Small investment brings a big Improvement to the College and Career Center. This room is used every day by the guidance counselors and students at HVA. The Foundation purchased organizational folders/materials needed to make college/employment information easily available to all. "Wow, it's like a bookcase of opportunity!" said one student upon perusing the material. Students love the new room. Counselors love that the students are inspired to learn more about all the post-secondary options. Thanks for your vision, Ms. Anna Graham!

Our media specialist, Ms. Suzanne Sherman, requested funds to purchase a dozen copies of the book, Station Eleven. She developed a school sponsored community book club meeting as part of the Knox County Public Library "Next Big Read" program. The extra book copies helped more students participate in this enriching activity.

Mr. Tim Long was able to attend the Forensic Symposium for Educators to learn all about crime scene photography, biological evidence collection, impression and pattern evidence, and ballistics and shooting reconstruction.  Mr. Long was able to attend the Symposium thanks to Foundation support and brought back new ideas and techniques, new lesson plans, and a new energy to the classroom.

One of our amazing orchestra instructors, Ms. Jones, purchased all the supplies to soundproof several music rehearsal rooms where the students practice. With the Foundation's help, students can better hear, record, and critique themselves in these specially-outfitted rehearsal rooms. Ms. Jones did all the install work herself!  All she needed was a little help to purchase the soundproofing materials.

The Foundation purchased a picnic table for our student picnic garden area. The students eat outside most every day at lunch and the space is also used for classroom activities and school visitors. A great place to visit and learn out of the classroom!

A grant from the HVA Foundation allowed Ms. Andrea Guy to attend the TNCHE (Tennessee Council for History Education) in Nashville. At this conference, Ms. Guy was awarded the Gilder-Lehrman Teacher History of the Year award! In addition, Ms. Guy was also able to listen to a presentation from Sam Mihara, who was interned at a Japanese internment camp in Nevada. Ms. Guy returned to school saying "This was an amazing opportunity, and gave me a great deal of perspective about the experiences of Japanese-Americans in World War II. In fact, I would love to have Sam Mihara come and speak to all of the students in our school."

The media center purchased 16 new audiobooks in the form of Playaways which are devices with preloaded books on them.  The librarians selected books based on the input from students and chose high-interest young adult books.  The impact has been great as not only visually impaired students utilize these, but other students who may not have previously chosen to read in their free time.  Since March, these books have been checked out 50 times!

Over 500 students were able to listen to Newberry Award winning author, Matt de la Pena, share his life story about growing from a reluctant reader reader to a writer.  One of the HVA librarians noted that "for some students, this visit was nothing less than life changing!"  The Foundation facilitated this event by funding the author's speaking fee.

The HVA Counseling Department is a busy place with 5 Guidance Counselors serving nearly 2000 students!  The Foundation purchased 5 iPads for the counselors' use in their office and all around the school.

The HVA math department requested funds for an online tool which would give the students in Algebra 1 and Geometry better and more opportunities to practice their math.  The IXL program allows the students to have unlimited example problems and immediate feedback.  The teacher can keep up with student progress and mastery of skills and provide more specific instruction for those students struggling with particular skills.  This program was funded jointly through class fees and the Foundation.

The HVA media center requested funds for this die cut machine and associated school starter block set.  A tool such as this may seem basic, but it does not necessarily come with a new school!  The Foundation purchased this equipment for the staff and it has been used frequently to produce better and more professional classroom displays and bulletin boards in common areas throughout the school.

Dr. Travis Quick wanted to learn more.  As a new teacher, he attended the Advanced Placement Summer Institute (held locally in Oak Ridge, TN) to fully immerse himself in the AP Chemistry curriculum.  With recent changes to the AP Chemistry curriculum it was important that HVA send one of its AP Chemistry teachers to the Institute.  Dr. Quick returned to relate what he learned to his colleagues in the Chemistry Dept. 

With an emphasis on inquiry-based learning and limited lab space, Mr. Michael Hartman argued the benefits of a mobile microscope storage cabinet.  Teachers now use the mobile microscope cabinet to bring the lab to their rooms to extend labs into multi-day learning opportunities.

The HVA journalism and broadcast classes use the new camera, microphone, and inDesign software to produce the morning announcements and print newspaper for the school.  Ms. Amanda Wash can see a more professional result with the new equipment and software and the students are learning more every day.

HVA Chorus Instructor, Ms. Teresa Scoggins, was interested in her own professional growth and that of her students.  She asked to attend the Carol Krueger Workshop "Developing the Independent Musician" in Raleigh, NC.  The HVA Foundation funded her trip so that she could learn new techniques for teaching sight reading and music literacy/musicianship.  She expects to see tangible results soon with increased scores at upcoming Festival competitions.

The HVA Foundation is pleased to support the Outdoor Classroom Committee led by HVA Biology teacher, Mr. Caleb Paquette, in their development of an outdoor learning space for our students.  This project is funded primarily by the Captain Planet Foundation with additional funds from the Foundation.  Currently, the Community Design Center is working to turn the ideas of teachers, students, and community members into a site plan.  Watch to see how the classroom develops from design to reality in the coming months/years.

Ms. Katie Raby presented her research about how to integrate international non-fiction and fiction literature in a high school Common Core classroom.  She brought back new ideas to share with the HVA English Dept. on how best to use non-fiction sources creatively while adhering to the new standards.

Mr. Rosenke was looking to stay up-to-date on the newest legislation in finance so that he could pass that information along to his students in the HVA Personal Finance classes.  In addition, by attending this conference, Mr. Rosenke, was able to identify best practices for teaching finance and pass those on to others on his return.  The Foundation funded his trip to the Jump$tart National Conference.