Golden Key Chapter Unlocks More Learning Opportunities with Grants

Students in the UT Dallas chapter of the Golden Key International Honour Society are making a difference this year in the lives of area schoolchildren by providing grants to encourage elementary teachers and help improve their classrooms.

The UTD Golden Key Teaching Enhancement Grant, selected as a service project by this year’s membership, has awarded $250 each to four teachers at schools in Richardson, Dallas and Plano.

Kimberly Gillings, a biology sophomore and service director for the UT Dallas chapter, said the society’s members wanted “to give a midyear boost to teachers who could use additional funds for teaching purposes.”

“As a chapter, we have a special interest in the children of our community, as one day they may be future UT Dallas students just like us,” she said.

In their applications for the grant, teachers described how they would use the funds.

Shar Goodale, a 25-year music teacher at Canyon Creek Christian Academy in Richardson, said she would purchase new music for the high school band and choir, and also help offset the cost for students to participate in competitions.

“I teach all things music, and the fine arts are usually at the end of the budget. There is so much need. A grant like this would help us go to competition with new music,” Goodale wrote on her application.

Michaela Davis, who has taught special education for three years at Mitchell Elementary School in Dallas, said she typically spends $60 to $100 out-of-pocket on school supplies and activities for her classroom each year.

A 2013 graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, Davis works with third- through fifth-grade students who are either medically fragile or who struggle with autism spectrum disorders, intellectual disabilities, emotional disturbance, and language and communication disorders.

“While this job isn’t always easy, it is gratifying to watch my students overcome the many hurdles they face each day. We may access curriculum at a slower pace than the general education population, but we are ambitious and eager to learn.

“This grant will allow me to provide the appropriate learning tools and materials my students need to be successful in a world that sometimes forgets about our friends with special needs,” Davis wrote. 

April Black has taught first grade for 21 years at Sigler Elementary School in Plano. She plans to use her grant to provide her students with an iPad loaded with math and science applications to help them engage with technology at a classroom station and promote the love of math and science learning at a young age.

“Many of our first-grade students are second-language learners eager to learn, excited about school and fascinated, yet somewhat intimidated, by technology. This will help them learn basic Internet navigation, research, keyboarding skills, and how to create digital projects to summarize and explain scientific ideas and findings,” Black said.

Debbie Gallegos, a bilingual kindergarten teacher in Plano ISD for seven years, will buy educational board games to help her students learn vocabulary, word recognition and reading comprehension in a “fun and interactive way.”

“As I watch my students grow and learn English, I see myself in my students. I can relate to their struggles of learning a new language and new content. I remember as a young child playing board games with my family and spending quality time laughing and learning. I would like my students to have the same experience as I did,” Gallegos wrote.

New Golden Key officers decide each year which grants, scholarships and events will continue, but Gillings hopes the society will continue to provide grants for area teachers.

“This grant has been a really great experience,” she said.