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Teacher Innovation Grants
"Thank Yous"

Here is a letter from Betsy Fitch, who received a Teacher Innovation Grant to take her students on a field trip to ZEUM in San Francisco.

Dear Silicon Valley Education Foundation,

Last semester you and your team approved a grant for us to take all the AdVENTURE* 5th-8th grade students to ZEUM in San Francisco. This field trip turned out to be an amazing experience for our students and far exceeded my expectations… Even though all of our students enjoyed the field trip and learned alot, I'd like to tell you about Izaiah. Izaiah is a 6th grade student who had been struggling with school all year. There wasn't anything he liked about the program, the teachers, or the other students. I'd worked all year trying to find a way to connect with him and engage him, but so far nothing had worked.

For the field trip, students had two options - either create a clay animation video or a music video. It turns out that Izaiah loves rap music and can work with words to create great lyrics. He also loves skateboarding. Through the field trip experience his whole attitude to school changed. He started connecting with other kids who were also into skateboarding. Because he was so good at writing rap lyrics, he gained status in the class too. And, I learned what he was into and his strengths so I now use that in my lesson planning. (He created another video for class and he is now doing a research paper on skateboarding.) This student is even talking about returning to our program next year. If he decides to stay with us through 8th grade, I know he will lead a completely different life. I believe this experience turned him on to school in a way that otherwise wouldn't have happened.

Take care,

Betsy Fitch

*AdVENTURE is a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) program in the Oak Grove school district. The program serves up to 140 5th - 8th grade students and is located on the Herman Intermediate campus. AdVENTURE's mission is to engage all students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics through relevant, hands-on curriculum so they will be successful global citizens in the 21st century.