Teachers show results from grants

The Chipola Regional Arts Association has for several years given a number of area teachers “mini grants” of $200 each , used in promoting the artistic development of students.
The money has always been welcome, but with more and more budget cuts straining their school arts budgets, educators seemed especially grateful as they came to show the CRAA what they did with the funds this school year.
At their annual CRAA appearance on Tuesday, teachers said the money was a lifeline. For at least two, the mini-grant represented their entire arts budget.
“When you have no money to work with, $200 is huge,” Blountstown High School teacher Janet Edewaard said.
According to her, there’s a “zero budget” there for art. She used the money to buy bags of ceramic tiles for her students. She poured out the tiny colored pieces on tables, and the children first sorted them into different color piles. The students, previously bored with static explanations of hue, contrast and shade, eagerly delved into the task and learned through doing what their teacher had been struggling to teach them before.
Later, the students took the tiles and designed mosaic pieces. Edewaard’s husband donated the masonry backing for the tiles, making it possible for her to stretch the $200 arts grant far enough for her students to produce their work.
In years past, she has put the money to a dual purpose, buying supplies that her art students use to help create sets for school plays.
At tiny Bethlehem School in the northern corner of Holmes County, teacher Leesa Lee also said the mini-grant was a critical part of her ability to keep art in the classroom this year.
“This is our only source of (arts) funds,”  Lee told her benefactors.
Now the reading and history teacher, she used to be the music teacher. Because of budget cuts, she and her students have to wedge arts-related activities in at lunch, after school or whenever else they can find an odd slice of time in the day.
Although there are “willing hearts and helpful staff,” support in the community and from her administration, Lee said there’s only so much time and money to go around. With 62 percent of the students there classified as economically disadvantaged, parents’ pocketbooks are thin. The CRAA grant helped her buy music and supporting CDs the students needed to put on a sing for the Bethlehem community.
“With this money, we were able to purchase materials that allowed us to show our eighth graders that they can be artistic, and dramatic,” Lee said. “Without (it), we never would have had the opportunity. The principal is working very hard to get music back in our school on a regular basis, but what you have given us really, really helps us right now with the learning process.”
Vicki Steverson, an art teacher at Bonifay Elementary, has a challenging task at her school. She said 756 students pass through her classroom each day. Some of them are physically or emotionally challenged.  Steverson is using the money to set up “grab and go” art-oriented learning centers that the children who finish tasks early can use while she’s helping other students.
Tammy Long-Godwin of Ponce de Leon Elementary School teaches art, and is one of the newest CRAA grant recipients. While attending a workshop with Graceville artist Roberta Newell, she learned about the grant program last summer and put in an application. She used her money to buy watercolors and pencil sharpeners for the watercolor sticks and the colored pencils she already had.
“We’re ecstatic,” she said. “My kids didn’t even know watercolors came in sticks. We studied (painter Vincent) Van Gogh recently, his brush strokes and the way he used colors.”
The kids then created their own pieces in his style, she said. She said one high-energy student who has trouble sitting still wound up focusing well and producing beautiful art. Along the way, he and the others learned some science, as they studied the effect water has when applied to the dry stick watercolor paints she bought with the grant money. She also was able to buy material used to showcase the artwork.
Closer to home, Marianna High School band director Craig Bean said he bought   equipment, like a mouthpiece for a tuba player,  percussion materials and other supplies for his band members.
He treated the CRAA to a CD featuring the tuba and euphonium performance by an ensemble of four students who earned high ratings at a competition. and had benefited from the grant.
Norma Bean, who is the band director’s wife and a teacher at Cottondale Elementary, had also received a CRAA grant. She used her money to buy a special training program for her students who play the recorder. It was a big success, she said, and was useful in honing reading competency as well as music.
Gayle Grissett of W.R. Tolar School in Liberty County is a music teacher. She used her money to help buy a soprano xylophone that her students are now enjoying. It is an expensive piece that she likely couldn’t have afforded without the CRAA.
“We’re a poor school, Title 1, and we are so grateful for this,” she said. “Thanks from the bottom of our hearts.”
In all, the Chipola Regional Arts Association gave out 14 $200 mini-grants this year.