Perry

The Imagination Playground for our young children has allowed the  children to be immersed in a rich environment of free play as well as collaborative play all while building creativity, innovativeness, and cooperative problem solving team building.  These blocks have also provided an opportunity for higher-order thinking skills and problem solving in both reading and math. These life size blocks are open-ended and have provided opportunities for so much creativity and imagination.  This opportunity to build together with peers has provided the opportunity of higher level thinking while interacting and collaborating with peers.  This type of problem solving play provides opportunities to build teamwork and promote thinking critically.  During this play, we have observed development of character skills that have developed grit, resilience and self control. It is amazing to watch and observe these young children develop language and problem solving skills across the curriculum all during a process that most believe to be “just play”.

For the past few years we have received grants for children’s books.  We have gradually run out of room on the shelves for all of the new books, even though we have weeded our collection on a constant basis.  It has become very difficult to shelve the books, as they are squeezed in so tightly, and the children cannot browse the shelves because they are so tight on the shelves.

With this grant from RC&D we have been able to purchase three shelves, which are double faced (books on both sides), as well as three cabinets for children’s materials such puzzles, board games, arts and crafts, and toddler toys.  This has expanded the area of our children’s library and made it easier for everyone to access the books.

Since 1842, Marion Military Institute (MMI) has achieved a national reputation for preparing young men and women for successful civilian and military careers. This is accomplished by providing the best possible educational program for its students in a disciplined environment, thereby developing their intellectual, physical, moral, social, and leadership capabilities.

Vision 2022: Marion Military Institute will be nationally recognized as the premier leadership development college of Alabama with whole cadet enrichment through an immersive and intentional experiential learning environment, a relevant, rigorous, and robust academic program, and character and leadership education development system.

In order to do this MMI realized it must stay on top of the technical curve and began upgrading each classroom last year. Ala-Tom RC&D’s 2020/2021 and 2021/222 grants allowed MMI to kick off and coincidently complete the upgrade by funding the first and the last of the 27 classrooms of the MMI Classroom Technology Upgrade Project. Ala-Tom along with additional funders provided the classroom technology upgrades which allowed the MMI faculty to engage students more effectively both in the classroom and with remote delivery.