Forward-thinking Teachers at Harrison Hills City Schools Receive Best Practice Grants
GRANTS AWARDED — Rebecca Agostini, right, was one of three Harrison Hills City School District Educators to receive Best Practice Grant from the Jefferson County Edicational Service Center. Presenting her award was Amber Fomenko, director of special education for the JCESC. Misty Barker and Susan Macenzak also received awards. — Contributed
The Jefferson County Educational Service Center has awarded 2023 Best Practice Grants to forward-thinking teachers at Harrison Hills City Schools.
Educators Rebecca Agostini and Misty Barker of Harrison Central Elementary and Susan Macenzak of Harrison Central High School each gained $660 allocations to highlight STEM, social-emotional, and physical science programs at their respective buildings. Amber Fomenko, JCESC director of special education, presented the awards during the regular Harrison Hills school board meeting on Nov. 16.
STEM: Incorporating Hands-On Learning and Critical Thinking in the Classroom
Rebecca Agostini will implement the second phase of continued STEM and STEAM lessons with her project. She plans to purchase STEM activities to engage students in critical-thinking skills, outside-the-box thinking, and integrate subjects like mathematics and reading. By incorporating more centers, hands-on learning activities, and creative thinking, Agostini aims to actively engage her 110 students. She believes this format will greatly benefit students who struggle with traditional paper-and-pencil learning.
Agostini said: “The project will allow me to purchase coding activities, design building sets, brain-building activities, and much more. This project will benefit my students this year and hopefully for years to come.”
Social-Emotional Learning in Elementary Classrooms
Misty Barker’s project aims to meet students’ social and emotional needs. Her vision includes using social-emotional learning strategies and picture books to teach students how to manage their emotions constructively. She plans to create a calming corner in the classroom for students to refocus and establish a lunch bunch to improve socialization skills. Approximately 100 fifth-graders will benefit from this project, but resources may be utilized by other grade levels.
Barker stated: “These needs are often overlooked, yet they are vital to student success. My vision includes teaching students how to deal with their emotions in the most constructive manner possible; setting up a calming corner where my students are able to safely go to spend a brief amount of time getting refocused; and starting a lunch bunch for students to work on socialization skills.”
Using Motion Detectors to Graph Motion
Susan Macenzak, a science teacher at Harrison Central High School, plans to enhance learning for freshmen with her project. By utilizing motion detectors, students will be able to act out different motions and observe the resulting position versus time graph, velocity versus time graph, and acceleration versus time graph. The sensors will directly connect to students’ Chromebooks to collect data, allowing them to make connections with force and acceleration. This project will benefit about 100 current physical science students, as well as future physics classes.
Macenzak explained: “With this project, students will be able to act out different motions, and with the detectors, they will see what the resulting position versus time graph, velocity versus time graph, and acceleration versus time graph look like. These sensors connect directly to the students’ Chromebooks to collect the data. They will also be able to make the connections with force and acceleration.”
JCESC Superintendent Chuck Kokiko emphasized that the purpose of the grants is to support teacher ingenuity and enhance learning opportunities for students.
Kokiko said: “Our schools have many great teachers with innovative lesson plans and instructional strategies, and we at JCESC are happy to be able to fund many of those ideas so they may become a reality for the students in the classroom.”
This year, JCESC has disbursed over two-dozen Best Practice Grants to various school districts, including Buckeye Local, Edison Local, Indian Creek Local, Steubenville City, Toronto City, Southern Local School Districts, and the Utica Shale Academy.