Broken Arrow Teachers Reach Out For Funding

The stress on education funding is cutting into supplies for classrooms.

Some teachers are getting relief by reaching out directly to donors.

The teachers at Lynn Wood Elementary in Broken Arrow have been especially successful using a program called Donors Choose to get grant money for their classrooms. 

Last year they submitted 47 grants and got almost $15,000 in classroom supplies.

Lindsey Little teaches special ed, and when she needed chairs for fidgety students, she wrote a grant.

She has stocked her classroom primarily through grant writing.

Little, a Broken Arrow Teacher, said, "I think the kids enjoy more when they learn by playing games, maybe technology, when every day it's something different instead of just paper pencil."

She uses a lot of what teachers call "manipulatives", learning tools children can hold and move, to help her students learn.
    
She alone has been awarded 23 grants, averaging $200 each, through Donors Choose, after being encouraged by her first try.

"Within 24 hours my very first grant was funded." Little said.

Down the hall, Kellie Miller has students combing wool and spinning yarn.
    
She teaches social studies with a focus on Colonial history and finds that if children can do some of the things they're reading about, they understand it better.
    
Any teacher can apply through Donors Choose, and some grants, for literacy projects, are matched locally though the education philanthropy Impact Tulsa.
     
In many classrooms, grants are making a difference, but few places have done more to tap into grants than this one school.

For more information about how to apply for grants through Donors Choose, visit the Impact Tulsa website.