Teacher Grants
Teacher Grants Take Education Beyond the Textbook
For 20 years, Partners has given grants to teachers for innovative, creative, curriculum-based classroom projects that the school district can’t afford to fund. Last year, Partners gave out $77,000 to 95 teachers for projects.
What does this money do? Here are just a few examples:
- Students at Tesuque Elementary School put on a Science Fair and Science Discovery Night, inviting family members to participate.
- All 260 Atalaya students, from kindergarten through sixth grade, plus staff, teachers and parents, explored the culture of Japan from folk tales to calligraphy, haiku to tea ceremonies.
- Special education students at Capital High School gained career and business skills through the Barkery, a bakery that makes dog treats. Sales of the dog biscuits help to fund the program throughout the year.
- Young residential students at the New Mexico School for the Deaf received boxes of new books to read at bedtime.
- Medically fragile and physically impaired students at Agua Fria Elementary were able to experience movement in new ways in a therapeutic water program at the Chavez Center. Special education teacher Carolina Rivera wrote: “The physical therapist, who has been working with these children for many years, saw two of the children walk for the first time ever in the water.”
Support for the Teacher Grants Program comes from partners including Thornburg Companies, Buckaroo Ball, PNM, The Santa Fe Association of Realtors, Santa Maria de la Paz, the Santa Fe Council on International Relations, McDowell Construction, and dozens of individual donors.