Student & Classroom Support

​

• REAP: 4-Day and 10-Day trainings were provided to teachers in this Reading is Essential for All People program. Dedicated to improving reading proficiency in public school students, REAP’s training extends beyond the OG methodology, adding tools and strategies developed strategically for success in the public school environment. Foundation also funded the substitute teachers to cover classrooms for teachers who were in these training sessions.

• Acadience: Acadience helps educators monitor reading proficiency across a variety of educational settings. By detecting when students need extra support, this tool helps teachers improve student outcomes. Founded funded a total of 500 Acadience licenses for Kindergarten, 4th grade, and 5th grade students, and progress monitoring assessment books.

• Digital Citizenship: This program teaches students thoughtful use technology, how to be careful and smart online, and to be kind to others online. Teachers use videos from common sense media to discuss these issues with their students, and Foundation funded prizes to encourage participation in this program.

• Dreambox: Licenses for this online reading program were funded for all K-5 students to supplement our schoolwide effort to improve the reading proficiency of our Mt. Bethel students. The program is robust and adaptive and adjusts to each student’s needs, supporting both fluency and comprehension.

• Kindergarten Letter & Number Formation Materials: Textured touch and trace number and letter cards were provided to each Kindergarten classroom to provide students with a multisensory approach to learning numbers and letters, counting sets, letter sounds, and proper number and letter formation. 

• Organization Classes for 5th Graders: Natalie Collins, M.Ed., is a learning specialist and former teacher who comes to our school with tools and tips for our 5th graders to help them become more organized and to teach them how to study. A spring class was held for students as rising 6th graders, and their parents, to prepare them for the transition into middle school.

• Typing Club: Typing Club is a typing program that Mt. Bethel teachers saw value in when it was implemented at the school. With over 125,000 lessons completed and lots of students excited to show their teachers how their typing has improved, it is a well-used program that showed great results. Rather than include the cost of Typing Club licenses as part of the Buccaneer Bundle that families purchase at the beginning of the year, the Foundation is funding the program for all Kindergarten to 5th grade students at Mt. Bethel.

​

Instructors

​

• Technology Resource Coordinator: Shawn Lieth is an invaluable tool in education and technology for Mt. Bethel. Ms. Lieth keeps Mt. Bethel’s technology up and running by managing hundreds of tech devices on campus and manages the Learning Lab, where she prepares students to be 21st Century tech-savvy learners and spearheads initiatives to promote seamless technology integration into the classroom. Read more about Ms. Lieth here. 

• STEAM Assistant: Melissa Pumpian provides invaluable support to the school, its students, and the teachers. She unifies Mt. Bethel’s STEM, Art, and Music programs as she coordinates and delivers all materials for schoolwide STEM days, preps materials for art projects and for the Art Show in the Spring, and assist with curriculum implementation in Specials classes. Read more about Ms. Pumpian here.

 

Beyond the Classroom

​

• Learning Commons Renovation: Mt. Bethel’s Learning Commons professionals have a mission and vision to build a collection that meets the academic and personal needs of the Mt. Bethel community. In line with this, they created an updated design for the Learning Commons with intentional space for instruction, quiet reading, and collaboration areas that can all be used at one time when needed. So the Foundation approved a grant for Phase 1 of the renovation plan, which is expected to be complete in Fall 2024.

• Field Day Inflatables and Dunk Tank: For Mt. Bethel’s annual Field Day, Foundation continued its annual sponsorship of the popular dunk tank and large inflatable obstacle courses and slides. After rescheduling the original Field Days due to rain, the students ventured outside to showcase a variety of physical skills and work together as a team with their classmates. Field Day was filled with excitement and lots of laughter as students successfully dunked teachers and principals into the tank of water! They even got a glimpse of Principal Smith dressed as a dinosaur roaming around to join in the Field Day fun!