You can view slide shows of former years'
grants in action by visiting the
Photo Gallery.
CHARACTER
EDUCATION
Erika Garrett – All district elementary schools
Creating a Welcoming Environment for all Students through Disability
Awareness Education
Books and materials to
help students learn how to treat others with kindness, compassion,
and understanding of our differences and similarities
Jill Escalante – Lake Travis High School
Community Service Recognition
Project
Awarding participation by
students in community service activities, thus promoting
responsibility, accountability, and citizenship
FINE ARTS
Ryan O’Donoghue – Hudson Bend Middle School
Music Technology Initiative
Music software with
applications to maximize practice effectiveness by providing
feedback to students and flexible musical accompaniment, along with
the ability for students to create, edit, print, and hear their own
musical arrangements and compositions
Lynne Johnson – Lake Travis Middle School
Digital Camera for use in the
Art Classroom
Camera to be used to
photograph subject matter for drawing materials, to help aid
students in understanding a particular principal in art, and to
photograph student artwork as examples from which future students
may learn
Cha Lakshmi Asokan – Hudson Bend Middle School
Campus and Community
Beautification through the Visual Arts Display Materials
Matting and framing
materials to display LTISD visual art throughout the community,
including campuses, administration buildings, city halls, and local
business venues, and for various art competitions
The Exploration of Glass Art and Implementation of the Glass Art
Program
Exploring art history,
elements and principles, and art production through the purchase of
a kiln designed to fuse glass, allowing students to create
three-dimensional art works of high quality and craftsmanship
Anna Macias – Lake Travis High School
On the Roof and Everywhere:
Lake Travis Fiddlers
Upgraded sound equipment
for the Lake Travis Fiddlers district-wide music ensemble, to
enhance their 20-30 performances per year throughout the Lake Travis
Community
HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES
Kathy Austrian & 5th Grade Team –
Serene Hills Elementary School
History Alive
Supplemental social
studies program with strategies that actively engage students in the
study of American history
Travis Butler – Lake Travis Middle School
Classroom Performance System
Engaging students in class
material by creating an interactive learning environment, allowing
teachers to see instant feedback and know whether to move on or
continue teaching a concept
Shanda Ashton & Ginia Luker – Lake Travis High
School
Social Studies E-Maps
Interactive electronic
world maps viewable on a projection screen for entire class to see
MATHEMATICS
Esther Peckover – Lake Travis Elementary School
VersaTiles Math Lab
Math activities at several
levels, combining the challenge of a puzzle with the practice of a
workbook, teaching a variety of objectives and reinforcing skills
Tina Pena – Lake Travis Elementary School
Student Challenge Lab
Providing enriching and
challenging hands-on “worksheet free” activities to all students who
earn a lab pass from their teachers for hard work and outstanding
completion of assignments in their classrooms
Charlotte Stensrud – Serene Hills Elementary
School
Everyday Counts Calendar Math
Program using an
interactive bulletin board, through which students are able to
preview, practice, and review main objectives taught in the
elementary math curriculum
READING/LANGUAGE ARTS
Nancy Baker – Lake Travis Elementary School
Essential Picture Sorts Kits
Kit featuring reproducible
picture sorts with instructions, games, activities, and assessment
sheets to aid in the learning of phonics and spelling related skills
Phyllis Hunter-Webb – Lake Travis Elementary
School
Building Fluency through
Reader’s Theater Themed Kits in Spanish
Folk tale, fairy tale, and
fable kits with scripts translated into Spanish, encouraging
students to practice fluency at their independent reading levels
“Time for Kids”
Nonfiction Readers in Spanish
Leveled reading kits
translated into Spanish, addressing the goal of increasing academic
achievement for all students while closing the achievement gap
between students
Kristen Raines – All district elementary
schools
Phonological
Awareness/Intervention
Full color Phonological
Awareness Cards that teach students the pre-reading skills necessary
for reading success
Esther Peckover & Gina Dodson – Lake Travis
Elementary
VersaTiles for Building
Skills in Comprehension and Vocabulary
Manipulative comprehension
activities and resources to help students attain the skills required
to become better readers
Building Fluency through Reader’s Theater Kits
Scripts written at
multiple reading levels, helping to improve reading fluency and
enhance listening skills, vocabulary development, decoding,
comprehension, and oral speaking skills
Sarah Kinsey – Lake Travis Elementary
Read Along Listening Centers
CDs and literature to
allow first graders to independently read along
Lacey Lester – Serene Hills Elementary
Reading
Vocabulary/Comprehension Building Games and Mastering Math Games
Action packed games that
give students a fun-filled way to develop comprehension and math
skills
Vicki Thweatt – Bee Cave Elementary
Hands-On Reading
Hands-on activities
allowing students to self-select, complete, correct, and record
their accomplishments, motivating them to work at higher levels and
accomplish more
Marilyn DuVon, Krista Eaton & Susan Mitchell –
Lake Travis Middle School
World of Words
Enhancing vocabulary
through a new transformational study of words offering the teaching
of roots and affixes, presented as a system of thinking and a way of
building, analyzing, spelling, pronouncing, using, and choosing
words
Amy Handy, Tara Rehrig & Hillary Reyes – Lake
Travis High School
Photostory 3: Telling Our
Stories
Classroom
headsets/microphones to allow students to record and revise
voice-over narrations for presentations created through the
Photostory 3 program
Sandra Tuck – Bee Cave Elementary School
Building a Rigby Literacy
Classroom
Program helping students
develop literacy skills and strategies, and providing teachers with
assessment tools for sound evaluations, planned instruction,
monitoring of progress, and meeting accountability standards
Stephanie Williams – Lake Travis Elementary
School
Making Connections
Project to supplement and
enhance science, social studies, and language arts instruction
through the use of literature
Marni Christmas – Serene Hills Elementary
School
Phonics Readers
Primary Phonics decodable
readers which allow students to apply their newly-acquired phonics
skills with connected text, building the crucial elements of
automaticity and fluency
Natalie Becker – Lake Travis Elementary School
Loving Literature
Literature in a wide
variety of genres and styles to encourage each student’s growth as a
reader
Erika Garrett – Serene Hills Elementary School
Targeting Individual
Students’ Needs for Reading and Math through Fun Games and Daily
Review
Frog Publication materials
providing opportunities for students at different ability levels to
participate together in the same game while allowing teachers to
target individual students’ needs in the areas of reading and math
Coleen Serfoss – Lake Travis Elementary School
SRA Reading Lab Grade 5
A diverse collection of
topics to meet a wide range of reading levels for students, focusing
on building strong reading and comprehension skills while sparking
student interest and inspiring students to get the most from each
assignment
Mary Senn – Lake Travis Elementary School
Leveled Literacy Intervention
Over 300 high-quality
leveled books and associated materials designed to prevent literacy
difficulties and supplement literacy instruction for students who
experience difficulty in the early grades
Carol Nelson – All district elementary schools
Interactive Phonics
GeoSafari Phonics Pad to
engage beginning and emergent readers of all ages and motivate them
to practice the reading skills they are learning in school
SCIENCE
Sherry Kanak – Bee Cave Elementary School
Geocaching
High tech scavenger hunt
combining orienteering and treasure hunting using GPS units for
lessons on satellites, latitude and longitude, mapping, distance,
problem solving, and collaboration
Cliff Ellis & Stacey Carter – Lake Travis High
School
K’NEX DNA, Replication and
Transcription Set
Building block pieces that
students will use to construct DNA segments, providing an
understanding of the complex concepts of DNA replication,
transcription, and translation
Esther Peckover – Lake Travis Elementary
VersaTiles Science Labs
Multi-level labs focusing
on life, earth, and physical sciences, scientific investigation, and
more, with high interest text and interesting manipulatives that
allow students to work independently at their own pace
Mary Carnes – All district elementary schools
Loose in the Lab
Innovative, hands-on
science laboratory experiences for students, presented in a
humorous, kid-friendly format
Gwen Zambito & 4th Grade Team – Lake
Travis Elementary School
Science Labs
Interactive science kits
providing students the proper materials to practice scientific
investigations and the scientific method
Wendy Shanafelt – Lake Travis Elementary School
Hands-On Learning with
Science Kits
Hands-on lessons and
activities to make the science curriculum more exciting, involved,
and rigorous for the students and help them to develop critical
thinking while exploring and learning
Sarah Cummings – All district elementary
schools
Engineering is Elementary
Research-based,
standards-based, and classroom-tested curriculum that integrates
engineering and technology concepts and skills with elementary
science topics
Peter Brunet – Lake Travis High School
Using Probeware to Integrate
Math and Science
Scientific probe equipment
for field and classroom use, providing students accessibility to
advanced technology and improving analytical skills
TECHNOLOGY
Carl McLendon – Lake Travis High School
Green Screen Studio for Video
Production & Photography
State-of-the-art chroma
key video/photography studio which will provide necessary tools for
the production of video and photo projects in core curriculum
classes, fine arts, technology, and ESL classes, as well as
district-wide and community-based projects that will provide
students with real world experience
Moselle Domingue, Elizabeth Stearns & Peter
Brunet – Lake Travis High School
Student Response Systems
Teaching system that allows students to respond individually to
multiple choice questions and short answers via remote control
devices, resulting in better daily participation and greater growth
for all students