ThinkWorks News
Virginia Teacher Wins ING Grant for 21st Century Thinking
July 25th, 2008
Reston, VA - Ann Erickson, an Elementary Art Resource Teacher at Neil A. Armstrong Elementary School,
a Fairfax County Public School, was awarded a $2,000 grant to incorporate thinking skills into her
school's curricula using ThinkBlocks. The grant will have an impact on the
school's 460 students by bringing ThinkBlocks and training to the school's classroom teachers.
Erickson was happy to hear the news and is eager for the school year to begin. "This grant will make it possible to provide teachers with an important development opportunity to learn about an innovative new approach and tool to teach thinking skills," she said.
Shane Wolfe, the school's principal, also expressed his excitement. "The grant and ThinkBlocks offer a great way for our students to think and have a hands-on learning experience, especially for students with disabilities. Because Armstrong houses the Emotional Disabilities and Enhanced Autism Programs, that's a focus for us," he said. "This opportunity is going to have a profound effect on our school."
Erickson's project is one of 20 across the country honored with an ING Unsung Heroes Award. Along with the initial grant, Erickson is a finalist for grants of $5,000, $10,000, and $25,000 offered by the financial services company.
If awarded a larger grant, Erickson will expand the scope of the project by providing additional training and classroom sets of ThinkBlocks. In the long term, Erickson envisions the students using ThinkBlocks at home with their parents. Over the course of the project, an outside evaluator will assess the effect of the staff's efforts on classroom experiences, school climate, and parental engagement.
"My school will benefit by focusing on four universal patterns of thinking. The training with ThinkBlocks and the thinking patterns by Drs. Cabrera and Colosi will develop a common vocabulary and instructional focus for the staff," Erickson said. "This will help us move away from a focus on teaching factoids for the Virginia Standards of Learning and help students understand their own thinking and prepare them for the 21st Century."
The award is not Erickson's first. She has been named Virginia Art Educator of the Year and received grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the Washington Post. She is a member of the Education Committee and the Teacher Advisory Board of the National Building Museum, served on the Teacher Advisory Board of the Lemelson Center at the National Museum of American History, and presents at national and state conferences.
About the ING Unsung Heroes Award: Funded by the financial services company ING, the Unsung Heroes awards are given annually to "educators with class projects that are short on funding but long on potential." ING has awarded more than $2.8 million to educators in the past 10 years.
Fairfax County Public Schools celebrated Ann's award in a recent news release.
The Herndon Observer also congratulated Ann on the ING grant in a recent article.