ENHANCES LEARNING FOR XENIA COMMUNITY STUDENTS ALLOWS CREATIVE IDEAS TO BE PUT INTO PRACTICE OVER $21,000 WAS AWARDED TO CLASSROOM TEACHERS FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR. Xenia Community Schools Foundation Grants Program

Renaissance Learning—Accelerated Reader Enterprise Stephanie Johnston $13, Thanks to the Foundation, Stephanie Johnston was able to purchase Accelerated Reader for all the elementaries.

Accelerated Reader All elementaries are competing to see which school can read the most books. Current standings are pictured to the right. Accelerated Reader is a reading program where students read books, take quizzes, and earn points. Books that are more challenging earn more points.

Raise a Reader Kay Gerspacher $2,000 Kay Gerspacher is the head librarian for Xenia Community Schools. With the funds for the Raise a Reader grant, she purchased a variety of books for beginning readers. In an effort to support teachers with the Common Core State Standards, Kay ordered many nonfiction books stating: “Nonfiction is so much better today then when I was little. These books have great picture support, which young readers need.”

Raise a Reader “With the adoption of the new Common Core State Standards, students are reading more and more nonfiction texts. My class and I were very excited to read the new nonfiction books that recently arrived at our library. During our science unit on living things, the students read and wrote about the parts of a plant. The first graders were able to use the new books that were purchased from this grant to learn more about roots, stems, leaves, and flowers.” -Denise Garrett

Raise a Reader Pictured left is Kelley Wright, who is the librarian at McKinley elementary. She is sharing one of the new stories with a kindergarten class.

Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Kay Gerspacher $2,000 Kay Gerspacher was able to increase the middle school’s library circulation by purchasing new books with help from the Xenia Foundation. “It is nice to put new books in the hands of kids” Kay commented.

Top Shelf Fiction This year in particular, the middle school has a large population of readers. Having books to appeal to a wide variety of interests helps to make young readers into life long readers.

Top Shelf Fiction Rachel Deramus (pictured right) gave a book talk to her peers about R is for Rachel. Rachel mentioned, “If you want to know how it ends, you have got to read it yourself.”

Top Shelf Fiction Teachers at Central Middle School are getting in on the excitement of having new books too. Pictured above is a bulletin board display featuring book reviews for many of the new books. Students wrote reviews to entice other classmates to read the books as well. The playful title is parodied off of the popular hit song, Call Me Maybe, by Carly Rae Jepsen.

Xenia High School Chemistry Club Bill Richey $700 Bill Richey runs the high school’s Chemistry Club. It is the largest extracurricular club at the high school. Mr. Richey makes the students excited about science and makes learning fun. “He is my favorite teacher,” one student boasted. With funds from the Xenia Foundation, Bill Richey bought materials for the high school Chemistry Club to create a science show that would turn kids on to science.

Xenia High School Chemistry Club The Chemistry Club visits each of the district’s elementaries for an hour and a half session. The first part of the visit involves a show that the club members wrote and performed. This year’s topic is about what would happen if Phineas and Ferb met Einstein.

Xenia High School Chemistry Club After the show, the elementary students go back to their classrooms where Chemistry Club teams lead the students in a science activity. The chemistry club shares a story with each classroom, and then, performs a demonstration.

Xenia High School Chemistry Club The students get to experiment with the science concepts too!

Leveled Literacy in the Middle Jennifer Chapman $1,000 Jen Chapman co-teaches Language Arts at Central Middle School. She knows that all learners do not read on the same level and believes strongly that the students need books in their hands that is appropriate for their reading level. With funds from the Foundation, Mrs. Chapman was able to buy books of varying complexities to reach all learners in her classroom.

Leveled Literacy in the Middle Mrs. Chapman likes the Guided Reading program used in the elementaries and wanted to adopt a similar approach to reading at the middle school. By providing leveled books on similar themes, Jen is able to differentiate lessons based on each student’s level of readiness. Here you see students interacting with text specifically prescribed for their learning needs.

Independent Learning Centers Katie Cronin $355 Katie Cronin is a kindergarten teacher at Arrowood Elementary. Centers are a great instructional strategy for keeping students engaged. She was happy to purchase a variety of premade centers that targeted specific skills for today’s kindergartener.

5 th Grade Book Club Jill Miller $200 Jill Miller purchased multiple copies of high interest books with funds from the Xenia Foundation. Fifth grade students brought their lunches to the library and discussed the various novels over their lunch and recess times.

Bright Buccaneer Club Kathy Patterson $194 Kathy Patterson is an intervention specialist at Central Middle School. Her Bright Buccaneer Club is geared toward helping students who struggle. She developed a Check In/Check Out System. This system allows for students to make contact with an adult each day and to make sure he or she has the needed materials to meet with success. Students can earn rewards for demonstrating responsible behavior over a consecutive number of days.

Our Heartfelt Thanks Thank you Xenia Community Foundation for helping us to better serve our students!