Rockwood Educators Earn Missouri Retired Teachers Association Foundation Grants

Ridge Meadows Elementary counselor Sydney Basler and Crestview Middle Academic Stretch teacher Vicki Mikow each earned a $500 grant from the Missouri Retired Teachers Association Foundation (MRTA-F).

The MRTA-F awarded grants to 84 classroom teachers and 14 support staff members for 2026. The grants fund materials, supplies and projects for Missouri K-12 classrooms, prioritizing innovative teaching projects and student-centered learning activities.

Representatives from the MRTA-F presented Basler and Mikow with their grant funds at their schools on Friday, Aug. 21.

Basler earned her grant for a "Zones of Regulation" program. As part of this initiative, each classroom at Ridge Meadows will have a designated “Calm Down Corner,” providing students with a space to take a few minutes to reflect, reset and use tools that support self-regulation so they can return to learning ready to engage.

"These spaces may include a carpet or scoop chair and a bucket with a timer, fidgets and other sensory tools that students can choose from based on their individual needs," Basler said. "The goal is to provide students with supportive strategies to help them regulate their emotions, return to the 'green zone' and feel ready to learn!"

Mikow's grant proposal -- titled "Up in the Air: The Nuclear Cooling Rod Challenge!" -- is for drone-making kits for her students to use as a capstone to their unit exploring flight.

Currently, Mikow's seventh-grade students learn about flight through straw rockets, hoop gliders and paper airplanes. The addition of drones to the unit will help the students master flight physics and work on their problem-solving and persistence in the face of obstacles.

The "Nuclear Cooling Rod Challenge" would be an assignment in which the students must design a drone that can fly into a "reactor," pick up a metal rod using a magnet and drop it into a containment bucket without crashing.

"These drones are a perfect fit because they are designed to be built, crashed and redesigned," Mikow said. "This project is about more than just flying. It teaches students to handle frustration and use a failed flight as a way to improve. This mission is designed to be hard. Students will need to fail, rethink their design and try again multiple times to succeed."