The Hood River County Education Foundation created the Impact Teaching Grants program to help Hood River County School District educators fund ideas that would not normally be covered by the HRCSD budget. Impact Teaching Grants have funded projects across the district — from microscopes to mountain bikes, and art galleries to robotics programs. Since the program’s inception, the Impact Teaching Grants program has provided over $775,000 through 470 grant awards for our schools.
Our goal is to help educators bring their innovative teaching ideas to life.
Impact Teaching Grants are open to any Hood River County School District teacher or staff member.
Growing With Hydroponic Tower
"Mid Valley students will be able to participate in the hands-on process of growing food from a seed to preparing it to eat. Throughout this process, students will be able to develop critical thinking and collaborative problem-solving skills and will be able to reflect on the importance of environmental stewardship and sustainability. … The hydroponic tower project, even in its early implementation stages, has been the talk of the town. The first day that it was built and set up in the corner of the cafeteria, students pointed and tried to guess what it was (a spaceship? a robot? a plastic tree?). When I first turned on the LED lights as a demo, the whole cafeteria filled with oohs and ahhs. I look forward to seeing what students decide to grow and what they are willing to taste test!"
Native Arts, Beading Craft On The Loom & Off Loom
"Being part of our community means interacting with our community in all capacities, the state of Oregon has emphasized teaching and learning about Native American Culture. We implemented this in our Art classes. We invited 3 local native beading artists to share their lives with us, their stories, and their history. our students connected with this native craft and were encouraged to make it their own, to realize that this art form can be as much theirs as it would be another's, but to hone their own artist voice in the process to listen to who you are inside, and the world around. and to tell their story through the art."
Spanish Books for Bilingual Literacy
With the help of the HRCEF Impact Teaching Grant the Mid Valley Elementary bilingual program at second grade was able to give Spanish literacy equal footing to English literacy in our classroom. We now have access to quality literature in Spanish that engages and motivates students to read. … Motivation to read engaging and fun books in Spanish is much higher than last year simply do to access.