MUNCIE – Jane Zellers, a gifted and talented teacher at Lincoln Elementary School in Warsaw, has earned the 2020 Teachers College Innovative Education Grant.
The Ball State Teachers College Alumni Society annually awards grant money to graduates of Teachers College or any other educator program at Ball State University who have an innovative idea they would like to implement in a school, classroom or other area related to education.
Zellers received $500 to help develop a kit for her students that will make transitioning between in-person learning and remote learning easier as her district navigates the COVID-19 pandemic. The kit will have supplies and materials such as notepads, pencils, stress balls, mini dry erase boards and more, according to a news release from Ball State University.
Zellers graduated in 2000 with a degree in elementary education.
“As we contemplate the coming school year, we realize that schools may need to prepare for additional long spurts of eLearning,” Zellers wrote in her application.
The take-home kits, she said, would provide some continuity between classroom and distance learning, especially for underserved students.
“Our students are from lower socioeconomic homes which means these students will not all have the same access to materials for hands-on cooperative learning,” she wrote. “It evens the playing field and allows for access to the curriculum for all students.”
