher. Grant was awarded to Pam Clark, Assistant Principal.

2009 A+ Education Foundation
Awards grants of up to $1K each. Brushy Creek Elementary teachers received the following grants:

Enhancing the Library Media Center to Improve Literacy and Student Inclusion. Add an interactive whiteboard to our Library Media Center lessons to interactively engage students with different abilities and learning styles to make learning more accessible for all, resulting in increased student literacy and learning. Awarded to librarian Emily (Chapman) Kupersztoch.

Little Scientists! Discovering Life Cycles Hands-On.Improve science, math, and language arts skills of first graders by providing the opportunity for students to observe, measure, and record the life cycle process of a chicken in their classroom. Awarded to first grade teacher Lynn Stobinski.

Writing With Ease: Removing Penmanship as a Barrier to Student Achievement.Make handwriting a natural and automatic skill for 2^nd graders instead of a physical barrier to student success as students can focus on lesson content and self expression instead of handwriting difficulties. Awarded to second grade teacher Tanya Bishop.

2009 Phi Kappa Phi Literacy Grant
Grants of up to $2500 are available to Phi Kappa Phi chapters and individual members nationwide. Fourteen grants were awarded for 2009, and one of those was awarded to Stephanie Crouch, a Phi Kappa Phi member at the University of Texas at Austin, with Brushy Creek Elementary school as its project partner. $2500 was awarded to purchase approximately 200 leveled reading books for our school literacy library. Teachers and volunteers will use these books when teaching reading to beginning readers, below grade level readers, and readers with learning disabilities. A commemorative nameplate will be placed at the beginning of each book, recognizing Phi Kappa Phi for its grant award donation. The local Phi Kappa Phi chapter will be invited to participate as volunteers. See http://www.phikappaphi.org/Web/Scholarships/literacygrant.html for more details about the grants awarded and Phi Kappa Phi.

2009 3M Ingenuity Grant
Ms. Janish, a 5th grade teacher at Brushy Creek Elementary, was awarded $3490 for her grant “Making Science Real: Project/Problem Based Learning in Science and Math Using Engineering Design Principles”. This grant will allow students to have the opportunity to learn science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts in fun, engaging, and hands-on way. Throughout the school year, 5th grade students will participate in a series of hands-on project/problem based lessons for a variety of science and engineering projects including designing windmills, designing bridges, designing water filters, designing walls, designing hand pollinators, designing alarm circuits, seeing animal sounds, and designing model membranes. These hands-on lessons will allow students to learn in a real-world way about wind and wind energy, balance and motion forces, water and environmental engineering, earth materials and materials engineering, pollination and insects, electricity and circuits, sound and acoustical engineering, and membranes and bioengineering.

2008 CVS Caremark Community Grant
This award will be used in conjunction with an award from a Dell Open Grant and to go towards the purchase of an interactive whiteboard system for our special education classrooms. This technology will be shared by two special education classrooms to make learning more accessible and inclusive for special education students. An interactive whiteboard system supports the mandate by IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Act of 2004) for supports "Universal Design for Learning" that allows learning goals to be achievable by children with broad differences in their abilities. Grant submitted by Pam Clark, Assistant Principal. Alma Mancillas, Special Education teacher, is also participating in the grant.

2008 RRISD Partners in Education Foundation "Excellence in Education" Grant
Grants are up to $5000 each to groups of educators and/or administrators to obtain resources and tools that most significantly and positively impact student achievement and learning. Brushy Creek Elementary was awarded $4000 for the following project:

Math Manipulatives for Concrete Learning. Provides math manipulatives for second graders and kindergartners to make math learning more concrete as
students directly model and solve math problems hands-on. Awarded to Pam Clark, the 2^nd grade team.

2008 A+ Education Foundation
Awarded $40K in grants to 42 schools, with grants up to $1K each. RRISD schools received eight of those forty-two, and Brushy Creek Elementary received four of those eight! BCE winning grants include:

Using Technology to Enrich Music Instruction.Adds Music Ace music theory software technology to our classes to enrich our teaching of TEKS music curriculum, awarded to Jacquelyn Shepherd.

Building Better Readers with Bluebonnet Books. Adds three sets of 2008-2009 Bluebonnet books to our school library and purchase prizes, to provide greater opportunity for students to participate in Texas Bluebonnet Award program, which encourages life long reading, awarded to Carrie Wood.

Math Manipulatives for Concrete Learning. Provides math manipulatives for first graders to make math learning more concrete, awarded to Lynn Stobinski.

Literacy Library for Leveled Reading. Expands our Literacy Library with high-interest, grade appropriate leveled books for classroom reading instruction to increase reading proficiency for all students, including below grade level readers and readers with disabilities, awarded to Nicole Wakefield.

            See press release

2008 3M Ingenuity Grant
RRISD schools received six of these grants, with BCE winning two of those. Grants are up to $3500 each, and must submitted by a math, science, or economics teacher. BCE winning grants include:

Enriching Classroom Science with Hands-On Investigations. Provides science materials for three 4th grade science classes so that students can investigate a variety of Earth, sun/moon, and life science topics hands-on, awarded to Natalie Wedgeworth.

Math, Science, and Technology Learning through Simple Machines. Third graders and fifth graders at Brushy Creek Elementary will have the opportunity to learn science, math, and engineering concepts in a fun, engaging and hands-on way using LEGO education kits in enrichment classes during school, awarded to Katie Maybaum.

            See press release

2008 Dollar General Back to School Grant
Awarded $2500 to Brushy Creek Elementary to expand our Literacy Library with leveled books for classroom reading instruction for grades K-5 to increase reading proficiency for all students, including below grade level readers and readers with disabilities, awarded to Pam Clark.

2008 Dell Open Grant
Awarded the school $1000 (of a requested $5000) to go towards an interactive whiteboard system to be shared our Functional Life Skills (FLS) classrooms. An interactive whiteboard system supports the mandate by IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Act of 2004) for "Universal Design for Learning" that allows learning goals to be achievable by children with broad differences in their abilities. With $1000, our school will be able to purchase a projector and cart portion of an interactive whiteboard system. Grant submitted by Cathy Delk, BCE PTA, in conjunction with the school (Mr. Ryan, Mrs. Clark, and Ms. Mancillas).

2008 Phi Kappa Phi Literacy Grant
Grants of up to $2500 are available to Phi Kappa Phi chapters and individual members nationwide. Fourteen grants were awarded for 2008, and one of those was awarded to Cathy Delk, BCE PTA and Phi Kappa Phi member, in conjunction with the school. $2500 was awarded to purchase approximately 200 leveled reading books for our school literacy library. Teachers and volunteers will use these books when teaching reading to beginning readers, below grade level readers, and readers with learning disabilities. The local Phi Kappa Phi chapter will be invited to participate as volunteers.

                See press release

2008 ABC Grant
Grants are up to $500 each for classroom teachers to provide innovative instruction. Brushy Creek was awarded the following:

Integrating Technology, Art, and Language Arts Learning with Claymation. Increase students' technology, art, and language arts skills to create clay animation (claymation) movies. Working in small groups, students will write a script, draw a storyboard, create the sets, make the characters and props, shoot the story, and then add the voices, music, titles, and credits. They will learn about using technology (digital cameras and Claymation software/computers) as they create clay animation films, awarded to Deby Childress.

ABC Grants website