Anonymous
Source: Goleta Education Foundation
The Goleta Education Foundation (GEF) announces that applications are open for local elementary educators to apply for financial support for professional development that enhances their students, colleagues, and community. In October of 2019, GEF awarded professional development scholarships to eight educators in the Goleta Union School District (GUSD), who carried out their activities through early 2020. The recipients were selected from a competitive pool of 18 applications, representing 30 educators. Teachers attended conferences on community building, science education, support for English learners, and early literacy – finding the financial support of these grants greatly improved the students’ educational outcomes and the community as a whole.
“Being able to attend this conference impacted my classroom by giving me insight into new activities to incorporate, and the opportunity to share these insights with other teachers,” said Ana Carolina, a teacher at El Camino Elementary School. “One activity I implemented in class helped build students’ writing abilities, as well as our classroom community – students learned to give each other feedback and positively comment on one another’s work.”
Danielle Martinazzi and Tara Vowels, teachers at Foothill Elementary School, attended a kindergarten conference and learned creative, inexpensive, and engaging ways to teach kids who enter school with varying levels of math comprehension. One example is adapting the card game Go Fish to reach all students, no matter their math proficiency. “As soon as we came back to school we taught our students how to choose the level that was right for them, and they were so excited to try out the new math workplaces,” noted Martinazzi.
Based on input from teachers and administrators, GEF recognized the need for resources for educators to pursue targeted professional development opportunities. With initial funding generously provided by the Williams-Corbett Foundation, GEF created the Professional Development Scholarship Fund. The results of last school year’s success is evidence the program has a lasting impact for students and for the broader community.
Interested? Applications are open! To apply and learn more, visit GEF’s Professional Development Scholarship Fund page at https://www.goletaed.org/pd-scholarship-fund/. The deadline to apply is October 2, 2020; recipients will be notified mid-October 2020.
The Goleta Education Foundation engages the community to invest in and enhance an excellent educational experience for all students attending schools in the Goleta Union School District. GEF offers support for all the schools in the District, with the goal of creating parity across all educational programs for a variety of learning groups. The Goleta Education Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization. To learn more or make a tax-deductible donation, please visit www.GoletaEd.org.
