Pedal desks to help with dyslexia

Rock Springs Elementary first grade teacher Sarah Arnold’s “Ride to Read” project gives students a way to move their bodies while they do their schoolwork. With the UTrust Mini grant funding she received, Arnold purchased three “pedal desks” for her classroom, which look like stationary bicycles with built-in desktops.

“When you learn kinesthetically, you are firing more neurons in the brain to activate the lobes that help you read,” Arnold said. “This grant was near to my heart because I struggled to read and write as a child.”

Arnold said that the educators in her school have completed an in-depth training through the Orton Gillingham Academy for dyslexia, and that every day, they are “finding new ways to accommodate students who may struggle to decipher the code of reading.”  

Coding for creativity

Pre-K teachers Julie Millard of Rock Spring Discovery Academy and Amy Bridges of Ketron Elementary were awarded a Utrust Mini Grant to support hands-on STEAM learning in their classrooms. The grant enabled Millard and Bridges to purchase two Artie 3000 coding robots and two kindle fire tablets to use with them. The pre-schoolers are learning how to think through what they want the mini bots to draw or write and then use the tablets to “drag and drop” the correct code.

[PHOTO: Millard's pre-schoolers learn to code the Arte 3000 robot.]

“In our schools many times our pre-k students look to older students to see what they are going to be doing,” Millard said. “This gives pre-k an opportunity to show the older students something new.”

Back-to-school supplies

Elizabeth Minton, Kindergarten teacher at the Wandell Early Learning Center of East Side Elementary in Elizabethton, received the Helping Teachers Teach Grant from Northeast Community Credit Union in July. She used the funds to purchase her students’ back-to-school supplies so their parents wouldn’t have to.  

[PHOTO: Elizabeth Minton poses with her check from Northeast Credit Union]

“Our school is a low-income school and I thought this funding would help parents of students in my class to not worry about the cost of schools supplies,” Minton said.

Professional Development

Jennifer Rickert, an instructional coach for the Elizabethton City School System, is helping the elementary school students in her district to become more confident, proficient writers. At the beginning of the schoolyear, her project included training in the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) writing method. Over the next two years, she will pass this training on to the teachers at East Side, Harold McCormick, and West Side Elementary schools for use with their students.

SRSD is an evidence-based writing process designed to blend writing instruction into existing curriculums. Social-emotional learning, cognitive-behavioral principles, and strategies like positive self-talk, self-regulation, self-awareness, and critical thinking are integrated into the program to help students become more engaged, motivated, and effective writers and learners.

Rickert noted that she will also be working with her fellow Union alum Lauren McInturff Pitman, who serves as the District Implementation Coach of Elizabethton City Schools. 

[PHOTO: Elementarys school teachers receive training from Rickert in the SRSD method of teaching writing.]

Seth Grindstaff, of Science Hill High School in Johnson City, received a grant to train as an AP Research instructor so he can offer the AP Research class to his students. Grindstaff has been teaching high school English in northeast Tennessee since 2012. 

Impact 

Ramsey has been teaching the grant writing at Union since 2011 and estimates that, all in all, her students have been awarded close to $500,000 for their classrooms. She says the benefit is far-reaching and long-lasting.