Charla Matthews and Susan Thomas
Shining Star Award Winners
Charla Matthews, on the left, and Susan Thomas, right, won the Shining Star Award 2013 at the GEFFE fundraising gala on Saturday, The Shining Star nominees are chosen from Grove school teachers and educators who submitted grant proposals and made a positive impact on student learning. The winners’ grant proposal was called “Flip Out Over Math!” – an innovative approach to teaching that “flips” the normal instructional model. Lectures are posted on the Internet with class time devoted to assignments and one-on-one time with students.
Pictured from left to right are Stacey Millican, Keri Gregg, Miranda Ward, Kathy Carper of the Grove Upper Elementary. Their grant was titled “The Magic of Literacy.” Interactive Read-Alouds, by Linda Hoyt, provide a way to engage all students in a story and give them an opportunity to enhance their imagination and creativity. It is an effective strategy for introducing reading skills, and reading strategies, while enhancing their literal and interpretive questioning in quadrant D of Core Standards, and in six trait writing.
Valerie Epperson
Shining Star Nominee
Valerie Epperson’s grant representing Grove High School was “Losing Electrons in AP Chemistry…….Think Positive!!!!!” This grant has updated the high school Chemistry Lab with the equipment and lab supplies aligned to the AP Chemistry College Board requirements. It will prepare our top students with valuable skills and experience they will need to compete in colleges and universities across the nation by improving the Chemistry laboratory to meet the specifications of Pre AP and AP Chemistry standards the beginning of which will be available next fall.