Anthiel students Morgan Cliver, Abigail Singer, Cameron Jones and Andrew Piotrowski show off the Kindle readers that the school obtained through a grant from the Ewing Public Education Foundation.
Ewing Public Education Foundation grant funds Kindles for Antheil Elementary
By Lacey Ross
Students at Antheil Elementary have a new reason to read this year.
Thanks to a $3,560 grant from the Ewing Public Education Foundation, 40 Kindles have been purchased for the school’s use to improve literacy and cultivate a culture of reading among its students.
The EPEF is a non-profit organization that raises money through individual and corporate donations to provide grants to the Ewing Public School System.
According to Ewing resident Steve Szmutko, who is president of the EPEF, the grant was one of 26 that the foundation provided for the district last year. In total, the organization gave out more than $38,000 in grants to the district during the 2012-2013 school year.
The idea for the Kindle grant was a collaboration between former Antheil Principal Joan Zuckerman and Ewing resident and parent Scott Franks, who is also a member of the Board of Trustees for the EPEF.
Carol Levin, of Yardley, Pa., teaches computer literacy at Antheil Elementary. She wrote and submitted the grant for the Kindles, which was approved in the spring of 2012. The Kindles were received in January 2013 and are shared throughout all of the grade levels. The e-readers, she said, allow students reading on all different levels access to more books.
“It was hoped that the use of technology would spark interest in our reluctant or struggling readers,” she said.
The Kindles, which Levin said are solely used in the classrooms, are part of a school-wide literacy incentive called “Reading Around the World.” The goal is to build excitement around reading and encourage students to read books across all content areas.
“We travel the world learning about continents, which incorporates Social Studies concepts,” she said. “Classes that earn 100 percent reading participation have a ‘Kindle Korner’ for the month in the classroom.”
The district is paying to fund downloads from a site called Overdrive, which allows schools to manage downloads used on classroom e-books, according to Lavin.
Margaret Sciarrotta, of Newtown, Pa., is a first-grade teacher who has been using the Kindles in her classroom. Sciarrotta, who grew up in Ewing and attended Antheil as a child, said she is happy to welcome the use of Kindles, since they present a new opportunity to get students reading.
“The students are very motivated to read with them because they feel it is something different and special,” she said.
Sciarrotta keeps the Kindles nestled in a basket in one of the classroom closets, where kids can access them during reading time.
“Each kindle has a number,” she said. “I explained to the children they must use the same kindle all the time because it saves your place. They go to the closet whenever they have extra time to read, and during independent reading time.”
In reality, the Kindles are not that different from books, but that is not how the students see it, Sciarrotta said.
“I think it is exciting to share print in another form and the students feel like they are almost a game, which is what they love,” she said, adding that the school hopes to expand the program in the future by adding more Kindles to each classroom.
The goal of the EPEF is to promote creativity within the classroom and support teachers who are looking for “innovative” ways to engage student learning, Szmutko said.
“Through grants provided both from our direct fundraising efforts, as well as support to the Ewing Public School District through our corporate partnerships, we are able to help our educators with projects such as the use of Kindles, which expand the resources available to students, integrating technology into the curriculum,” he said.
EPEF Executive Director Heather Kearns Latini said the Kindle grant is perfectly aligned with the foundation’s mission because it is an example of something that the kids will benefit from but the budget was unable to cover.
“For me, we are like an arm or a leg of the superintendent’s office,” the Ewing resident said. “We try hard to be that help to do what we can that the budget won’t cover for the district.”
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