This interview was conducted by Lois Lanier for the Business Goes to School program here in Anne Arundel County. This will give you a little background on Joe Van Deuren and Balanced Life Skills. We are determined to do all we can to support the teachers of this county.
July is ending and August is coming fast. School teachers will be in their classroom in just a few weeks, preparing for the upcoming school year. This is the time of the year when we need to think about the needs of our teachers. They have our most valuable possession in their care for many hours during the day. What can we do to support them.
If we are a parent you can certainly show your support for the teachers by talking to your children about respect. Respect means “treating others the way they would like to be treated”. Talk to them about showing respect for the teacher by focusing in school (looking and listening to one thing at a time), following the rules in the classroom, turning homework in on time complete and neat, answering and participating in school.
I was thinking too that respect for your classmates is another way of showing respect for the teachers. The less time they need to spend on disciplining students in the classroom – the more time they have for completing the work at hand. It may also give them time to give extra help or do other fun things with their students.
The work our teachers do is so important and difficult. They do an outstanding job and all of us, parents, administration, public officials and the business community have a responsibility to support them in every way they can possibly can. That is why I started the Grants for Teachers Fund. Each year we give out mini grants of up to $500 for teachers projects that they would like to do or sometimes simply supplies for their classroom. Can you support this project?
You can go to this site and make a one time donation or do as I do and make a monthly contribution. Doing so will allow us to do even more for the teachers in our community. Your support will have a major impact on the morale of the teachers and their students education.
We had a great week of showing our appreciation to the teachers of our students at Balanced Life Skills. We would like to share some of the stories with you and ask you, Who was your special teacher?
Join The Grants 4 Teachers Advisory Committee For Breakfast With
Brian Williams And Learn About The “Think Kindness” Project
Please join us on Wednesday November 18th from 8:00 am to 9:30 am at Maryland Hall to meet Brian Williams and learn about his “Think Kindness” program for kids and his work on behalf of Soles4Soles, an organization that facilitates the donations of shoes to those in need around the world. Brian, a 27-year-old martial arts black belt from Nevada and motivational speaker, travels around the country encouraging young people to constantly do acts of kindness, including collecting new and used shoes for less fortunate children in countries like Kenya, Afghanistan, and Nicaragua as well as in the U.S.. His goal is 1 million acts of kindness!
Hosted by: Joe Van Deuren, Bess Langbein, Alli Holstrom, James Bowser, Lois Lanier, Linda Lamon
Brian is partnering with the Grants 4 Teachers Advisory Committee because he feels as strongly as we do that our teachers are one of our best resources and they deserve our support. Grants 4 Teachers provides mini-grants to support school teachers in the Anne Arundel County Public School System. The grants are directed to educational projects and activities that enhance, support, and enrich their educational curricula.
So far this year, Grants 4 Teachers has provided more than $2,000 in grants to four local public schools in Anne Arundel County including support for a character education program at a school in Severna Park, musical instruments for an elementary school in Laurel and technology for a high school in Harwood.
Here is how you can help!
Joe Van Deuren, owner of Balance Life Skills in Annapolis and co-founder of the Grants 4 Teachers Fund, said “I am a martial arts instructor who teaches self-defense, and my belief is that one of the greatest self-defenses is education. I recognized teachers were taking money from their own pockets in order to get the supplies and things they need to make the learning experience better for the child in the classroom. I found that not to be acceptable.”
Please join us on November 18th from 8:00 am – 9:30 am to celebrate and support our teachers and learn more about Brian’s Acts of Kindness Campaign. Click here to RSVP.
On Monday September 28th the advisory board for the Grants 4 Teachers Fund met and chose 5 teachers to award grants to. This was the very first grants awarded from this fund and we are looking forward to getting them to the schools and their teachers.
If you believe that teachers are one of our most valuable resources in the community and would like to support our efforts to help teachers who are creative and have innovative ideas for improving their classroom and teaching abilities please contact us about contributing to the Grants 4 Teachers Fund.
When we make the awards we will begin to tell the story of each award. In the mean time the next grant cycle ends in December. We look forward to receiving requests from the teachers of Anne Arundel County.
On Monday September 28th the Grants 4 Teachers advisory committee will meet to review the grants requests that we have received to date. We will be reviewing them and in the near future awarding the first grants from this fund.
We invite every one who is interested in helping the teachers in our county with the needs of the classroom in these difficult times to make a small donation. All donations are collected by the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County.
Our intention is to motivate our teachers by demonstrating our support for their work and dedication to our children.
Flagship experience inspires graduate to help others
Grants 4 Teachers, a fund established to support Anne Arundel County teachers, emerged from Joe Van
Joe Van Deuren
Deuren’s experience in the the Ultimate Black Belt Test and Leadership Anne Arundel’s Flagship 2007 Program. These two experiences together became the impetus for Joe to start the innovative Grants 4 Teachers fund.
The goal of the Grants 4 Teachers fund is to provide teachers with the tools they need in the classroom so they can make learning the best experience possible for their students. As a parent of four, Joe says he remembers his children’s teachers and what they did for their classrooms. He said, “What people do not realize is that teachers are spending hundreds, even thousands of dollars of their own money to provide learning experiences for our children.
On April 23, 2009 Joe Van Deuren, Owner of Balanced Life Skills, was selected as Business Partner of the Year by the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Education. The award was made at a special dinner held at the BWI Marriott Hotel.
Joe was nominated by Linda Lamon, Signature Program Facilitator of South River High School where he serves on the business advisory board. Joe says, “Teachers are one of our most valuable resources and we must support them as much as possible. I believe, as the African proverb says, that it takes a village to raise a child and I see myself as part of that village.”
What does this have to do with the Grants 4 Teachers Fund? This fund gives all of us the opportunity to demonstrate our respect and give support to the teachers in Anne Arundel County. Think of the morale booster this is for teachers, knowing that the community, individuals and businesses are there to provide for them all the tools they need to nurture and educate our children.
Joe Van Deuren, martial arts instructor, believes that education is one of the highest forms of self defense. Do you not agree?
Do you have a story to tell about a teacher, maybe yourself that has provided items from your own pocket, so your students would have a special event or day? Just register here and you can post your story.
Thank you for visiting the Grants 4 Teachers website. We are excited to announce the formation of this Fund. At this point we have brochures available for anyone who may desire to get the word out to those who would like to support the teachers of AA County.
We have tried to make the application process easy for teachers so as not to burden them with too much paperwork. We want the teachers of the County to know that we appreciate the knowledge, skills, enthusiasm, creativity that they bring to our children.
Please register here and blog or comment on your support for our teachers, or teachers you may journal on the support you have received. Lets create a community that holds high esteem the work that our teachers do.
July is ending and August is coming fast. School teachers will be in their classroom in just a few weeks, preparing for the upcoming school year. This is the time of the year when we need to think about the needs of our teachers. They have our most valuable possession in their care for many hours during the day. What can we do to support them.
