CLASSROOM PROJECTS
GREAT EDUCATORS CHANGE LIVES
Since 2013, Austin Ed Fund has awarded more than $2.1 million to projects that support innovative classroom practices and educational opportunities for economically disadvantaged students. We’ve funded robotics projects, writing workshops, hands-on learning experiences and more. Our grant programs have supported more than 400 teacher-generated projects on 99 campuses across Austin ISD. Because of our community partners, our teachers feel supported, our students are inspired, and our public schools are stronger.
Keep reading to learn how gifts to the Austin Ed Fund have impacted classrooms at Clifton Career Development School and Houston Elementary School.
CULTIVATING CAREERS AT
CLIFTON CAREER DEVELOPMENT SCHOOL
CULTIVATING CAREERS AT CLIFTON
At one Austin ISD school, students are turning “farm to table” into “school to table” with an innovative program that grows gourmet mushrooms for commercial distribution while developing future entrepreneurs along the way.
The young horticulturists are students at Clifton Career Development School, which offers hands-on career and technical education to teenagers who receive Austin ISD special education services.
Thanks to a 2017 grant from the Austin Ed Fund, the school’s horticulture team was able to expand its mushroom program, improve the production facility and dramatically increase its output in less than a year.
Led by teachers Clayton Vader and Daniel Nelson, the 27-student class produces 50 to 75 pounds of oyster mushrooms every week, although some weeks have seen twice that amount. They have earned a reputation among distributors and chefs as a reliable, high-quality resource for this specialty item.
The $9,000 grant allowed the team to purchase a large shipping container that was converted into an insulated, air-conditioned growing facility. For approximately $300 per student, the grant has enabled 27 students to become valuable, independent contributors to the production process.
After seeing the significant results of the Austin Ed Fund grant, Vader and Nelson are already making plans for expansion by experimenting with other varieties of mushrooms and broadening their distribution reach. In the meantime, they have much to celebrate with their project’s success.
“The fact that our production is accomplished mostly by students with disabilities, all of whom receive special education services, makes our Gourmet Mushroom Cultivation Project a truly one-of-a-kind operation,” said Nelson.
Beyond new skills and a sense of ownership over the process, students see other benefits. “The best part is when some mushrooms are too big to sell, and we get to take them home. We cook them up and put them on quesadillas or in spaghetti sauce. Pretty much anything!”
MOVE MORE, LEARN MORE AT
HOUSTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
MOVE MORE, LEARN MORE
An AISD teacher is empowering her 6-year-old students one chair at a time.
Thanks to a grant from Austin Ed Fund, Madison Moses’s first grade classroom at Houston Elementary now features bouncy ball chairs, wobble stools, rocking seats, balance cushions, and best of all—more engaged students.
“As a class, this is the most calm and focused my kids have ever been,” she said. “The flexible seating lets them hone in on what they are actually supposed to be doing versus trying so hard to focus on sitting still.”
Moses was two years out of college and in her second year of teaching when some of her students inspired her to rethink her classroom. “I had a couple kids who just could not sit still,” she said. “They would be doing forward rolls and cartwheels on my carpet, but they were listening, retaining, and answering my questions while rolling and spinning.”
Moses began researching and found plenty of evidence to support her hunch that it was possible to help students channel abundant energy into better learning—without disrupting the entire classroom.
Then she heard about Austin Ed Fund teacher grants, and it immediately caught her attention. Moses approached the grant with the philosophy that flexible seating is unquestionably innovative. “It’s not high-tech,” she said, “but flexible seating is very 21st century teaching.”
To Moses “flexible seating” is about more than just the ability to wiggle throughout the day. It’s also about letting the kids choose where they sit each day. “It’s cool to see them make these decisions at age six because there’s so much they aren’t getting to make decisions about. Especially in our population as a Title I school…a lot of our kids don’t have many choices.”
Moses said she is grateful to the Austin Ed Fund and all the donors who make the grants possible. “With these funds my classroom can be a unique experience for these kids. And unfortunately a lot of kids don’t get these kinds of experiences unless we give them to them.”