Jefferson County ESC

Edison Projects Support Student Focus to Enrichment

RICHMOND-Edison Local School District educators gained funding support to help students focus and also enrich their learning experience. The Jefferson County Educational Service Center has provided three Best Practice Grants totaling $2,100 to teachers at Stanton and John Gregg Elementary schools and JCESC Intervention Specialist Patty Ferrell presented the awards to recipients Kelly Dopp, Summer Householder and Mikayla Tice during the Edison Local Board of Education meeting at Edison High School on Nov 21. “According to The Science of Hope, hope is not an inherent trait. It is a skill that can be taught by having goals, pathways and a sense of agency. The Hope Bearers Project will allow students to emphasize how others used their goals, pathways and sense of agency to make an impact,” she explained, adding that it will benefit more than 30 second-to-sixth-grade students. “Each enrichment student will research a famous ‘hope bearer,’ or a person who has brought hope to a community or to their world through their careers/entrepreneurship/medical advances/political influence/etc. Not only will they focus on the life and achievements of their hope bearer; they will also have to identify the goals, pathways and sense of agency these people used to achieve their accomplishments.” The fifth- and sixth-grade students will turn their research into a wax museum presentation during the school’s art show, painting a life-size background and dressing as the subject while also giving an oral presentation in the first person. Meanwhile, the second to fourth-grade pupils will create a life-size pop-up book about their hope bearer to display at the event and each book will include at least three pop-ups to illustrate important facts about that subject’s influence on the world. Dopp continued that students will benefit through career connections since they will be researching unique careers and entrepreneurs; build hope skills by learning how impactful people used their goals, pathways and sense of agency; and bolster creativity by engineering the pop-up books and designing their wax museum scenery and costumes. Dopp is a previous Best Practice Grant recipient and was excited to receive the funding. “The Hope Bearers project is powerful because it incorporates research, public speaking and many ELA skills and the ideas behind hope and grit that students need to have,” she said. Householder, a gifted intervention teacher at Stanton, is implementing “Stanton Entrepreneur Market” to help about 30 students through project-based learning. Gifted intervention students in grades 3-6 will create a business plan, gather materials and market their products. Their final project will involve selling these items at the annual Stanton Art Show, with all profits being donated to a charity chosen by the students. This unit allows students to explore economic concepts, improve math and English skills and make real-world connections through hands-on learning. By participating in this project, students will enhance teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills, preparing them for future career opportunities. “I will be utilizing the Best Practice Grant to create an Entrepreneur Market with my enrichment students. My colleague, Ginger Bloomer, will also be participating in this project with me. I was inspired by our colleagues at John Gregg who completed this project with their enrichment students last year,” she said. “Using concepts from the book, Genius Hour: Passion Projects That Ignite Innovation and Student Inquiry, by Andi McNair, students will work together to create a business plan, gather materials and create and market products. The students will have the opportunity to display their items at the annual Stanton Art Show on March 27. Members of the community will have a chance to shop and purchase student made products. All profits earned from the sale of products will be donated to a local charity voted on by the students participating in the project.” Householder added that it was her first such grant and she was excited to be among the recipients. “I am looking forward to working on this project with my students. I feel this project is a perfect way for students to learn important skills not only that they will use in school but for life.” Tice, who teaches kindergarten at John Gregg, will utilize her grant to support 26 kindergarten students through “Wiggle Wobble Chair Feet.” The Wiggle Wobble Chair feet are tools designed to help all students, particularly kindergarteners, by fostering focus and reducing anxiety in the classroom. They provide students with movement while allowing them to maintain concentration on academic tasks aligned with Ohio Learning Standards. Research supports their effectiveness in improving attention, persistence, and reducing off-task behavior, especially for students with ADHD and hyperactivity. If implemented, these chair feet would significantly enhance student engagement and self-regulation, contributing to better academic performance. “These feet connect to students' current chairs and allow them to have movement while learning. The Wiggle Wobble Chair Feet tool is designed to help students focus while staying calm and to help increase academic performance as well as alleviate anxiety and hyperactivity,” Tice continued. “They provide the necessary movement to foster their brains and encourage students to maintain their focus on academic learning. This helps the students to engage for a greater amount of time on the topic being discussed.” She added that the items also help students limit off-task behavior because of fidgeting or feeling the need for movement, which hopefully will allow them to regulate the need and focus on the task at hand. Students with and without disabilities benefit greatly from the movement while learning. Tice said she is a prior grant recipient and was extremely grateful for the JCESC’s generosity and ability to impact the students. “I look forward to using the Wiggle Wobble Chair Feet in my classroom and am extremely excited to see how these will better help my students learn. I am also looking forward to seeing the enjoyment from the students when they each get them. I am extremely appreciative for the opportunity that the JCESC has provided to all area schools.” JCESC Superintendent Dr. Chuck Kokiko congratulated the recipients for aiding students through their progressive ideas. “The JCESC has supported efforts of our classroom teachers to bring forth insightful, innovative projects to fuel the students’ minds and improve upon their education, and the Best Practice Grants enable them to put those ideas into practice,” Dr. Kokiko added. “Every year, our district teachers continue to find unique methods for their classroom. We appreciate their hard work and are pleased to provide these opportunities and promote such creativity.” Edison Local Schools have received a total of 53 Best Practice Grants over the past 16 years to enhance learning and others included the Buckeye Local, Harrison Hills City, Indian Creek Local, Southern Local, Toronto City and Steubenville City school districts as well as the Utica Shale Academy.(Photo Caption: Three teachers from Edison Local School District received the Jefferson County Educational Service Center’s Best Practice Grant with each gaining $700 for learning projects. They were awarded during Edison’s school board session on Nov. 21 and pictured are, from left, Mikayla Tice, Summer Householder and JCESC Intervention Specialist Patty Ferrell while teacher Kelly Dopp is absent from the photo.)

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