Tomball Education Foundation Awards Over $100,000 in Innovative Grants to Tomball ISD Educators

TOMBALL –  The Tomball Education Foundation awarded 29 grants to Tomball ISD educators across 15 different campuses and one Central Office department, totaling $100,948 to be used on innovative projects they submitted through the grant process. 

The Tomball Education Foundation provides funds for educational projects and activities that are beyond traditional funding. Funds are used to facilitate student achievement and skill development, recognize and encourage staff excellence, and expand community involvement from individuals, businesses and civic organizations.

Since 2018, TEF has awarded over $270,000 in grants to employees of Tomball ISD. 

Congratulations to the 2022-2023 Grant Recipients: 

READING FOR ALL BOOK VENDING MACHINE
$5,000
Tomball Intermediate School
Samora Davis
Myriam Khan
 The Reading for All Book Vending Machine would allow students to select over 200 plus chapter books that they can share and read with their friends and family that feature appropriate content for their age/grade level. The benefits of reading with others enhances language development, critical thinking, increases motivation and enjoyment of reading, and fosters positive relationships. This also supports our Great Expectations Classroom Practices and our Campus Improvement Plan.
 

POWER MOBILITY DEVICES
$2,805
Student Support Services
Whitnee Drake
Innovative technology allows mobility for impaired students to propel them toward independent exploratory self-learning through interacting with their peers, teachers, and environment during developmental play which leads to learning. Research indicates that developmental play drives physical, motor, cognitive, socio-emotional, sensory, and language skill development in young children. This grant will build foundational skills that will promote learning throughout their educational experience here in Tomball ISD.

IPADS AND APPLE PENS
$1,577
Student Support Services
Brooke Looney
Technology is an important part of our everyday world and introducing this component into the Adapted Physical Education environment could be impactful to our students with disabilities. IPads and apple pens could give students a new way to learn Physical Education through the use of yoga apps, music, and can be something that transitions well to their everyday lives at home. These tools would also be instrumental for the teachers when taking data, completing assessments, and having choice/first, then boards easily accessible.

SWIVL CAMERAS
$4,500
Tomball Star Academy
Dr. Kelly Marchiando
Building capacity in all learners as they grow into young adults pivots around their ability to communicate ideas and opinions effectively. This growth potential is dependent on the learner's ability to engage in reflective practice for improvement. The development of student public speaking skills through the use of these grant-funded Swivl cameras serves to impact not just the individuals, but the classrooms, the campus and the greater community.

GARDENING MATERIALS
$5,000
Creekview Elementary
Megan Johnson, Mary Lytwyn, Elizabeth Smylie, Thomas Smylie
Tomball students will now have the opportunity to learn about financial literacy and economics with hands-on experiences with native Texas plants. They will be able to experience creating budgets and detailing their expenses to create a product that can be donated to our local community! This will create so many meaningful memories for our students that will help them become financially responsible citizens!

SHIRT PRESS MACHINE
$789
Tomball Junior High
Regina Garceau
From classwork to the working environment of digital media, students will take their talents and creations while using industry standard equipment. Students will create and present their designs to the student organization who then will choose the tee shirt design to be produced by the digital media students.

CHROMEBOOKS
$5,000
Tomball Junior High
Veronica Silvas, Giselle Reyes
School 2 Home Connection will bridge English language acquisition from school to home by making education accessible for Emergent bilingual students. Students will now have the opportunity to access their primarily online curriculum at home with the support of accessibility tools and resources provided through a Chromebook. School 2 Home Connection ultimately creates a pipeline between teachers, Emergent bilingual students, and their families.

UNIQUE LEARNING SYSTEM
$4,973
Tomball Elementary School
Tabitha Garrett, Alicia Means, Eileen Garza, Samantha Hoffman
This project will be used to create interactive, engaging and accessible learning materials that support engagement of students with low vision, cognitive impairment, and physical limitations. These items are customized based on need. By including the use of High School volunteer manpower we deepen the understanding of the range of community needs and provide authentic opportunities to provide a community service while enhancing their portfolio.

DOUBLE ADJUSTABLE MAGNETIC WHITEBOARDS & MANIPULATIVES
$5,000
Decker Prairie Elementary
Stacey Race
Double adjustable magnetic whiteboards and manipulatives will be used to implement practices from Peter Liljedahl "Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics". These whiteboards will allow students to collaborate, not only in a small group but as an entire class, as their knowledge becomes visible to all. Making knowledge mobile in the classroom is the primary goal for this grant.

DOUBLE ADJUSTABLE MAGNETIC WHITEBOARDS & MANIPULATIVES
$5,000
Decker Prairie Elementary
Carrie Wilkins
Double adjustable magnetic whiteboards and manipulatives will be used to implement practices from Peter Liljedahl "Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics". These whiteboards will allow students to collaborate, not only in a small group but as an entire class, as their knowledge becomes visible to all. Making knowledge mobile in the classroom is the primary goal for this grant.

MOBILE GREEN SCREEN
$466
Decker Prairie Elementary
Ashley Douglas
Welcome to the Daily Decker, where student engagement and ownership are part of our every day routine. Our Call to Excellence is a live broadcast showcasing various Great Expectations components that are directed by students and their teachers for other classrooms across our campus. Students will also receive the opportunity to exhibit their creativity by having the use of a mobile green screen during their broadcasting session.

ROSEHILL READERS VENDING MACHINE
$5,000
Rosehill Elementary
Ashley Loftin
Rosehill Readers Vending Machine reignites the excitement of reading. Students set individual reading goals with their teacher and once they have met that goal, they are rewarded with a special golden token. This token allows the student to choose any available book they want from the vending machine, which offers books in all reading levels PK-5 in both English and Spanish.

KAMI FOR KIDS DIGITAL LEARNING TOOL
$3,150
Grand Lakes Junior High
Lisa Stoyak, Eloise Traw, Rachel Page, Jill Moreno
Kami for Kids provides the Google Kami Extension for the students and core curriculum teachers for one year at our campus. Kami allows students to use tools previously only available on paper (writing, highlighting, drawing, coloring, etc.) and digital tools (dictionaries, text-to speech, video comments, etc.) for students to use in all subjects across our campus. This extension continues to support our school's commitment to lowering our environmental impact by lessening the need for copies of passages, worksheets, and notebooks. By having the KAMI extension available to all students and teachers, the goal of cross curricular learning is able to be achieved in a meaningful way for students.

KEYMASTER’S LEARNING LIGHTS EDUCATIONAL KEYBOARD TECHNOLOGY
$4,800
Grand Lakes Junior High
Jack Bruso, Marianne Kosik
To See or Not to See? Students are given the opportunity to learn unimpeded, the natural way to type on a seemingly normal keyboard. But nothing could be further from the truth. This newly developed KeyMaster's Learning Lights Educational keyboard technology allows teachers to control what students can and can't see on their keyboards at the press of a button. Removing distractions, obscurities, and premature wear in the process, students will master their keyboarding technique faster and better with the innovative KeyMaster Learning Lights Educational keyboard.

WIND TUNNEL SYSTEM
$4,990
Tomball Memorial High School
Jennifer Bourgeios
Testing objects in a wind tunnel is without question at the heart of Aerospace Engineering. This is the work students will be doing if they go on to many engineering courses of study. This was one of my greatest takeaways from my time in Aerospace Engineering at UT Austin and I know the impact it would have on our students would make this purchase well worth it to so many of our young engineers.

3D PRINTERS
$3,872
Oakcrest Intermediate
Rachel Grimes, Holly Ellis
Technology in the arts is the future our kids are advancing towards! Adding 3-D printers to our Art classrooms allows students the opportunity to advance and explore their understanding of mathematics, technology, collaborative work and art elements such as form and space. With 3-D printing student's ability to explore their designs and ideas explodes exponentially, bringing their ideas into the tangible world and preparing them for dynamic modern STEAM careers!

PEDAGOGICAL AIDES AND ADJUSTABLE SEATING FOR BEGINNING ORCHESTRA
$5,000
Oakcrest Intermediate & Northpointe Intermediate
Amber Shah
Teaching strings in a large group setting is challenging both mentally and physically. String instruments demand physical contortions that even seasoned professionals strive to master. This grant provides a variety of pedagogical aides and adjustable seating so each individual can tackle the complexities of beginning orchestra technique. This grant will provide a foundation of success as the students continue their orchestral education in Tomball ISD.

LEGOS AND GAMES FOR ENGINEERING EMPATHY
$930
Wildwood Elementary
Alison Love, Lauren Heinrich
Engineering Empathy supports students by providing them with guidance lessons focusing on empathy, utilizing the scientific process to demonstrate their understanding of other’s needs, collaborating with a team, building relationships and practicing newly found skills playing games. Students will create inventions made of Legos to help others overcome barriers all while practicing empathy.

OUTDOOR GARDEN
$1,043
Wildwood Elementary
2nd Grade Team
Mickey Angel, Kellie Greenberg, Mason Carroll, Michele Taylor, Sarah Rumfield, Loreta Garcia, Susan Renneker, Candace Bailey
This project is to create a garden outside of our school! School gardens are an outstanding, research-supported way to give students hands-on experience with environmental science topics, as well as build stronger school communities within and across grade levels.

HEADSETS FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION STUDENTS
$800
Wildwood Elementary
Barbara Hurst, Courtney Hill
The Access to the World! Grant allows Special Education students with classroom accommodations, including Text to Speech and Speech to Text, daily access to quality headsets. Providing headsets to Special Education students to access grade level, and higher, materials with ease, independence, and dependability.

BOOK BAGS
$4,994
Northpointe Intermediate
Nathan Henze, Clayton Smith
The Book Bags will create customized, on-level book bags that offer students the dignity of choosing books they are interested in and can succeed at, without the pressure to perform on-level with peers when searching for books in a traditional library. This method also allows the teacher to guide a student into a love of reading in a way that is tailored to their specific needs and encourages growth as they gain confidence through successful reading.

BOOGIE BOARDS (LCD WRITING TABLETS)
$640
Willow Creek Elementary
Jennifer Balter, Kristie Brawley
The Boogie Down with Boogie Boards Grant Project is an innovative approach to teaching and learning. By incorporating boogie boards (LCD writing tablets) into our daily classroom activities, we will engage 21st century students using new technology. We will increase motivation and independence by having students take ownership of their own learning. Now let's Boogie Down with our Boogie Boards.

DOUBLE ADJUSTABLE MAGNETIC WHITEBOARDS & MANIPULATIVES
$4,500
Willow Wood Junior High
Beth Pitts, Nancia King
Double adjustable magnetic whiteboards and manipulatives will be used to implement practices from Peter Liljedahl "Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics". These whiteboards will allow students to collaborate, not only in a small group but as an entire class, as their knowledge becomes visible to all. Making knowledge mobile in the classroom is the primary goal for this grant.

TOUCH SCREEN MONITOR
$3,016
Lakewood Elementary
Kristi Donald
Having a large touch screen monitor at the small group table will allow teachers to use a multitude of digital resources to model and scaffold student learning. Additionally it will increase student engagement and collaboration during small group lessons. This type of interactive learning is exactly what we want for all of our students.

UKULELES
$2,232
Lakewood Elementary
Joan Heinrich, Amber Holt
Playing the ukulele is a great way to help our students gain self-confidence in a fun, stress relieving, and creative way. They will bring joy to the community through performing songs that they have learned on the ukulele. Playing the ukulele will challenge our students musically by first learning how to play an instrument and by encouraging them to compose and perform their own compositions.

TOUCH SCREEN MONITOR
$3,016
Lakewood Elementary
Amber Smith
Having a large touch screen monitor at the small group table will allow teachers to use a multitude of digital resources to model and scaffold student learning. Additionally it will increase student engagement and collaboration during small group lessons. This type of interactive learning is exactly what we want for all of our students.

TOUCH SCREEN MONITOR
$3,016
Lakewood Elementary
Jennifer Gigout
Having a large touch screen monitor at the small group table will allow teachers to use a multitude of digital resources to model and scaffold student learning. Additionally it will increase student engagement and collaboration during small group lessons. This type of interactive learning is exactly what we want for all of our students.

HEADSETS WITH NOISE-CANCELING MICROPHONES
$3,849
Lakewood Elementary
Betsy Castille
This grant is written for headsets with noise-canceling microphones to be used in learning stations within a dynamic and lively classroom. It supports the development of academic language in which students create recordings to practice using new vocabulary.This project will require the use of critical thinking skills in order to craft responses, critique those responses, and revise as-needed. The degree of challenge can be scaffolded up or down to suit students learning at all levels across all content areas. The ability to speak about learning leads to the ability to write about learning.

IPADS WITH CREATIVE APPS
$4,540
Lakewood Elementary
Laurie Taylor
Students will shift from consuming digital information to creating their own digital products through using multiple creative apps.

ABOUT THE TOMBALL EDUCATION FOUNDATION 
The Tomball Education Foundation, founded in 2017, is an independent, non-profit corporation established by parents, local businesses, civic organizations, alumni and community leaders to make a positive impact on public education. The Foundation is governed by a board of directors who represent a cross-section of the community and have a sincere interest in the Tomball Independent School District's students and their success. 

ABOUT TOMBALL INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
Tomball ISD educates students to become responsible, productive citizens by providing innovative, individually rigorous, and personally valuable educational experiences. Founded in 1908, Tomball ISD now encompasses 83 square miles in northwest Harris County and southwest Montgomery County, and is located approximately 30 miles from downtown Houston. The district currently educates nearly 22,000 students at 22 campuses.