Teaching Grants

Battle of the Books consists of students reading as many books throughout the school year as possible with a goal of deep discussion and understanding of the material. Students meet regularly throughout the year to talk about each month’s book. At the end of the year, each school team faces off against the other six elementary school teams in Lakewood. The teams buzz in to answer questions in an Academic Challenge type of face off. The two teams with the most points participate in the final battle to determine a winner.

The Kindergarteners, along with their first-grade “buddies” at Grant Elementary School, were able to take four field trips during the 2023-24 school year. They visited the Children’s Museum of Cleveland, Playhouse Square, an apple farm, and the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.  On their trips, they encountered a variety of new experiences and shared in the fun with their classmates.  To provide all students, regardless of socioeconomic background,  with an experience to better prepare them for life, the field trips allowed the kids to communicate, collaborate, and think critically while engaging in their community. 

Over 50 students in grades 10-12 participated in the Stock Market Game during the 2023-2024 school year. The Game consists of a simulation where teams of students invest $100,000 into the stock market over a 10-week period. The students then compete with teams from other schools to make the best investments. While participating in the game, students learn about the stock market and investing while also working towards a common goal. Together, they commiserate losses and celebrate their gains.

Pre-K Food Explorers: An exploration of healthy foods using the five senses is a program implemented by the Pre-K team at Taft.  An early introduction to healthy foods is key in helping kids develop healthy eating habits. Therefore, the Pre-K Food Explorers program exposed students to different types of foods and encouraged them to use their senses to touch, squish, smell, and examine the food using a magnifying glass. With help from LREF, this fun, engaging program is helping to build a healthy foundation for the students.

CREATURES in the Classroom allows for students with significant cognitive disabilities in the Moving to Independent Learning for Employment and Success (MILES) Unit at LHS to interact with a variety of animals and provides them with diverse opportunities to explore nature. The students learn about and care for animals within the classroom setting. Their knowledge gives them the opportunity to become teachers themselves as they share what they have learned with other students. Cory Streets, a moderate -intensive intervention specialist at LHS and implementer of the program says, “CREATURES in the Classroom has ignited the passion of all of the students who have worked with or cared for the animals.”

According to 8th grade teacher, Alina Sandoval, “Getting to experience the natural beauty our state has to offer in this hands-on learning environment is one of the best ways for our students to grasp the curriculum.” The Nelson Ledges Filed trip offered all 8th grade students at Garfield Middle School the opportunity to witness constructive and destructive processes, erosion and deposition, as well as a chance to use rock layers as a tool for determining age, while supporting things like evolutionary theory, heredity, photosynthesis, and cellular respiration. The Nelson Ledges Field Trip is an opportunity for students to see and learn about Ohio’s natural creations while also broadening their life experiences.

Hayes's second and third-grade students participated in multiple activities throughout the year to help them truly understand the “Vision of a Lakewood Graduate”.  The activities ranged from making “kindness kits” for unhoused individuals and selling slime to benefit a local animal shelter, both projects encouraging empathy, collaboration, communication, and global awareness, to participating in an activity to learn about wind power and the importance of a growth mindset. Each project was accompanied by an assortment of reading and video materials to further help the young students internalize the LCSD competencies.  

Both the 6th and 8th-grade science classes at Garfiled Middle School expressed their interest and desire to have a classroom pet and their teacher, Lisa Andrasak was on board.  To start, she was able to set up an aquarium and fill it with fish.  After that, her classes researched the necessary items for raising a bearded dragon.  They purchased and set up a habitat for the dragon, who will hopefully arrive for the 24-25 school year.  Having a classroom pet has taught the children about the classification of animals based on their characteristics and the evolution and adaptation of animals to survive. The pets have also taught the students valuable skills like empathy, respect, and responsibility. 

Garfield’s Colleen Gromek brought the Cleveland Museum of Art’s “Art to Go” Program to the seventh graders at Garfield Middle School.  Educators from the Cleveland Museum of Art brought 6-12 artworks to share for lecture and discussion. The experience prompted students to think critically, make connections between them and the ancient world, and develop a deeper understanding of history.

After the successful completion of the ROX (Ruling Our eXperiences) Program last year at Harding Middle School, 13 alumni were invited to participate in the ROX Leadership Team.  As a member of the Leadership Team, the girls participated in lessons and special projects throughout the school year that reinforced the skills they had learned in the previous program like healthy communication and relationships, how to handle bullying,  personal safety, and career development and also provided them the opportunity to move into leadership roles within the school and mentor younger students.  The program also created a safe environment for the girls to share personal experiences through discussion and activities.

Over 150 eighth-grade students at Garfield Middle School attended a field trip to downtown Cleveland that focused on the lives, work, and sacrifices of African Americans throughout United States history.  The group visited the Federal Reserve Bank, Soldier’s and Sailor’s Monument, and Playhouse Square for a performance called The Unauthorized Biography Series.  The cultural experience offered the students a new and unique perspective aside from the typical classroom curriculum.

More than 30 middle school students met weekly after school to participate in the Garfield Yoga Club from September through May. The students were guided in breathing techniques, mindfulness, and yoga poses by a certified Yoga Instructor. The club offered a safe space for students to be still, reflect, breathe, move, and feel supported. New yoga mats, blocks, lotions, snacks, and other supplies were purchased to create equity and inclusion among the groups participants.

Groups of 8-10 students per grade level, K-5, were chosen to meet weekly at lunch for Recess Club.  Through collaboration, creative thinking, planning, and evaluating, the students voted and chose activities to facilitate for their entire grade level in the following days. The Recess club provided the children the opportunity to build Social Emotional Learning (SEL) skills through play. The students in all grades at Grant benefitted from this unique opportunity.

The Gardening Club was created by Harding teachers, Mary Lynn Janas, Stephen Kerney, and Lisa Batkiewicz, as part of the Vision of a Lakewood Graduate in the areas of collaboration and global citizenship. The club provided a collaborative social opportunity for students to beautify the campus and promote school pride.  Through club participation, students researched plants and gardening best practices, shared gardening experiences with other club members, and prepared garden beds, weeded, and planted around the school grounds.  The hard work of the club members was visible in the beautiful plants and flowers that all students, staff, and visitors of Harding got to share.

For the past 13 years, LREF has funded the Soccer Club at Garfield Middle School.  With LREF funding, Joshua Thornsberry headed up the club with over 90 members, many with an English as a Second Language (ESL) background.  The club provided hours of after-school physical activity along with t-shirts, equipment, and healthy snacks.  Soccer Club serves as a middle school highlight for many students who look forward to it every year.  

Emerson third-grade students partnered with the Lakewood Division of Aging at Cove Community Center to conduct quarterly interviews with seniors. This allowed students to learn from Lakewood’s most experienced citizens and for the two groups to form an intergenerational connection. Students also had the opportunity to strengthen their writing and social skills through this unique project. At the end of the school year, an intergenerational luncheon was held at which third graders shared their published interviews.  This project helped students develop interpersonal relationship skills and incorporated social studies and language arts curricula.

Diverse Universe is a school club that meets to promote a safe place where self-expression is celebrated and welcomed.  The club meetings were spent gathering, exploring, and discussing diversity, identity, justice, and inclusivity. Through guest speakers, fundraisers, and the creation of video announcements and displays, the students in Diverse Universe became empowered and learned the importance of acceptance, empathy, and action.

Middle School Mock Trial is one of the cornerstone projects for students in advanced 7th

and 8th grade English Language Arts (ELA) in the Lakewood City schools. Last year, the students focused on a specific court case forcing them to use critical thinking skills and teamwork strategies in conjunction with reading and persuasive writing skills to research, develop, and debate their position on the case. The students also learned about the legal system, public speaking skills, and how to think on their feet. Their work culminated in a trip to the Ohio Supreme Court in Columbus where they competed against other middle school students from across the state in a mock trial. The 2023/24 team gave it their all and took home multiple honors.

Using a software system called Class Equity, the fourth and fifth-grade teaching team at Hayes implemented a consistent schedule of earning rewards and enforced universal behavioral expectations of the students, regardless of which class the child might be in at any given time.  The student’s positive behaviors earned them virtual money used weekly to purchase items from a class store.  This system provided the teachers and students with an additional structure to identify positive behaviors that rewarded the student every time classroom requirements were completed.  Students also used the software to monitor their online banking and track their earnings.  Implementing the Class Equity software provided the students with positive behavior reinforcement and real-world money management skills. 

The importance of hands-on experiences to reinforce classroom learning is not lost on the teachers in the science department at Garfield Middle School.  With this knowledge, the entire eighth grade took a trip to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and Rainforest.  There, the students noted the environments and adaptations that were made to meet the needs of each animal.  Not only was the trip plain old fun but it was a chance to see what the kids have been studying in class in a real-life setting.