Foundation For Allen Schools Funded Classroom Grants at

Olson Elementary

2022-2023 Classroom Grants

A Spike in Learning with Robotics for Elementary

This grant under Science / STEAM Curriculum was awarded to Brenda Fee and will benefit 80 students at Olson Elementary.

Olson Elementary is sponsoring a series of free Robotics Clubs using LEGO Prime Spike robots for students in Third through Sixth Grade. These easy-to-program robots introduce students to the basics of building and coding a functional robot. Purchase of the robots was provided through the Foundation for Allen Schools. Olson Elementary teachers volunteer their time to run the clubs.

Empowered Leaders

This grant under Counseling Curriculum was awarded to Jennifer Armentrout, Jennifer Springgs, Samantha Fields, Meredith Martin, Austin White, Solomn Boatfield, Harold Allen, Dylan Martin, Todd Fornadel and Tara Cassetty and will benefit 300 students at Chandler Elementary, Marion Elementary, Olson Elementary, Preston Elementary, Rountree Elementary, Vaughan Elementary, Curtis Middle School, Ereckson Middle School and Ford Middle School.

Empowered Leaders takes place in six elementary schools and all three middle schools in Allen ISD who participate in this unique after school leadership program which focuses on building leaders in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Students participate in field trip, leadership skills training, and serving through volunteer efforts.

Kodaly Training for Elementary Music Teachers

This grant under Fine Arts Curriculum was awarded to Jeff Turner and will benefit 10,000 students across all AISD Elementary Schools.

Two Allen ISD elementary music teachers will attend 3 weeks of intensive Kodaly training at SMU. The strategies, techniques, and resources from this training will be an incredible asset to the teacher to better deliver the elementary music curriculum and will be shared with all our elementary educators across AISD.

ALLen Reads 2022

This grant under Library / Makerspace Curriculum was awarded to Kelly Clewell and will benefit 20,000 students across AISD and benefits every campus in Allen. 

ALLen Reads encourages the entire Allen community to read the same book or the grade-level appropriate companion book. The grant provides copies of the selected books to all campuses in Allen ISD, and the students have access to community events related to the books, such as author and illustrator speakers, writing presentations, and musical performances.

Math by the Book

This grant under Math - Elementary Curriculum was awarded to Michelle Stewart and Katie Snider and will benefit 2,898 students in Kindergarten and 1^st grade at EVERY Allen ISD elementary campus.

This grant will provide read aloud sets of books that link literary and math skills.   We know many students love stories but may have a fear of math or even math anxiety.  Students are able to connect concepts to context providing an increased level of engagement and retention. Stories bring math to life!   House Bill 3 puts a focus on early literacy and math skills. This resource would be helpful in integrating math and literacy in the early grade levels. An integrated experience creates deeper learning connections for students. Science and Social Studies have already embedded read alouds for K- 3 curriculum documents and this grant will support integration in math as well. 

BRAINball

This grant under Physical Education Curriculum was awarded to Geoben Johnson and Katie Snider and will benefit 16,500 students across Allen ISD in grades K – 9^th.

BRAINball is an innovative and unique physical education learning system that merges physical activity and academic learning through play. In addition to the physical benefits, significant improvement will be seen in gross and fine motor skills, cooperative and cognitive learning.  Brainball has proven to produce positive changes in letter recognition,  students read better, improve mathematical skills, movement and writing skills. Research also shows positive changes in graphomotor skills, eye-hand coordination, and temporal-spatial orientation improvement when used on a consistent basis. The Brainball set includes 100 premade games/activities for K-6 that can be adapted for grades 7-9. Training will be provided to allow easy integration into district curriculum and to academic classroom teachers that want to use it for enhancing learning in their class. The brainball set is appropriate for Kindergarten through High School and can be adapted for students with special needs and learning deficits.

I Can See Clearly Now!

This grant under Special Education Curriculum was awarded to Patricia Reyna, Sherri Idbeis, Karen McCrary and Colleen Dunphy and will benefit 45 students across Allen ISD who have a visual impairment.

Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments serve students throughout the district and provide consult and direct instruction for teachers and students with blindness or visual impairments. An iPad Pro is a tool that makes accessing learning material possible for students that struggle with seeing on a regular iPad screen. An iPad Pro also serves as an evaluation tool for TSVI's and our Orientation and Mobility instructor in the district.

ByrdseedTV

This grant under Advanced Academics - AP/IB/GT Curriculum was awarded to Kari Lockhart and will benefit 1,474 students that are in our GT programs in years K-6.

ByrdseedTV provides gifted and talented teachers and learners with resources that foster deep and complex learning. Activities from Byrdseed are designed and used by a teacher of gifted students, and facilitate critical and creative thinking, inductive and deductive thinking skills, as well as encourage creative individual investigations.

2021-2022 Classroom Grants

Olson Elementary Book Club

This grant under English Language Arts (Elementary) & Dyslexia Curriculum was awarded to Rebecca Hughes and will benefit 50 students at Olson..

Olson Book Club is a place for students to come and share a love of reading while diving deep into a vast array of novels and exploring all the ways to analyze literature. Students will be given the opportunity to discuss and demonstrate understanding by completing different projects based on our current novel.

 Greg Tang Math Games

This grant under Math Elementary Curriculum was awarded to Sharla Gant and will benefit 250 students at Olson.

Greg Tang math games will provide our students the math practice they need in a fun, unique, and challenging way.

Everyday Speech

This grant under Special Education Curriculum was awarded to Mary Hignite along with Amanda Holcom will benefit 25 students at Olson..

Everyday Speech is a social-emotional learning platform that uses evidence-based video modeling curriculums to develop the fundamental social skills strategies that students need to maximize their potential.

Adapt Me!

This grant under Special Education Curriculum was awarded to Patricia Reyna and will benefit 25 students at Anderson, Evans, Olson, Curtis Middle School and Allen High School.

Adapted books for our special needs students will allow an opportunity for every student to interact with literature on their own learning level. Adapted books employ cognitive skills such as matching, comprehension, fine motor and attention-building skills.

From Problem Solving to Problem Posing

This grant under Math Curriculum was awarded to Brenda Fee and will benefit 160 students at both Boon and Olson.

Problem Solving to Problem Posing This grant introduces the instructional method of problem posing to high-level mathematics students in grades 2-6. Problem posing refers to instruction where students generate their own problems or questions based on a given situation. The goal is to help students independently solve problems in novel ways and pose new mathematical questions of interest to investigate.