Deana+Waite



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Teacher Inquiry

Deana Waite 9/29/2011


 * Proposal for Teacher Inquiry Project**


 * Subject of Inquiry:** How are grants written and what grants are available for English education?


 * Guiding Questions:** What is a grant and where does it come from? Who is eligible? What are the pros and cons of receiving a grant vs. other types of fundraising? Are there grants that require the funds to be spent in a certain way? Are there grants that are given on the basis of proving an increase in improvement since before the grant was given?


 * Rationale:** Having background knowledge in grant writing not only makes me more marketable as a teacher, but also allows me a way help out my school where it is needed. Many schools today do not have access to all the same amenities, and I would like to have ways of gaining access to funds needed by my school. I believe that writing grants is fulfilling to the community and to the school.

I wish to study how to write a grant proposal and where I can apply for one so that I may bring additional funds to the school where I teach. I hope with the proper grant proposal, I would be able to facilitate enough funds to purchase a new set of novels, bring newer computers to a lab, or perhaps, bring Smart boards into every classroom. I hope to make each classroom, not just within the school, but within the community, an equal and fair classroom, where students have access to all the same technologies.
 * Discussion:** The PDS program at CSU has allowed me to shadow teachers in a variety of schools all within the same school district, and most within the same community. It is shocking to me how certain schools are using books from ten years ago and have a computer lab full of Dells from 1995, while others have multiple labs full of Mac computers and most classrooms have smart boards or laptops for each student. In this age of technology, I believe that not only does the use of technology engage our students, but prepares them properly for the world that they enter.


 * Summary** – what I currently know: While working alongside Cindy O’Donnell-Allen as her assistant to the Colorado State Writing Project, among the many things we did, Cindy wrote grants to fund the writing project. I was always running errands for her while she wrote the grants in the summertime, and barely ever got to actually read her grant proposals. She used to send it to one person after another to review for editing before she would finally submit the final copy. Every year, her grant would be accepted, and the funds would come to support yet another year of the writing project – and little did I know, but some of the funds paid my salary as her student assistant. I am grateful for those grants since they practically paid for my living expenses for my three years of college. I know that grant proposals are much like obtaining a business loan, where you must project where you are statistically, and where you plan to be once you have the funds to take you there.

Prediction: It is my prediction that grant money is only given to the most impoverished schools, or the most elite and well to do schools; leaving the schools in the middle left out. I also believe that since the economy has taken a turn, there are less and less grants offered, which make for a steep competition once it comes down to deciding who receives the funds. Last, I believe that all grant money comes from the government and to write a grant takes months to do.


 * Sources:**


 * Parks, Steve. "Writing beyond the Curriculum: Fostering New Collaborations in Literacy." // English Journal // May (2000): 584-606. // NCTE Archives // . Web. 29 Sept. 2011. []
 * Library articles and books
 * Cindy O’Donnell-Allen
 * [|www.grants.gov]
 * [|www.ed.gov]
 * Webster’s New World Grant Writing Handbook