Once the vision was defined, we used grant money to fund ten Columbus Academy teachers per year to investigate what Vision 2015 would look like for their subject areas and grade levels. Of all the things we did to move the school forward, hiring these teachers was the most important. We needed to know what Vision 2015 would look like in First Grade, in 7th Grade Science, and in 10th Grade English.
After spending much of the year investigating ways to provide 24/7 access to reflectively engage their curriculum; expand learning outside the four walls of the classroom; and teach students to better use the tools they already use today, grant recipients were asked to give back by sharing what they learned with others. They did that during full faculty meetings; faculty professional development sessions; by creating permanent video resources (click here to see our Teacher Talk video series); and by being what we called resource agents, that other faculty could lean on to move forward.
The origin of the grants was a 2007 gift of $1 million from Milt Taylor ’45, who held a long a varied connection to Columbus Academy prior to his passing on January 30, 2012. The grants are drawn from the Milt Taylor ’45 Fund to Reward & Promote Excellence in Teaching.
See below for information shared with Columbus Academy faculty about the Milt Taylor Grant.