Digi-Block Annual Grant Program
The Digi-Block® Grant Program offers teachers and teacher groups the opportunity to apply for materials and training for their school or classroom. These may include curriculum development and implementation projects, staff development and training, after-school programs or co-curricular activities and innovative assessment techniques using the Digi-Block Program.
Digi-Block Announces 2008 Grant Recipients
2008 grant places curriculum and materials in four schools; first grant given to a specialized school
Cambridge, MA (March 1, 2008) - Digi-Block is pleased to announce four grant recipients for the 2008 grant, two more than originally planned. This year Digi-Block offered two grants: one for $2,500 in Digi-Block materials and training and the second for $1,500 in Digi-Block materials and training. The first grant was increased to $4,000 and two additional grants of $500 each were also awarded. "Because of the number of excellent applications we received this year, we again decided to increase the amount of support we have been giving to teachers who really want these materials in their classroom," said Kate Damon, a member of the Digi-Block grant committee.
Digi-Block is also pleased to announce that a grant has been awarded to a school for students with autism, the first grant given to a specialized school. "This is very exciting," said Peggy Akin, author of Above & Beyond with Digi-Block Mathematics, a curriculum written for students with significant cognitive disabilities, which has shown to be very effective in teaching mathematics to students with autism, as well as students with MOMR and MIMR. "I remember meeting the director of the VIA [Virginia Institute of Autism] in Charlottesville [at the Virginia Council for Exceptional Children conference] and having a wonderful discussion about his school and how Digi-Block would help his students. When I heard they had been selected for the grant, I was in a happy state of shock - I hadn't even known they applied!"
The 2007-2008 grant recipients are:
Virginia Institute of Autism, Charlottesville, VA - $4,000 Recipient
Digi-Block is pleased to award the first grant to “Above and Beyond Autism,” proposed by Amanda Wadsworth and Rorie Hutter, teachers at the Virginia Institute of Autism (VIA) in Charlottesville, VA. VIA is a non-profit school and outreach center providing a comprehensive, outcomes-based education to children with autism. VIA is committed to using evidence-based approaches. In both their application and acceptance of the grant, Ms. Wadsworth and Ms. Hutter expressed the need for an appropriate math curriculum for their students, saying, “Digi-Block is innovative in that language is not a barrier to utilization and provides the hands-on visual support many of our students need. We also find the system’s focus on concepts rather than memorization appealing… Consistent with our individualized approach, the mathematics objectives for each student will vary based on each child’s needs. Addition, subtraction, and money skills are typical areas of focus for our students’ math objectives, and the Digi-Block curriculum will provide a way of understanding the conceptual basis for these applied skills.”
The Virginia Institute of Autism first discovered Digi-Block at the Virginia Council for Exceptional Children conference in Charlottesville this past October. The school will receive one day of training in addition to $2,500 in curriculum and materials.
Taneytown Elementary School, Carroll County Public Schools, MD - $1,500 Recipient
The second Digi-Block Grant is awarded to “Digi-Block: A Bridge to Conceptual Understanding,” proposed by Rachel Burke from Taneytown Elementary School, a Title I school in Taneytown, MD. The 2006-2007 Maryland State Department of Education report indicated that their third, fourth, and fifth graders were below average in math. Ms. Burke wrote, “Through my experience working with third grade math students, it is evident that [many of] Taneytown’s students lack number sense and conceptual understanding of mathematics. This leaves all teachers of mathematics with the lingering question, ‘What tool can I use to bridge the gap between concrete and abstract understanding?’” When a math resource teacher learned about Digi-Block, Ms. Burke wrote, “the need and want for this resource [was] overwhelming in our school.” Taneytown Elementary, which chose to receive Blocks and Demonstration Counters, has three plans for their new Digi-Block materials: classroom instruction as part of the regular math curriculum, small group instruction with the math resource teacher, and as part of their afterschool math intervention program.
Taneytown joins a long and growing list of Digi-Block schools in the State of Maryland, where leadership and cooperation across schools have made Digi-Block a well-known and sought after resource. Math resource teacher Melissa Gotard of Winfield Elementary School, also in Carroll County, received a $1,000 Digi-Block grant last year and also attended the 2007 Summer Institute.
Carl Cozier Elementary School, Bellingham School District #501, Bellingham, WA - $500 Recipient
Digi-Block is pleased to award two additional grant awards of $500 each. The first $500 grant is awarded to Kevin Quinn from the Carl Cozier Elementary School in Bellingham, WA. Mr. Quinn is a committed first grade teacher and enthusiastic math professional development leader in his school. He writes, “One of the greatest things about the blocks is that they allow the students to see the math happen (as your motto suggests). Students are able to communicate what they are doing to solve problems and they begin to visualize this same process mentally while they master the math.”
Mr. Quinn first saw Digi-Block about a year ago on an Annenberg video and immediately recognized the advantages of Digi-Block's accurate base-10 model. He purchased a small amount of materials on his own to use with his students. Over the past year, Mr. Quinn has continued to add materials to his classroom. With this grant, he has more than enough materials for his students. Mr. Quinn plans to share his materials with the other teachers in his school so they can all work together to model place value, operations, and decimals effectively and consistently. He adds, “Within our grade level expectations, the scope and sequence suggests that place value be taught (in depth) when kids enter the second grade. Having Digi-Block has helped my first graders understand the base-10 number system and develop effective strategies for double digit addition and subtraction. Indeed, place value should be started at the Kindergarten level so that children can begin building the skills necessary for mathematical thinking in the grades beyond.”
Daniel D. Waterman Elementary School, Cranston Public Schools, RI - $500 Recipient
The second $500 grant goes to “Your Place or Mine?” submitted by Gail DeRobbio from the Waterman Elementary School in Cranston, RI. Ms. DeRobbio is a dedicated fourth grade teacher with a diverse range of learners in an inclusion classroom. She writes, “These materials will support students to make sense of mathematics and to focus on computational fluency with whole numbers. Digi-Block will engage a whole range of learners in truly understanding the mathematical concepts. The program can be used to assist students… in uncovering the relationship between 10 ones and 1 ten and between 10 tens and 1 hundred. Digi-Block is the most effective way to help my students acquire the meaning of place value and to see numbers composing and decomposing in mathematical operations.” Her principal, Don Cowart, echoed, “Her students will benefit from this hands-on approach to teaching number sense. Digi-Block strikes me as a program that could be used effectively as part of any program or curriculum…. In an educational environment where schools are challenged to do more with less, the Digi-Block Grant Program comes to the Waterman School at the right time.”
Look for the next annual grant application to be posted in the fall. If you are on the E-newsletter list, you will receive an announcement.
Read about past recipients of the Digi-Block Program
