Celebrating bright ideas

At Inde­pen­dence Ele­men­tary School in Rock Hill, mem­bers of the “Geek Squad” are learn­ing prop­er dig­i­tal cit­i­zen­ship on social media. The extracur­ric­u­lar tech­nol­o­gy club is the idea of teacher Robert Hamm. Hamm is one of 12 local teach­ers to receive a Bright Ideas grant from York Elec­tric and its Oper­a­tion Round Up trust. In Octo­ber, a team of employ­ees and Trust board mem­bers select­ed the 12 recip­i­ents. A total of $20,000 was giv­en out to sup­port Bright Ideas grants for up to $1,000, along with an addi­tion­al 23 Ama­zon Wish­list ful­fill­ment nom­i­na­tions for up to $500 for class­room sup­plies. Teach­ers were noti­fied in Novem­ber and Decem­ber by in-per­son vis­its, calls and emails to rec­og­nize their achieve­ments.

Bright Ideas grants were award­ed to projects that will cre­ate a pos­i­tive learn­ing envi­ron­ment that is both fun and edu­ca­tion­al for stu­dents. Addi­tion­al­ly, teach­ers were nom­i­nat­ed by their peers and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers to receive Wish­list ful­fill­ments.

By sup­port­ing inno­va­tion and cre­ativ­i­ty, YEC and the Oper­a­tion Trust board help to make local teach­ers’ dreams a real­i­ty and learn­ing more engag­ing for stu­dents.

Grants are avail­able to all teach­ers with­in York Elec­tric Cooperative’s ser­vice ter­ri­to­ry, kinder­garten through 12th grade. If you are a local teacher inter­est­ed in apply­ing for the Bright Ideas Grant Pro­gram for the 2024/2025 school year, the online appli­ca­tion will be open on June 28.

Ama­zon Wish­list Ful­fill­ment Recip­i­ents

• Natal­ie Ashe, 5th Grade Eng­lish and Social Stud­ies
• Kay­la Black­well, 5th Grade Math and Sci­ence
• Beth Bridges, 5th and 6th Grade Spe­cial Edu­ca­tion
• Madi­son Bryant, 7th and 8th Grade Spe­cial Edu­ca­tion
• Meli­na Burkell, 8th–12th Biol­o­gy, Anato­my and Phys­i­ol­o­gy
• Kathryn Burt, 4th Grade Math and Sci­ence
• Stephanie Cas­ton, Kinder­garten
• Angela Cov­ing­ton, 9th–12th Grade Engi­neer­ing Path­way
• Hayleigh Ful­ton, 2nd Grade
• MaryAsh­ley Gil­fil­lan, 4K
• Aman­da Heck­ert, Kinder­garten-3rd Grade
• Scot­tee Horne, Spe­cial Edu­ca­tion Mul­ti-Lev­el III
• Kim­ber­ly Long, Kinder­garten Spe­cial Set­tings
• Janet Maslankows­ki, Kindergarten–5th Grade Spe­cial Edu­ca­tion
• Court­ney Mont­gomery, 1st Grade Math, Read­ing, His­to­ry and Sci­ence
• Sharon Mor­ri­son, 11th–12th Grade Cal­cu­lus
• Tier­ney Nor­ris, 5th Grade Math
• Dawn O’Donnell, 6th Grade Math
• Michelle Sanders, 2nd–6th Grade Spe­cial Edu­ca­tion
• Kim­ber­ly Tay­lor, 2nd Grade
• Kaicee Thomas­son, 9th–12th Grade Math
• Bran­di Willis, 5th Grade Sci­ence and Social Stud­ies
• Brae­lyn Young, 4th Grade

2023 Bright Ideas Grant Recip­i­ents
Pho­tos by Erin Pow­ell

 

 

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