Fiesta Bowl: MUSD Teachers’ Wishes Granted!

Congratulations to the six Marana Unified School District teachers named winners of the $2500 Fiesta Bowl Wishes for Teachers Grant!

• John Hepford, teacher at Dove Mountain K-8: John’s wish is to purchase cymbals, cymbal stands, a drum throne and a bass drum pedal and any other equipment needed for the new drum set. This is the first year to offer a Jazz band at DMK8.
• Amanda Macedo, teacher at Twin Peaks K-8: Amanda’s wish is to provide sensory items, a welcoming environment, sensory corner for regulation, and literacy materials to help close the gap of where students are currently and their grade levels.  
• Deizy Mexia, teacher at Twin Peaks K-8: Deizy’s wish is to purchase classroom materials for a soft start, science hands-on activities, manipulatives for learning, and books to extend their library. This wish will cover the cost of daily use items like incentives, whiteboards, paper, and organization for the classroom.   
• Ayla Patton, teacher at Twin Peaks K-8: Ayla’s wish is to use the funds to purchase games and team building activities to do with classmates, and to encourage students to come to school and build community with their peers. 
• Adam Scafede, teacher at Mountain View High School: Adam’s wish is to purchase robots, 3-D printers, and a laser cutter for his computer science and math classes at both Dove Mountain K-8 and MVHS, so that students see not only conceptually how Computer Science works but also have a finished product.
• Karin Schaffer, speech teacher at Estes Elementary School: Karin’s wish is to provide a multi-modal, calm, and accessible space with adaptive materials for students with communication needs, to promote engagement in literacy activities that expands comprehension and expressive language skills for all learners.

The Palo Verde Fiesta Bowl Charities Wishes for Teachers program grants classroom wishes to teachers across the state of Arizona. The grant money allows these specific teachers to purchase anything from basic classroom materials, new books, materials for soft skill activities, sensory items,literacy materials, instruments for the jazz band, adaptive books for non-verbal students, and even robots for computer science classes. All Wishes for Teachers recipients become part of the Fiesta Bowl family and can participate in community events throughout the year. In its nine years, Wishes for Teachers has granted $8.25 million to more than 2,600 Arizona teachers, impacting more than one million students across the state.