MCEF Celebrates Local Teachers’ Creativity In The Classroom

Thursday morning nearly 100 county educators and students joined the Montgomery County Educational Foundation to share innovative or creative projects implemented in their classrooms this year. Projects presented were funded by MCEF’s Teacher Grant program, which distributes nearly $25,000 per year to Pre-K through 12th grade public school teachers in the county.

The foundation’s president, Phil Boots, welcomed grant recipients and their students to breakfast and shared thanks to representatives from the Montgomery County Community Foundation, the primary contributing funder of the Teacher Grant program.

MCEF was also fortunate to receive donations from Valero Renewal Fuels and Hoosier Heartland State Bank that allowed additional grants this year.

This years’ recipients used grant funds to implement technology software into music education, purchase new instruments needed to engage more learners at once, encourage a love for reading, connect students to college mentors, and purchase resources to gamify math learning, to name a few.

“Our hope is that these grants will help remove some of the limitations our teachers face in carrying out all their great ideas. We really love to see proposals that will enhance learning by incorporating new technology, creative approaches to teaching the subject matter, and making learning more fun. We’ve also been happy to fund some very practical purchases that have a big impact on large numbers of students, such as a digital keyboard or a tubano drum for our music classrooms.” Said Cassie Hagan, MCEF board member. “We really enjoy seeing what the students have learned at the breakfast each year. For those of us who do not work in PK-12 education, it’s so powerful to see the students demonstrate how the grants have opened doors for learning.”

Montgomery County teachers can apply for the next round of grant funding through April 17, 2023 online at mcef-in.org. Samples of previously funded projects and resources for preparing a grant proposal can be found online as well. Grants are awarded up to $1000 per teacher per year, or multiple teachers can collaborate on interdisciplinary proposals.

If anyone is interested in donating to MCEF for to assist in future teacher grants, you can visit our website at mcef-in.org or mail your donation to MCEF, PO Box 642, Crawfordsville, IN 47933