Note: On Sept. 27-28, the Abilene Education Foundation made its way onto campuses throughout the Abilene ISD, handing out monetary awards as part of its annual STAR Grant Prize Parade. This year’s parade – the first to be back on campuses since 2019 because of COVID restrictions – saw 72 grants handed out that totaled $55,420 with 11 teachers receiving the maximum $1,000 award. Below is an example of how teachers are using the money they received.
The last time the world fought a World War was to rid the world of fascism and hate spewed by German dictator Adolf Hitler. It’s been 77 years since World War II ended with victory for the Allies, but the war is still being studied, written about, and made into movies and television shows.
And at Abilene High School, Jennifer Jordan is teaching two classes this year about the Holocaust and global genocide events, both of which are part of the World War II story. To help her teach the class and take her students on a field trip to the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum later this year, Jordan was awarded almost $1,500 in two separate gifts last month as part of the AEF’s 2022 STAR Grant Prize Parade.
Jordan received $997.18 to purchase different forms of literature and media to help the story and was awarded another $564 for the trip to cover admission for her students.
“I have never received so much at one time for my classroom,” Jordan said. “What an absolute gift! The tour of the museum will be incredible. We’ll see artifacts from the Holocaust, read survivor accounts, listen to video recordings of survivors, and potentially meet and speak to a survivor. To say we are excited about this trip is an understatement.”
The class came out of AHS principal Emme Siburt’s desire to add some Social Studies electives as options for students to take during the school year. Jordan said the study of the Holocaust – Nazi Germany’s systematic murder of more than six million Jews across German-occupied Europe from 1941-45 – and other forms of genocide and human rights violations piqued her interest.
“It’s incredibly important for this generation to learn about human rights,” Jordan said. “The first unit we studied was the 10 Stages of Genocide by Dr. Gregory Stanton. We studied that no matter what stage of genocide a society is enduring, there are preventative measures. We have imagined the unimaginable and stressed the importance of humanity and dignity.”
And while none of her students, their parents, and maybe not even their grandparents were alive during the war, Jordan said she hasn’t gotten the sense that the Holocaust doesn’t have real meaning to her students.
“The students are invested in the class,” she said. “One of the things we’re trying to set up is having a World War II POW come to our class and tell his story. As young people, they already understand the importance of history and listening to and being impacted by people’s experiences. It’s amazing to understand and contemplate what he has lived through. My students have completely embraced the concept of being influenced by the older generations.”
While Jordan is using her AEF award to influence an older group of students, Ortiz Elementary School Reading Interventionist Amanda Boulter and her teaching partners, Robin Buckner and Carla Olson, are working to close the gap in learning loss that has been felt around the globe because of the COVID pandemic.
Boulter and her team were awarded $1,000 on the prize parade – the most the AEF awards – for the program “Equipping Readers for a Brighter Future,” a program that will help the teachers target specific reading needs of students on the Ortiz campus.
“There aren’t many out there that are developed for students above second grade that fill the gaps for learners that are struggling with phonics and phonemic awareness,” Boulter said. “But the Heggerty Bridge the Gap phonics intervention curriculum puts that focus on the upper-grade levels, and it includes an online diagnostic tool that will place students in groups to target their specific needs. We can track each child’s progress to ensure they are consistently grouped by their specific needs. We hope that students will be more confident in their ability to decode and encode multisyllabic words by the end of the year.”
At Clack Middle School, band director Pearl Gonzales will be purchasing new sound equipment to enhance her students’ learning experience. Last spring, she put together a jazz band, which performed at the Clack Spring Concert. The group was so well-received by the Clack community that the students asked Gonzales about putting together a permanent jazz band at Clack.
“The student performers loved the jazz band aspect of the band, and several even improvised their own solos,” Gonzales said. “The students were excited about learning music, and I knew I was on to something that could reach many more students.”
Gonzales will be using the $986.48 she was awarded to purchase a large speaker amplifier and instrumental microphones to amplify the student musicians and will also purchase an electronic keyboard for the band. Students will also be able to use the amplifier to play backup tracks while they practice improvisations, literally “pumping up the volume,” as Gonzales said.
“We are all so fortunate to have the AEF Star Grant program,” Gonzales said. “Teachers can implement projects and purchase items for their classrooms that might otherwise be impossible. My students and I were so excited when they came to our classroom with balloons and the big check! I’m tremendously grateful to have AEF here to help support our students and teachers.”
