Liz Escobar-Ausman, a Vinci Park Elementary School first-grade teacher, was honored at the Silicon Valley Education Foundation award ceremony May 14.
Escobar-Ausman was the SVEF teacher of the month in March, and earned a Teacher Innovation Grant for her imaginative classroom program using sound in learning. As part of her innovation program, Escobar-Ausman created two student centers for the children in her classroom. One of the centers focused on science curriculum, while the other was used to present language arts lessons.
For the language arts unit, students used sound - in the form of spoken languages, and sound found in nature and world around them - to create mental images that provided opportunities to develop their own language skills. Personal CD players were provided for personal instruction to students based on their individual abilities.
The science curriculum designed by Escobar-Ausman was based on the premise that students in primary grades sometimes lack the conceptual imaging necessary to understand science lessons and vocabulary. In the science center created with help from the SVEF grant, students "traveled" to different environments and learned to discern the various sounds that comprise urban,
The Silicon Valley Education Foundation established the Teacher Innovation Grants to "entice teachers to create new and exciting approaches to learning in the classroom." The grants provide individual teachers with $500 to $1,000 for extra resources needed to create new teaching methods and learning experiences for their students.
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