Running Strong for American Indian Youth® introduced our Dreamstarter Teacher grant program in 2017. This program aims to support the dreams of Native youth by awarding their teachers, librarians, and other educators grants of up to $5,000 to fulfill the unmet needs of their Native students.
Since its inception, many educators have had a significant and lasting impact on the lives of their students. Most recently, the 2023-2024 DreamStarter Teachers, Shannon Britton, Connie Michael, and Becky Vordermann, reported on the success of their projects in July.
Shannon is the principal at Round Valley Elementary/Middle School located in Covelo, California, in the Round Valley Indian Reservation where she has worked for the past 22 years.
Shannon had told us that the mission of her $5,000 Dreamstarter Teacher grant would be to add “Academics in Action” days throughout the school year, noting that she and her colleagues are always “always focused on increasing our mathematics and reading scores and often leave out science and art.
“Academics in Action days’ objective is to have specific themed days during the school year that focus on learning while having fun,” she explained. “For example, we would have ‘Science Circus Day’ which would consist of students rotating to different stations on campus where they could learn a specific science skill, conduct an experiment with it, and have fun while doing it.”
In her report, Shannon reported that “My Academics in Action days brought us multiple days of different genres. We celebrated Kindness Week, the 100th Day of School, Dr. Seuss’s Birthday, and Science Circus Day. Each day was themed according to the activity.
“The teachers prepped the students the week before by reading them books and doing fun classroom activities. This was a way to excite the actual day which also increased attendance of students.”
Shannon reported that during the 2023-2024 school year, “We increased attendance at school by making learning fun. We increased students’ knowledge of specific topics. We increased our love for reading and science. We focused on kindness, which we saw an increase in.”
After the project, Shannon told us “Teachers told me how excited the students were leading up to these days. Students came to me and hugged me and told me how much fun they were having.”
Connie is a 5th-grade teacher in the Hardin School District, a Crow Agency Public School in Crow Agency, Montana, with 368 students in grades pre-k to 5th grade where 100 percent of the students are free and reduced lunch and 99 percent are Native American.
“We are high poverty and unemployed community, but our school celebrates the culture of the students through language, pow-wows and tradition.”
Connie used her $3,000 Dreamstarter Teacher grant “to bring technology, rockets, and robotics into the classroom so students who normally do not have access to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education have the opportunity to be involved in engineering and design challenges.”
With the grant funding her class was able to participate in NASA’s Roads Challenge for the Artemis Challenge as well as the Sparx challenge.
“These programs enabled the students to learn to use materials to participate in engineering challenges and to listen to engineers and astronauts through Zoom meetings,” she reported. “The program was successful in that the students could participate in challenges that stretched their thinking and science minds.”
Connie expressed her gratitude for the grant funding on behalf of her students who benefited from the STEM learning experience.
“I feel supported with the funding I received from Running Strong, which has enabled me to build a STEM classroom for my underserved students and to stretch them in their ability to use technology.”
Becky is an educator at Round Valley Elementary/Middle School. She used her $5,000 Dreamstarter Teacher grant to take first and second-grade students out into nature. There, they explored flora and fauna and learned stories from Native American tribes that relate to the various plants and animals they studied.
“I believe the students in Round Valley need more opportunity to engage in environmental education opportunities and learn about their own culture along with the cultures of tribes with ties to their own through history,” she told us in her grant application. “The students are full of potential, but many have already experienced trauma in their lives. Nature-based learning has been shown to have a positive impact on those who have experienced trauma. I want to bring more nature-based learning opportunities to students at RVEMS.”
Becky took 35 students on various explorations and projects to learn about different topics. She also organized a trip to the coast to explore tide pools at a state park using the grant funds. The funds were used to buy supplies, exploration kits, books, and snacks for the group.
“The grant got students out in nature,” she reported. “It taught students about culturally relevant topics, helped them make positive connections with their peers, and provided them with a safe afterschool activity.”
She noted that she evaluated the success of her Dreamstarter Teacher project based on student engagement: “The students asked daily when we would meet again. They were excited to come to the group and do our activities.”
