Sage Advice: How Could Your School Benefit from $10,000?
If you had $10,000 to spend on your school, how would you spend it?
April 11, 2007
The winter can be very harsh here in central Pennsylvania. Many of our students do not have the economic means for a proper winter coat. If I had the money, I would make sure all these students are properly attired for the winter.
Robyn Dixon
Geography teacher
Roosevelt Junior High School
Altoona, Pennsylvania
Spend $10,000 to set up programs and activities to get parents into the school. We have used some of our limited funds to host family movie nights and bingo nights in our cafeteria, and the response has been tremendous. Parents that teachers would normally never get a chance to meet attend these functions, and it is a fantastic outreach to the community. It also allows time for families to come together, something that happens all too rarely.
David Lang
Language arts teacher
Louis P. Slade Middle School
New Britain, Connecticut
On a lobbyist who would work to end the one-size-fits-all, test-focused insanity ruining our schools.
Jon Simon
Former teacher
Fremont, California
Take every student in my school (in small groups) to the local bookstore and invite each one to pick out a book (appropriate for a middle school library) that they would like to see in our library. I would add those books to the library collection, putting bookplates in each book identifying the student who chose it. Each student would have a little piece of ownership in the library collection, and each would be able to find a favorite book here.
Joy Stoker-Hadow
Librarian/media specialist
Franklin Middle School
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Focus on play. Thanks to NCLB's trend toward instructional minutes and assessment, I think we have forgotten how. My list? Lots of sports equipment for recess to engage the kids. Good-quality paint and paper, pastels and charcoal, and modeling and ceramic clay. A music supply cabinet full of drums, percussion instruments, recorders, and basic acoustic guitars. I would refurbish the stage and sound system. Solidly over budget, I would stand back, smile, and say, "Play!"
Julie Page Ales
Assistant principal
Valencia Elementary School
Aptos, California
Bring in a resident artist, probably in the performing arts, to enrich our whole school program.
Norm Bossert
Principal
Black Mountain Elementary School
Black Mountain, North Carolina
Equip my students with technology:
- laptops
- LCD projectors
- school pads
- microscopes
- personal-response systems
- personal digital assistants
- digital cameras
- camcorders.
The children in our schools have grown up in such a visual world that it is necessary to reach them in their comfort zone.
Betty Jo English
Instructional-technology resource teacher
King's Fork Middle School
Suffolk, Virginia
Buy a mobile cart of sixteen laptops and a wireless hub so teachers could use it in their classes and not have to always go to the "lab."
Betty Brennan
Librarian
Ingraham High School
Seattle, Washington
Divide it in half and give it to two teachers, which would allow them to not work the summer job or the second or third job during the school year, thus giving them more opportunities to develop their teaching skills.
Bob Sexton
Teacher, civil engineering/
Communication systems
Seymour High School
Seymour, Indiana
I'd spend it on bright paint and comfortable furniture in common areas, so students would find their educational environment more welcoming and appealing.
Wallace Austin
English teacher
Floyd Central High School
Floyds Knobs, Indiana
Field trips! Community mentor programs! Research tells us that direct experiences like these can lead to increased academic achievement, but this is the first thing to get the ax in a budget cut. Students need to experience learning!
Theresa Gray
Coordinator, School Improvement Program
Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Board of Cooperative Educational Services
Fredonia, New York
I'd pay the registration or tuition fee for any and all programs or courses the teachers in my school chose to enroll in to further their teaching knowledge.
Myra Brand
Fourth-grade teacher
Stratford Road School
Plainview, New York
Provide tutoring for students. We are so thrifty in this district. I can provide about fifty minutes of instruction by a certified teacher for about $20. This involves direct instruction in a one-on-one setting. For that amount, I could make a difference for years.
Vickie Borton
Assistant principal
Clinton-Massie Elementary School
Clarksville, Ohio
Install acoustical tiles in the older classrooms. These rooms are echo chambers. The smallest sound is amplified and just bounces around. It is so much easier to talk and therefore teach in a classroom with ceiling tiles to absorb noise. In the newer classrooms, students can do group work without sounding like a riot.