DEF has been awarding teacher grants since 2002. In the past five years alone, we have awarded City Schools of Decatur teachers approximately $234,000 to purchase new books, curricula, field trips experiences, technology, instruments and other equipment to bring new ways of learning to the classroom.
Funding field trips, new materials, needed equipment, and technology
Bringing New Music, New Equipment, and New Instruments Into Our Schools
Teacher Innovation Grants
Funding field trips, new materials, needed equipment, and technology
Every fall, CSD teachers apply for DEF Teacher Innovation Grants that allow them to fund projects that enhance classroom learning, address different learning styles and bring creative ideas to life. By collaborating with the school PTAs and community organizations like the Decatur Craft Beer Festival to offer matching grants, we are able to broaden our reach and answer more needs to impact more students. In fall 2019, we awarded more than $50,000 that funded 51 grants for every school in the district.
FEATURED GRANT IMPACT STORIES
Our grants directly impact Decatur students. See all DEF’s impact stories.
Last school year, Oakhurst teachers Ms. Staton and Ms. Guerrieri wrote a Teacher Innovation Grant…
Fifth grade teacher Ms. Wise of F.AVE Upper Elementary was awarded a DEF Teacher Innovation…
As part of the eighth-grade health class curriculum, BHMS teacher Westley Philippi teaches substance abuse…
Oakhurst Media Specialist Erin Guerrieri and Enrichment Teacher Shannon Staton wrote a grant to create…
Decatur Virtual Academy Provides Another Way to Learn DEF is in the business of helping…
Christopher Brune’s title is “English/Language Arts teacher” at Decatur High School, but he recently expanded…
DHS basketball athletes had already been training with world-renowned boxing trainer Xavier Biggs, but Coach…
In October, DEF awarded Special Education teacher Marca Tigner a grant that enabled her to…
Zara’s Fund Arts Infusion Grants
Art Becomes the Conduit Between Math, Science and Social Studies to Create Memorable Learning Experiences
Arts-infused learning happens when teachers and visiting artists work together to plan classroom lessons using the arts to engage the students in learning about academic subjects. Arts infusion engages different types of learners, promotes creative thinking, builds connections across and between academic subjects and develops problem-solving skills.
DEF is working together with our partners (and neighbors) PaintLove to bring arts-infused projects to the upper elementary schools, Talley Street and F.AVE. These annual projects are made possible through Zara’s Fund which honors the creative spirit of Zara Yee Hawthorne, a City of Decatur kindergarten student who passed away in 2013 at the age of six.
Zara Yee Hawthorne attended kindergarten at Oakhurst Elementary in 2012-2013, and while living in Beijing, China the following year, passed away at the age of six.
Zara was a creative spirit who found great joy in expressing herself through her art. Her parents, Sue Lin Yee and Jeff Hawthorne, established this fund to honor Zara’s memory.
The fund supports arts experiences for Decatur students in two ways – through need-based individual grants that support art experiences for elementary school aged children and through grants made to City Schools of Decatur to implement arts infusion projects.
FEATURED IMPACT STORY
How do we really learn a concept? By doing and getting our whole bodies involved!…
Music Grants
Bringing New Music, New Equipment, and New Instruments Into Our Schools
Music grants are largely funded by the annual Mead Road Mardi Gras Parade and Party organized by Decatur residents and band enthusiasts Emily and David Berg and hosted by the Oakhurst neighborhood every winter. The homegrown event brings the sights, sounds and tastes of New Orleans while raising money for CSD music grants. To date, the event has raised approximately $40,000 for new music, equipment, and instruments.
Teachers may apply for a music grant for anything pertaining to musical instruction or musical theatre production.
FEATURED IMPACT STORY
Did you know that there are six different band ensembles at Decatur High School? As…
All of the students at Westchester Elementary can! Music teacher Kristen Gwaltney was awarded a…
With the explosive growth of the musical theater program at Decatur High School, Musical Theatre…
Who knew that singing and dancing about an adorable Spanish-speaking cockroach would bring the whole…
Winnona Park Elementary music teacher Cindy Clark noticed that many of her students were not…
F.AVE music teacher Nick Brooks wanted to bring World Music Drumming curriculum to his fourth…
The Renfroe Middle School Band was in need of a new euphonium, (a brass instrument…
Help Give Our Classrooms A Boost
Do you love the idea of empowering teachers to bring fresh new ideas (and sounds) to the classroom? What about replacing 40-year-old band instruments with shiny new ones? Your gift to DEF helps fund our teacher innovation grants and our music grants – and every penny counts.
To support arts-infusion grants donate here.