SBCEO Teacher Innovation Grants

Laura Ishikawa- Santa Barbara County Education Office
Early Explorers Exchange: A Lending Library of  Resources & Adventures This project will create a lending library of preschool kits with lessons, materials and activities that will meet the needs of a variety of student levels as well as a variety of teaching skill levels.

Jonathan Reyes-Peter B. Fitzgerald Community School, Santa Barbara County Education Office"Curious Kids' Lab: Hands On Wonders Unleashed!" Curious Kids Labs provide students with a tangible and interactive learning experience, allowing them to actively engage with scientific concepts.   Through exploration and inquiry, students will dive into dissections, rockets, bridges, and even catapults! This hands on approach fosters a sense of ownership and excitement, ultimately leading to increased engagement and improved overall academic achievement.

Brittnee Walsh-Oakley School, County Education Office
Learning Gives You Wings: From Caterpillar to Butterfly Students will learn about the butterfly's lifecycle and its habitat through reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar as well as supplemental books, songs and games, art projects, and pictures. Students will help create a "Caterpillar Community" which will contain native plants, and healthy caterpillar foods, and maintain an ideal temperature for optimal butterfly production.

Marisela Romero-Oakley School, Barbara County Education Office
The Sensory Corner              To address my student's sensory deficits in order to lessen or amplify their intensity of various forms of sensory stimulation.

Kelly Sanders-Ralph Dunlap School, Santa Barbara County Education Office
Lights, Camera, STEAM.    Bringing the Sunshine 2.0 Deaf theater troupe to Santa Maria will provide a workshop for our Deaf students and an evening performance for our families and the community. Students will interact with Deaf role models while also understanding how performing arts can be a part of STEAM subjects while also strengthening their ASL skills. 

Emily Zacarias-Hollister School, County Education Office
Inclusive Garden Project  Garden project offers students a way to get in touch with nature with their grade-level peers. Students in the SBCEO program will be able to create and tend to a garden with their peers in our "Circle of Friends" group, allowing for inclusive opportunities for all! 

Laurie Moore-Leonora Fillmore School, Santa Barbara County Education Office
The Rhythmic Arts Project/Training and Curriculum
The Rhythmic Arts Project (TRAP) is a multisensory learning experience which educates individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities as well as typical young children, by embracing a unique methodology that encompasses rhythm as a modality to address basic life and learning skills as well as reading, writing and math.

Laura Ishikawa-Hancock Children's Center, Santa Barbara County Education Office
Heavy Work for Preschoolers
"Heavy work" is a term used to describe activities that target a sense called proprioception through joints and muscles. These activities help students to: improve attention and focus, decrease sensory defensiveness, help to calm and provide self-regulation.

Marisela Romero-Oakley School, Santa Barbara County Education Office
Indoor Gross Motor/Sensory Area"Heavy Work"
While the focus is called "heavy work" and targets joints and muscles use to meet sensory needs, we are also working on numbers, counting, describing, labeling, vocabulary, letters, colors, emotions/self regulation, sorting, matching, hand-eye coordination, bilateral coordination, sharing, turn-taking and more.

Jana Galura-Cold Spring School, Santa Barbara County Education Office
Professional Development-Seeing Stars
This project teaches students about patterns and letter-sound correspondences so they can independently decode and spell with the assistance the the Lindamood-bell Seeing Stars Program. Students have improved in reading and writing as a result.

Laura Ishikawa-Hancock Children's Center, Santa Barbara County Education Office
Preschool Fine Motor Journals
This project supports fine motor development for students with individualized education plans (IEP). Students use journals to document their progress using drawings, sticker peeling and placement, simple mazes, and coloring sheets.

Kelly Sanders-Ralph Dunlap School, Santa Barbara County Education Office
Literacy Through Mentor Texts
This project challenges and engages the students with fantastic, engaging picture books with meaningful messages and topics. The process helps students improve in grammar, sentence structure, and vocabulary.

Luz Bernal- Los Alamos State Preschool, Santa Barbara County Education Office
Safety/CPR & First Aid
This project will have the local Fire Department come to the preschool to teach a First Aid and CPR class to parents. Along with the parental training, families will be presented with a First Aid Kit upon completion of the training.

Laura Ishikawa- Orfales Children's Center Lab School, Santa Barbara County Education Office
Make Our Garden Grow
Preschool students ages 3-5 years will decorate individual terracotta pots and plant their choice of a plant for the school garden to help build a sense of ownership and community. 

Yoshinaga Sim- Los Robles High School, Santa Barbara County Education Office
ROP Culinary Equipment Improve Plan
Current and future students will participate in planning skills, procedures, and learn how to use modern culinary techniques. This culinary program offers detailed skilled certificates to students who have completed the course. Upon completion, the students use their skills to cater events.

Marianne Subido- Peter B. Fitzgerald Community School, Santa Barbara County Education Office
An Agricultural Celebration!
7th and 8th grade students will participate in this project which will focus on the Agricultural Industry in Santa Maria Valley, and the individuals who work in the industry. Voices from the past will be heard through literature and a dramatic performance presented by Allan Hancock College’s PCPA.