Charity funds innovative learning
By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer
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A documentary on the history of lei. Picture books created by children. An anthology of inspirational stories about "Schoolhouse Superheroes."
These are just some of the projects the Public Schools of Hawai'i Foundation has funded recently through its Good Idea Grants.
Since its inception in 1986, the foundation has given out roughly $2 million to approximately 1,600 teachers. This school year, the foundation awarded $230,720 to 101 public-school teachers.
The "mini-grants" aren't enormous — up to $3,000 each — but they encourage innovation in the classroom by providing resources not available from the state or the schools.
For instance, one grant to Moloka'i teachers at Kaunakakai Elementary School led to a continuing program that allows teachers to visit their students' homes a couple of times a year, getting to know the family and bringing the supplies the children need to complete their homework.
Another helped Maunawili Elementary School teachers develop "parent toolkits" to help parents become better partners in their children's learning.
Kumu Valerie-Mae Manoa, a Hawaiian Studies teacher at Nanakuli Elementary School, has been able to incorporate different subjects into her projects.
She has received three grants so far. The first was used to buy newspaper subscriptions to diversify the reading materials in the classroom.
Another was used to purchase materials so fourth-graders could make and sell activity books and bendable pencils about Hawaiian animals, with the proceeds going to fund activities the next year.
Last year, fifth-graders made picture books about the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands aimed at third- and fourth-graders, who find such resources scarce.
"The idea was the fifth-graders writing for the lower grades, so if they should do research on the islands or the animals, they would have something to read up on," Manoa said.
The projects would not have been possible without the seed money, which paid for ink and paper. "The amount of books would not have been able to fit into the budget that's allowed for the classroom," she said.
Susan Nozaki, a home-economics teacher at Pahoa High and Intermediate School, has received 35 grants over the past decade, and enjoys coming up with the ideas and writing up the proposals.
"I love this stuff," she said. "I think this is the best way to motivate teachers and students. Students, of course, are the bottom line."
CRITERIA MUST BE MET
The projects have to fit certain criteria: They must be consistent with the state's academic standards and it helps if they also address Department of Education priorities. No more than half the grant can be used to buy equipment.
These requirements still leave room for a lot of innovation.
For example, Nozaki, who also teaches teen parents, career guidance and English, has had her students write "Miso Soup for the Local Soul" anthologies.
Another project, "Just Say No to Soda," has them taste-test and analyze healthier beverages.
Her teen parents are writing books for their children along the lines of "Goodnight Moon," but with photos of things from their own homes.
These kind of projects would not be possible without the grants, Nozaki said. She gets no budget from the school and only $250 from the state. "That's not enough," she said.
The foundation sees a great variety in the proposals it receives.
"They range anywhere in different subject areas. Quite a few are trying to improve reading achievement or math achievement," said Judy Nagasako, an educational specialist with the DOE who serves as a liaison between the department and business partners, such as the foundation.
Other projects might deal with civic responsibility or physical education or may be health related, she said.
Robin Campaniano, president and chief executive officer of AIG Hawai'i Insurance Co., has served on the foundation's board of trustees several times since it was founded in 1986 and recently was elected president. Campaniano said he has seen several wonderful projects developed as a result of the grants.
"I think when we're looking to the proposals, the initial idea was to see if we could find some way to fund novel, innovative and creative programs that would be useful in the classroom," he said.
One of the advantages is that the grants come from sources not normally available to classroom teachers. "There's only so much money that the taxpayers can give for our school system," he said. That's why the private sector has jumped in to try to augment the progress in public-school classrooms.
NOT ALL GET A GRANT
The awards are distributed to every geographic region in the state, although not to every teacher who applies, Nagasako said. This year, the foundation had to turn down 134 grant requests, although in some cases it was because the applications did not meet the criteria.
Nevertheless, the foundation has more than quadrupled its award amounts since it first started awarding grants. In the past decade, the foundation has awarded more than $150,000 in grants every year — and more than $200,000 in recent years.
The foundation's primary fundraiser is its annual banquet, where it recognizes some of the best projects funded by the Good Idea Grants, and honors corporations and individuals who have helped public schools.
Most of the foundation's trustees are business people, not educators, and their mission is to promote quality instruction in the classroom, not influence policy or reform.
In addition to the Good Idea Grants, they also award travel grants for students to compete at national conferences, student technology training and a summer band institute for students to learn under a guest conductor.
The foundation also channels major contributions to schools or projects designated by the individual donor.
Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.
