Tinker Tank The district has been working to reimagine the library spaces across the district. Melissa Overholser, Librarian at Schwenksville Elementary, envisioned this through a Tinker Tank, commonly known as a maker space. Her goal is for the library space to be seen as a safe place for students to explore and be creative without…
Soft Start Dr. Harrison has been at Perkiomen Valley School District for 18 years. She currently teaches fourth grade at Schwenksville Elementary School and has been building relationships with her students and the families of the students she teaches. When she returned to in-person learning from the pandemic, she noticed a need for more practice…
Get Your Energy Out Teaching can be made more complex if students are restless and need to move. This was the case for Ms. Kate Czapla at Middle School East. She has students with anxiety and ADHD that need to move and fidget to learn. Ms. Cazpla applied for a mini-grant to help her students channel…
Viking Genius Bar In the spring of the 2020 – 2021 school year, Perkiomen Valley School District Foundation granted $18,000 to fund Dan Pennebacker and Karthik Ganesh’s proposal for a Viking Genius Bar to start in the 2021-2022 school year. The Viking Genius Bar provides a student-powered helpdesk where students can gain real-world opportunities while…
Visual Art Library Ms. Seitz, Art Teacher at Schwenksville Elementary School, was looking for a way to expose students to literature in the art room through a Visual Art Library. She came to the Foundation to get additional books to her limited collection to enhance her lessons by giving students another way of seeing art.…
Trout in the Classroom Kevin Tomlinson and Kelly Voicheck wanted to engage their students innovatively through Trout in the Classroom. Both teachers wanted to provide their students with hands-on, exciting experiences to foster awareness of coldwater conservation and encourage participation in cold water resource projects and recreation programs. Tomlinson and Voicheck presented their proposal at…
Spanish Makerspace: Sugar Skulls The Spanish Department at Perkiomen Valley High School wanted students to experience Spanish culture because immersing oneself is the best way to learn a language and culture. Unfortunately, it is unrealistic to believe that every Spanish language learner will be able to go on an international language excursion or travel to…
Whiteboard Tables In the spring of 2020, Perkiomen Valley School District Foundation awarded two South Elementary School teachers $2,280 each to implement whiteboard tables in their classrooms. Kimberly Harris and Shavon Sharker wanted to transform their classroom into a collaborative classroom community with the help of whiteboard tables. There were three goals for the whiteboard…
Limelight Images courtesy of Perkiomen Valley Robotics Team RetroRobotics Frc7414 Facebook Page In February 2022, Perkiomen Valley School District Foundation awarded the Robotics Club at Perkiomen Valley High School with a limelight that they could implement into their robot for competition. In the 2022 season, the Robotics Club needed to build a robot that could…
Disc Golf Course In the Fall 2020 grant round, the Foundation approved $6,285 to Melissa Burg and Matt Weygand to implement a 9-hole Disc Golf Course at Middle School West. The installation was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but Middle School West launched its Disc Golf Unit as part of the Physical Education curriculum…