The Beverly Hills Education Foundation awarded grants to five teachers for innovative projects. (photo by Joey Waldinger)

The Beverly Hills Education Foundation has selected five outstanding projects as recipients of the Innovative Teacher Grant Program. Educators who have been awarded are Michael Federman of Beverly Hills High School, Kristen Hartley of Beverly Vista Middle School, Ashley Nation and Joel Wheeler of Hawthorne Elementary School, and Lisa Bieler of Horace Mann Elementary School. Each recipient will receive funding for projects that bring new and inventive ideas to the classroom.

Projects include bolstering dual enrollment and Career Technical Education pathways through animation and the visual arts via Cintiq drawing tablets for high school students, support for mental health awareness in the middle school community, increasing focus and stamina in the first grade classroom, expanding math education through play for elementary school students and exploring physical computing and its relation to future careers for elementary school students. For more information, visit bhef.org/teachergrant/.