WGU Missouri awards more than $6,500 in grants to Joplin-area teachers

Joplin, MO – Five preK-12 teachers from the Joplin area have received grants totaling $6,510 through WGU Missouri’s “Fund My Classroom” initiative. The grants will be used to fund innovative classroom projects that foster learning in new, unique ways. The five teachers who received the funding from the Joplin area include:

• Michaela Brown, second-grade teacher at Benton Elementary School in Neosho, who received a $450 grant to implement a diverse social studies curriculum in her classroom and purchase books that go along with the curriculum.
• Laurea Patterson, a science teacher at Diamond High School in the Diamond R-IV School District, who received a $5,000 grant to create an outdoor classroom at the school for students to experience hands-on lessons in ecology and botany.
• Chrissy Plumlee, a special education teacher at Carl Junction Intermediate School in Carl Junction, who received a $500 grant to create a task box system her fourth, fifth and sixth grade students can use to learn certain skills and work as independently as possible.
• Lydia Rohner, a communication arts and keyboarding teacher at East Middle School in Joplin, who received a $60 grant to purchase a set of stretchy resistance fidget bands to go around the feet of each student’s chair in the hopes that they will make it easier for students to concentrate and focus for longer periods of time.
• Lisa Whitaker – a communication, behavior, social skills and safety classroom teacher at Joplin Early Childhood – who received a $500 grant to create “play together” backpacks that contain a variety of simple books, toys, finger play songs, and sensory items to engage preschool children with developmental delays in multiple areas of learning.

The innovative classroom projects were among 52 in Missouri and 23 in Kansas chosen by WGU Missouri to receive funding. The nonprofit university issued a call in March for K-12 teachers across the area to nominate proposed classroom projects for the opportunity to receive full or partial funding through its “Fund My Classroom” initiative. More than 400 nominations were received. Most grants were awarded during Teacher Appreciation Week, which ran from May 3 – 7.

“We were happy to read about all the amazing projects our teachers have planned and are excited we can bring so many to life through our ‘Fund My Classroom’ initiative,” said Dr. Angie Besendorfer, Chancellor of WGU Missouri. “This past year has been a challenging one for both teachers and students as they were forced to adapt to new styles of teaching and learning. This initiative is an opportunity for WGU to celebrate teachers and thank them for their dedication to educating and positively impacting their students, while enhancing learning for students – both in and out of the classroom.”

To learn more about the “Fund My Classroom” initiative and the work WGU Missouri is doing to help teachers advance their careers, visit missouri.wgu.edu.