ALBANY, Ga.– Tuesday, in a ceremony at Merry Acres Middle School, Ms. Chateireya Fordham, a science teacher, was presented with a grant of $10,000 for her proposal for a high-tech classroom transformation. This grant is funded by Ed Farm, an Alabama-based non-profit working to equip educators with innovative tools and strategies to support active learning.
Fordham was presented with a giant check, amid cheers and applause from her colleagues at the school, by Superintendent Kenneth Dyer and Ed Farm Spaces Learning Innovations Director Daniel Whitt. Fordham was selected from among a group of Ed Farm Educational Fellows who each had submitted proposals for how they would spend the funds, if awarded.
Fordham said she intends to utilize the funds to build a makerspace within her classroom. This creative hub will provide students the avenue to freely pursue their creativity, dive deep into projects that align with their interests, and access the most advanced technological tools available. The goal is not just to impart knowledge but to kindle curiosity and foster a spirit of innovation among students.
“It’s my goal that this opportunity will allow the students to be more creative both in and outside of the classroom,” Fordham said following the announcement. “I’m very thankful and grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Ed Farm program. This partnership with the DCSS is tremendous. I think the students will be well impacted by this grant and they’re going to get an opportunity to use technology they wouldn’t have a chance to otherwise.”
Fordham was awarded the grant after Dr. Michele Sizemore, the district’s Secondary Science Content Coordinator, originally won the grant at Ed Farm’s Future of Learning Summit in Birmingham. Sizemore, who doesn’t have a classroom, elected to provide the grant to a participant in Ed Farm’s Educational Fellows program who submitted the top proposal for how they’d use the grant if awarded.
“Ms. Fordham is representative of the kind of educators we’ve found here in Doco,” Whitt said. “The energy and creativity shown by the fellows here has just been amazing. Over the last year we’ve been really impressed with how the district and the teachers here have really embraced a lot of the concepts and strategies that are really providing Dougherty County School System students with access to some exciting technology and skills that will put them ahead of many of their peers.”
This grant is the latest piece of an innovative partnership between Ed Farm and the Dougherty County School System, who created its Doco-Codes initiative one year ago, to encourage students and educators to rethink how leading edge technology could be blended with a rigorous and relevant curriculum.
In kicking off Tuesday’s announcement, Dyer said that the partnership is one way the district is making a deliberate effort to provide students with new and innovative opportunities to succeed in a modern world.