Bright Ideas

With Coastal Electric Cooperative and its Foundation, teachers have the power to put their Bright Ideas to work.

Bright Ideas awards teachers money for creative, innovative lessons that light up students' love of learning.

$20,000 awarded to teachers by Bright Ideas Prize Team

Coastal Electric Cooperative and its Foundation awarded over $20,000 in Bright Ideas grants this year to school teachers in Bryan, Liberty and McIntosh County. The winning teachers were caught totally by surprise when the Bright Ideas Prize Team came to their classroom to present them with giant balloon bouquets, gifts and a big presentation check.

Earlier this year teachers were invited to apply to win grants of up to $2,000 each. The Bright Ideas program encourages teachers to develop creative, innovative programs that might not otherwise be funded thru the school system. A panel of independent judges reviews and scores the applications.

The Cooperative awarded 14 Bright Ideas grants this year. Since the program’s inception more than $110,000 has been awarded to local teachers. The grants are open to teachers instructing students in grades K-12.

Bright Ideas is made possible in part thru the voluntary donations of the Cooperative's Members who participate in Operation Round Up® -- Members allow their electric bills to be rounded up to the nearest whole dollar. Those nickels and dimes each month are turned over to The Coastal Electric Cooperative Foundation which oversees the fund. The Foundation uses the money to assist with food, health, shelter, safety, and educational needs within the community.

View our image gallery from the 2009 Bright Ideas Prize Team

Or click here to view the slideshow

Videos - Bright Ideas 2009

Bryan County	McIntosh County
Liberty County

Congratulations to our 2009 Bright Ideas Winners!!!

Bryan County

Erin Turner of Richmond Hill High School won a grant for her project Video Journalism and School Spirit Collide. She will use the money to create a school news program.  The project will teach students about research writing, film and video production, editing technologies, and teamwork.  The 20-minute news program will air for the entire school every other Friday.

Nancy Nix of Richmond Hill Middle School for her project, Digital Classroom: Enhancing Instruction in Sickness and in Health. Her class will create digital video recordings of lectures and other academic information as a method to provide aid to students having prolonged school absence. The emergence of new viral illnesses gives further importance for video recording to maintain continuity in student education.

Janet Clanton Perry of Richmond Hill Primary School for her project, Sprouting to Success. Her second grade students will participate in a supplemental reading program that uses sophisticated technology to teach phonics and other fundamental skills.

Liberty County

Victoria Funston of Joseph Martin Elementary School in Liberty County for her project, Publish it on the World Wide Web. Students will design a web site and publish reports based on studies of science and social studies using language arts writing standards.

Tiffany Leon of Button Gwinnett Elementary School for her project, Lights! Camera! Action! Students will develop reading skills by performing stories by memory in the form of plays.  Students will complete hands on practice using flip cameras to record and software to edit their performances.

Jeremy Meadows of Lewis Frazier Middle School for his project, Pod/Vod the GPS. His eighth grade class will begin streaming podcasts and vodcasts of various lessons on a weekly basis.  Using editing software, the students will publish the pod/vodcasts to a pre-established website.  This project also establishes a method for students to be re-taught lessons they didn’t understand or missed.


Sharon Dunham of Lewis Frazier Middle School for her project, Reading is FUNdamental. Students will have FUN and develop their reading skills by using Kindle e-book readers.  The Kindle readers will download current books published during the year and give students access to the next volume in a series as soon as it comes out.

Maureen Jenkinson of Taylors Creek Elementary School for her project, Students Going Green Outdoors. Her students will get hands on experience “going green” as they produce a well functioning garden environment and a butterfly garden.

Kimberly Boucher of Liberty Elementary School for her project, iPods for Learning. Students will use iPod Touch devices as a technological tool for learning in the classroom. The iPods will foster student’s creativity, innovation and critical thinking skills.  iPods will provide students with a greater advantage in the technological 21st century.

Cristina Dover of Midway Middle School for her project, Kings and Queens of the Green Screen. Students will use flip video cameras and a green screen to capture film.  With the use of software, students will import music, sounds, and picture or video backgrounds to enhance their film clips. Video subject will relate to the students current core subject.

Melinda Joy Kennedy of Midway Middle School for her project, Celebrating Pi. This cross curricular theme will show all subjects are connected and can be applied outside one single content area.  Students will explore concepts involving Pi incorporated into fun and interactive activities in each classroom setting.  

McIntosh County

Phyllis Smith of Todd-Grant Elementary School in McIntosh County for her project, Our Favorite Color is Green. Her second grade students will be getting involved in environmental awareness and a recycling project.  This project also includes building a mini-landfill.

Margaret McMullen of McIntosh Academy for her project, Using Propaganda Techniques to Effectively Persuade to Buy. Students will learn various propaganda techniques used in advertising, learn to work with others with teams and gain additional experience writing and presenting their ideas to a group

Fort Stewart

Gwinelle Colson of Kessler Elementary School for her project USA Postcard Project