Funding


 * VI. Funding: **

My plan is to introduce my initiative to my colleagues in August of 2001. This will allow me the time to find appropriate funding as well as develop a worthwhile professional development plan that will not only engage my staff, but to excite them for the upcoming school year and provide them with new ideas to implement their classrooms right away. As far as funding goes, there are several routes that we can take to assist in funding our BrainPOP subscription.

Delaware is one of two states who have been awarded federal funding. As of June 2010, Smyrna is said to be getting roughly 1.5 million dollars of RTTT Allocations based on Title 1 percentages. I would present my initiative to my district officials and see what funds are available specifically for technology or student achievement.
 * __ Option 1: __**** Race to the Top **

Within our district there is specific money that is set aside for technology implementation, both at the district and building levels. One possibility is to contact my building administrator and see if there is any money available that could be used to fund this initiative. If there was no money available from the particular building budget, then the second possibility would be district funds.
 * __ Option 2: __**** Additional District Funding **

There are many grants that are available for teachers, schools, and districts to apply for that would be able to assist with the funding of educational support products such as BrainPOP. While searching for possible grants that could assist with implementing this particular initiative I came across several useful sites specifically for grants for education. [] This particular site had several grants that stood out to me as possible solutions for funding BrainPOP. [] This particular site allows you to search specifically for grants that are available in your state and for particular content areas.
 * __ Option 3: __**** Grant Funding **
 *  Adopt-A-Classroom (Possible if funding for an individual class rather than the entire school.)
 *  Kids in Need Teacher Grant (Possible if funding for an individual class rather than the entire school.)
 *  Kinder Morgan Foundation Education Grants (Primarily for programs that offer ongoing support.)

[] This site provides links to many different possibilities for funding technology initiatives.

Living in a small community can be valuable when trying to find funding for programs such as BrainPOP or other less expensive initiatives to help improve student achievement. For example, in our small town of Smyrna we have the Walmart Distribution Center who regularly awards teachers within our district all year long as teacher of the year, in which they are given funds to put to use in their classrooms. In addition to programs such as this, there are many other smaller local businesses who take pride in the tight knitted community that our town has and value being a part of the education process with in the community. __Links: __ Technology Initiative Table of Contents Next Page (Professional Development & Support) __﻿__
 * __ Option 4: __**** Local Community Funding **