Jane Thom – Monte Cristo Elementary – Granite Falls School District
Project title: “Ignite the Learning”
Jane Thom is a special education teacher in the Granite Falls School District. Part of her job involves working with high needs developmental pre-school students including those who are deaf and blind. Jane knew she was going to be an educator from the age of five years old and she now holds two M.Ed. degrees in education and a deaf teaching certification.
Last year, when COVID forced our schools into remote learning, Jane and a newly hired preschool teacher worked together to create social-emotional Zoom sessions for their students. They created weekly circle Zooms with themed packets for families to follow along at home. They Zoomed with students four days a week, but Jane said, “It’s really hard to capture a 3-4-year-olds attention via Zoom. And it is extra hard to collect data over Zoom, especially when you’re looking at the student’s feet, belly buttons, or dogs.” Jane noted that although it was challenging the students did make satisfactory progress.
Then Jane heard about the “Ignites” app by Hatch. The app captures anything the kids do on the platform and those activities get logged into a database and the results can be tracked to assess a student’s progress. Jane spent a lot of time researching the application. when Melanie Freeman, Granite Falls School district Communications lead sent the Ellison grant opportunity, Jane knew she had to apply. with the grant funding Jane plans to purchase 20 tablets that swipe (which is beneficial for fine motor skills) with the Ignites app by the start of the school year.
Four NWESD Schools were named as 2021 recipients of Ellison Education Grants. This year the foundation funded 15 grants worth $75,000.
