Ashley Wyss Memorial Fund

Coworkers and friends of Ashley Wyss recently partnered with the Olentangy Education Foundation to establish the Ashley Wyss Memorial Fund to honor Ashley’s legacy. This fund will allow educators to continue Ashley’s passion for learning for years to come.

Ashley was a positive light in this world. She chose kindness, exuded positivity, and cared deeply for those around her, especially her students. Ashley was an amazing teacher, and literacy was her passion. This grant will promote those ideals which were close to Ashley’s heart.

Direct donations to the memorial fund can be made here.

“And you have the power to write your story however you want to. You can make the choice each day whether to focus on the negative or the positive.”

— Ashley Wyss

Diverse Books for 4th Grade Social Studies

As part of the 2020 grant cycle, OEF provided a collection of diverse picture books to a 4th grade classroom, that are being used to as part of the social studies curriculum to help students understand different perspectives.

“I want students to be able to recognize different perspectives and celebrate diversity in Ohio. From learning about the prehistoric people that first came to Ohio to our government today, I want to take every chance to show multiple perspectives and highlight different cultures. Students will learn to look at historical and current events, looking for multiple perspectives.”

— Ramona Thompson, 4th Grade Teacher

We have been reading Esperanza Rising which is about a girl from Mexico who has to leave and move to the United States in the 1920's. When we are finished with this book, we will be reading Dreamers, by Yuyi Morales. This picture book purchased by the generous grant from OEF is the story of an immigrant in 1994. Students will create Venn diagrams to compare and contrast the two stories as there are many parallels in experiences and feelings between Ezperanza and Yuyi.

We are beginning our Native American Unit and we are going to use these books the OEF foundation graciously provided to help us in our studies.

This is one book we will be reading and discussing during Black History Month. So thankful to the OEF for providing quality diverse books for my classes!

OEF MATCH WEEK

OEF has an exciting opportunity; an anonymous donor willing to match the first $3,000 of donations made to OEF during the week of December 7-14, allowing donors to double the impact of their gifts!

You can help OEF continue to support Olentangy Schools by making a tax-deductible donation today.