Harrison Hills Teachers Receive Grants
CADIZ-Best Practice Grants have been awarded to three Harrison Hills City School teachers to provide innovative programs in their classrooms.
Representatives of the Jefferson County Educational Service Center presented more than $1,600 in grants during the regular school board session on Nov. 19. Harrison Hills has participated in the grant program since 2010 with three of its nine applications approved this year. This year’s recipients include Anthony Nicolia of Harrison Central Jr./Sr. High School and Mary Paul and Rebecca Agostini of Harrison North Elementary in Scio. Each recipient receives $550 for his or her project.
Nicolia aims to help an estimated 220 music students through “Rhythmbee,” a program that will efficiently and effectively teach students rhythm.
“My project is a two-year trial program for the Band and Choir. Rhythmbee is a music program that teaches rhythm through an interactive computer program using Smartboard technology,” he explained. “It teaches rhythm through the most up-to-date learning theories and brain research by creating an environment where students are able to learn rhythm through the same process that children use to learn how to walk and talk. Students are able to keep trying until they master the material. This program has been shown to have positive results with students of all ability levels.
Nicolia said he learned about Rhythmbee through other band directors but lacked funding at the time to implement the program. He later learned about the Best Practice Grant program and took advantage, adding that he was pleased to be chosen.
“I am very excited to receive the funding for the Rhythmbee. I believe that it has the potential to help students develop a deeper understanding of rhythm,” he said, crediting family and friends for their support throughout the process.
Paul added that she will use her grant funds for her “Scholastic Super Science Owl Pellet Dissection Lab.” The project is directly related to the Life Science strand of the state standards for fifth-graders and will benefit 42 science and math students at the Scio school.
“My project is centered around food chains and food webs (a fifth-grade Life Science content strand) with an Owl Pellet dissection lab. Owl pellets are the waste byproduct from an owl after is eats a small rodent or bird. The owl will cough up the pellet several hours after eating the organism. They have been heat sterilized and are odor-free,” she said. “I did this project during my undergraduate Science Methods course and was fascinated by the dissection. The content standards for fifth-grade Life Science focuses on the transfer of energy in ecosystems. A large part of the content strand is food chains and food webs. I thought the Owl dissection would be a great hands-on learning experience for the students, so that they can observe the predator/prey relationships found in various food chains and food webs. Part of my grant proposal was also to purchase a science news magazine subscription for each student in the fifth grade. Scholastic Super Science is a great resource for current events news in the science community, and I will incorporate articles from the magazine into my weekly lessons”
Paul is a first-year teacher at the school and said this is also her the first grant she’s sought. She was excited to be named as a recipient.
“I feel very fortunate to be able to share this fascinating and educational lab with the students. I'm sure they will have fun while learning about food chains and food webs.”
Meanwhile, Agostini is investing her funds in “Reading Nonfiction and Cross Curricular Language Arts and Social Studies” to benefit more than 40 Language Arts and social studies students.
“My project was centered around nonfiction. I wrote this grant for three nonfiction book sets, an American History nonfiction set, which centers around the Revolutionary War, and a Social Studies resource bundle, which contains hands on manipulatives,” she said. “Ohio has adopted New Learning Standards and I believe my students would benefit from new materials to use in the classroom. Nonfiction text is very important for children to be familiar with and read. These books are in different lexiles for my fourth-grade students. They are Scholastic books so students can take SRI tests to increase their SRI points and number of words read, which is a goal we work towards in the classroom.”
Agostini said it was the first such grant she’s received and she was happy to be selected.
“I feel grateful and excited that my students and I were given this opportunity. The students are really excited to be receiving new books to read,” she added. “I would like to thank the ESC for giving us this opportunity.”
JCESC Supervisor Ron Sismondo said the grants will help teachers help students learn in new and exciting ways.
“I congratulate the grant recipients for their innovative ideas and their dedication to help students succeed,” said Sismondo. “We at the Jefferson County Educational Service Center support educators’ unique ideas and always encourage them to incorporate new and exciting methods into their lessons.”
JCESC Superintendent Dr. Chuck Kokiko echoed those sentiments.
“The Jefferson County Educational Service Center has long worked with school districts and administrators and this grant is a positive way to spark innovative ideas from educators and help teachers improve student learning in the classroom,” Dr. Kokiko added.
Sixty-nine applications were submitted and 22 grants totaling $12,100 were awarded to area school districts, which also include Buckeye Local, Edison Local, Indian Creek, Steubenville City, Toronto City, Southern Local and the Utica Shale Academy.
The Jefferson County Educational Service Center presented Best Practice Grants to three teachers during the Harrison Hills City School Board of Education meeting on Nov. 19. Pictured are, from left, Harrison Hills Superintendent Dana Snider, recipients Rebecca Agostini, Mary Paul, and Anthony Nicolia, and Blair Closser, JCESC director of professional development.)
Harrison Hills City School District had an exciting year! The voters approved a bond issue to construct a new PK-12 facility outside of Cadiz on Route 9. This building will provide a complete 21st. Century Learning atmosphere and will open its door in the fall of 2019. Planning for the facility is well underway and teachers, community members, and businesses have provided their input on the design.
The district, building, and teacher teams meet regularly and are cooperatively developing instructional practices. Our teachers this year will "Co-Plan to Co-Serve" the students which is an approach to reach all student's strengths and weaknesses. Many of our staff have embraced the Project Based Learning instructional approach and we are looking at reaching out to our community to implement this process. We are looking forward to another successful school year where we place our students' needs first.
Below are some of our special moments last year:
- Harrison Central Seniors were honored at the awards assembly. Graduating seniors were awarded over $600,000 in local, regional and national scholarship money.
Special thanks go to the Mark West Corporation and Allison Anderson for coordinating a very special Memorial Day luncheon in which the 6th grade students from both Harrison East and Harrison North were among the invited guests. The honored guests were the Cadiz American Legion. The many veterans in attendance were honored with songs and moving message and a wonderful meal consisting of grilled hamburgers, hotdogs, bratwurst, fruit, macaroni and cheese, and desserts.
Congratulations to the Varsity Boys' Basketball team on winning the
KSA Boys Holiday Basketball Tournament in Disney world.
Harrison Central FFA Parliamentary Procedure Advance Team finished 4th in the state. The Novice Team finished 1st in the state this year.