Mountain View Elementary School Wins First DYMO/Mimio Grant

Tracey Amend, the principal at Mountain View Elementary School in Broomfield, Colorado, was speechless when she got the call. Her initial silence was followed by screams of joy and questions of disbelief when she learned that her school was the recipient of the DYMO/Mimio grant, Enhancing Science and Math through Interactive Collaboration. As the winner, Mountain View will receive 10 MimioTeach™ interactive systems, 10 MimioView™ document cameras, 10 MimioPad™ wireless tablets, and complete onsite training.

Once the good news set in, Amend called her teachers, since they had already broken for summer vacation, to let them know that they had won the grant. “Winning the DYMO/Mimio Grant is exciting, as are the possibilities and opportunities it will open up for our students and staff,” says Amend.

According to Magen McGahee, Leader of Federal Programs and District Initiatives at DYMO/Mimio, “Mountain View Elementary was chosen not only because their application followed the guidelines for submission, but also because their story was unique.” Submissions were graded on the project(s) that were laid out, their dissemination plan, their uniqueness, and how strongly they proved their need.

Mountain View serves a population of approximately 670 students in preschool through fifth grade, and includes students from many diverse backgrounds. It’s also the home of one of the largest center school programs in Colorado for deaf and hearing impaired students.

“As you can imagine, with children who have lost some degree, if not all of their hearing, they rely on their vision to learn and communicate. Our philosophy is 'total communication', which means our teachers of the deaf teach with speaking and signing as opposed to just a 'voice off' school where they are totally relying on sign language,” says Amend. “Winning this grant will allow us to put MimioClassroom products in the classrooms where our deaf students are taught and help bring alive their learning in a way we haven't been able to in the past.”

The Mimio Grant Program is a quarterly program that was created by DYMO/Mimio last spring to help more schools access the technology they need but can’t afford, due to shrinking budgets. Throughout April and May, DYMO/Mimio received close to 200 applications for the grant. Principals and teachers went above and beyond the application requirements, submitting pictures, creating YouTube videos, and developing sample lesson plans.