By JOYANNA LOVE/Senior Staff Writer

CLANTON —Technology in the classroom was the focus of a grant request by Clanton Elementary first-grade teachers Needra Henderson and Kimiera Locke.

Each has received a Partners Enhancing Education in Chilton County grant to purchase Osmos.  An Osmo is a device that integrates with an iPad and physical tiles of letters, numbers or shapes.

Henderson received $1,000, while Locke received $850.

“It turns the iPad into an interactive device with manipulatives,” Henderson said.

The iPad sets upright in the Osmo dock. Then a device is placed over the camera on the iPad.

Osmo redirects the camera on the iPad to look at the table in front of it, and can detect which tile a student has placed on the table. Different apps provide different learning opportunities and difficulty levels.

In an app where students use tiles to spell a word, the screen will indicate whether a student has placed the correct tile. Other apps focus on shapes through tangrams. The app lights up if a student puts the tile in the correct order.

“They can be used across the curriculum,” Henderson said.

Locke said the interactive device can be used during reading to help students learning blends, and in other classroom centers making learning more interactive.

The teachers originally saw the technology in action during a visit to Bluff Park Elementary School.

Some other teachers at Clanton are already using the technology.

Rhonda Reynolds of the PEECh grant committee, said it was “exciting” as a retired teacher to be a part of deciding and delivering the grants.

“I know how important it is for teachers to have extra money to spend on innovative teaching methods,” Reynolds said.

In deciding which grant applications to fund, the committee focuses on innovation and what will benefit the most students.

Funding is available to every school in Chilton County and, if teachers apply, at least one grant is awarded to every school.

Both teachers had received local grants in the past. Henderson said when she first started teaching at Clanton Elementary she needed resources for her

“I had four walls, so I wrote a PEECh grant that year for $1,000 and supplied all of my literacy centers,” Henderson said. “I have been here 10 years and they are still using those activities.”

Sally Moore, chair of the grant committee, said the grants are a way “to help the teachers provide extracurricular activities that enhance the education of the children.”