HATHORNE— Superintendent-Director Heidi Riccio Ed.D. is pleased to share that Essex Tech has been awarded a $10,000 grant to support efforts to integrate social emotional learning into the curriculum.
The funding will be used to help train a group of 20 faculty and administrators in service learning techniques, and develop plans on how to use the method schoolwide. Service learning is a method of teaching and learning that challenges students to identify, research, propose and implement solutions to real needs in their school or community as part of their curriculum.
The $10,000 grant was awarded to the district in December by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The first of seven trainings will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 27 and the remainder will be held throughout the winter and spring. Trainings will be held remotely due to the ongoing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and there will be a broad scope of staff who participate including administrators, academic and career and technical education (CTE) teachers, and counselors.
“We are thrilled to have received this grant funding and to be able to offer this incredible opportunity for our staff,” Superintendent Riccio said. “These trainings will help bolster the skills of our teachers and administrators to ensure our students have a holistic learning experience that will allow them to become engaged members of their community.”
Essex Tech was one of 23 schools to receive this grant funding. In all, $253,362 in federal funding was allocated for the program and schools were eligible for up to $20,000 worth of grant funding.
The goal of the Integrating Social and Emotional Learning into Academic Learning grant is to help districts across the Commonwealth engage in explicit teaching and learning of social and emotional (SE) skills/competencies that are integrated and applied through all subject areas, as well as measure students’ SE skills and competencies and use the data to identify areas of need and support students to help them develop specific skills/competencies.
For more information about the grant, click here.
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