HOWELL – A first grade teacher received a grant package of new furniture for her classroom worth over $20,000.
In Spring of 2020, Superintendent of Howell Schools Joseph Isola discussed with the Howell Leadership Team about an upcoming grant opportunity. The grant through Tanner North Jersey would award an eligible teacher or counselor with new furniture for their classroom. Those interested had to submit a three-to-five-minute video explaining how they were reaching and connecting with students throughout the pandemic.
After hearing about the grant opportunity, first grade teacher Samantha Vigna from Taunton Elementary School said she immediately reached out to Principal Brooke Napoli to submit her entry.
“You could hear the excitement in her voice describing all of her ideas for the submission,” Napoli said. “She is an educator who fully understands and whole-heartedly believes that positive relationships and interactions are the foundation for her students’ happiness and success (pandemic or no pandemic). Therefore, when it came time to prepare the video, Ms. Vigna simply spoke from her heart and was able to compile (with ease) all of the ways she was connecting with her students.”
In Vigna’s video, she showed how her and her students used an online program called Seesaw to post pictures and videos of their school work. Other online platforms Vigna used were FlipGrid, Twitter and Zoom to teach and stay connected with her students.
“At the end of our Zoom meetings it would take forever to get everyone logged off because we would just be waving at each other saying ‘bye’ because we didn’t want to leave each other,” Vigna said.
On April 21, the Howell Township Public School Districted congratulated Vigna for being selected by Tanner North Jersey as the recipient of a $25,000 classroom furniture grant.
“I was not surprised at all that Ms. Vigna was one of the lucky winners. The grant submission was to highlight how the educator was continuing to inspire, reassure, comfort and positively interact with her students despite the very new challenges of remote learning at the start of the pandemic,” Napoli said. “There is a picture on Ms. Vigna’s submission clip where she is holding a sign that reads ‘You make me smile.’ That statement is 100 percent true! Ms. Vigna completely lights up when she talks about each and every one of her students. There is nothing that Ms. Vigna would not do for her students social, emotional and academic growth.”
