Mini+Grants

A way to get teacher input when you have money to spend is to award "mini grants." Offer teachers $500 to spend on library books to support a curricular project. Even though you do this anyway through collaboration, turning it into a grant program makes the idea more lucrative:

MINI- GRANT COLLABORATIONS Funds from the Library Grant were used to develop special collections for department use under the mini-grant program. This program has been discontinued with the end of the Library Gant. Special Collections that were developed under this program were:
 * Psychology
 * Careers (10th grade career research paper)
 * High Interest books in Spanish
 * Marine Animals (ELD //Island of the Blue Dolphins// research paper)
 * The Vietnam War (The Wall ELD unit)
 * The Holocaust (//Night// Language Arts unit)
 * Biomes (Earth Science)
 * Weather (Earth Science)
 * Health Research Topics
 * Caldecott Award Winners (Child Development picture book unit)
 * Sports History (P.E. Benchmark)
 * Indian Cultures, Wildflowers, Legends (Legend of Bluebonnet ELD research paper)
 * Graphic Novels (Japanese Culture)
 * World Leaders (AVID)
 * Abuse of Power Biographies (12th Grade)