Wellesley Education Foundation 2007 Fall Grant Awards Home

Elementary School Awards

Reading and Writing in the Nonfiction Genre
This funding will provide K, 1 and 2 classrooms at Hardy with quality nonfiction texts that meet children's instructional and independent levels. In order to provide small group, guided reading instruction in nonfiction, multiple copies of quality nonfiction literature will be purchased, along with two professional development resources for each primary classroom teacher.

Books for Reluctant Readers
Rachel McGregor and Roxanne Scott: Hunnewell This grant will fund the purchase of fiction, nonfiction, mystery, poetry and realistic fiction to target reluctant readers in grades 3 and 4. The students chosen for this program are those who are not enthusiastic about reading, in the hopes that they will find their reading interests and become lifelong readers.

iPods for Small Group, Independent Book Talks
Fourth grade students will be taught how to use an iPod with recording capabilities to tape their Guided Reading discussion time. This will allow small groups of students to independently manage their group discussions and be accountable for using their time well. In addition, it will give the teacher a clearer picture of their strengths and abilities by monitoring the quality and content of discussions while not physically present.

Podcasting
This grant will provide the third grade students and teachers at Sprague School with materials such as a camera and camcorder to that they can create podcasts of curriculum material including newsletters, poetry reading, math problems, Boston field trip reports and science units.

Capturing Competency with a Camera
This funding will support a new digital camera curriculum for students on IEPs ages 10 and up to address remediation of basic communication skills and teach Thinking Maps. Training these children as the experts photographing various classroom events will provide a service while at the same time develop competency and self-esteem for these students. This program was piloted last year with borrowed materials and proved to be very successful.

Professional Development for Parent Volunteers in the Environmental Science program
This grant will provide funds to pilot a professional parent volunteer Nature Walk training program as part of the Environmental Science Program at the 7 elementary schools. Specifically the funds will be used to hire a professional environmental science educator from the Massachusetts Audubon Society to train parent volunteers to lead spring and fall 2008 nature walks in grades K-3. If this proves successful, a recommendation will be made for permanent inclusion in the school budget.

Key Math- the key to assessing and supporting students who struggle with math
This funding will allow special educators to more closely align their materials and assessment tools with the elementary math curriculum. Special education staff will be able to provide valuable complementary instruction to many regular education students as well as students with special needs. This program may be duplicated and shared throughout the elementary system.

Middle School Awards

Understanding the Whole Boys Curriculum
Dr. William Pollack, noted author of the Real Boys series and child psychologist, will provide 16 hours of training to WMS teachers, with priority given to 6th grade teachers. Topics included will be research, curriculum challenges, and the neurodevelopment of boys, as well as other gender issues. These seminars will help teachers evaluate their own teaching practices and help them to better relate to, understand, and educate their students.

Tools to Enhance Reading Skills for ELL Students
This project involves purchasing iPods to use with ELL students to help them develop reading comprehension as well as speaking skills. They can listen as they read, and then record and play back the iPod to improve their pronunciation.

Visual Presenters, WMS Math Dept
Visual presenters, also called document cameras, are used by the WMS math department to support the new math curriculum called Connected Mathematics Project, or CMP. This curriculum creates opportunities for students to solve problems using a variety of strategies. Class discussion focuses on explaining and defending different approaches. Students use the visual presenters share math strategies from their notebooks quickly and spontaneously. Last year WEF purchased 6 new visual presenters. This year we will provide six more, which means that all 12 math classrooms will have this new and very effective technology.

High School Awards

Mounted Overhead Projection Systems
Use of a mounted overhead projection system allows teachers to bring the world into their classrooms by accessing internet sites, displaying instructional material such as artwork, class notes, student work etc. The image displayed by a projection system is larger and more clearly viewed by all students.

iBooks for Projection System Carts
Projection system carts are shared between several classrooms. Each time a teacher needs the cart for a lesson that utilizes a computer (Internet access, PowerPoint presentations etc) the teacher must borrow a laptop from the social studies department, leaving the cart missing computers for classroom use. This grant will provide a dedicated iBook for each projection cart, so that all technology can be fully utilized.

Dancer-in-Residence
This grant will fund a Dancer-in-Residence for September of 2008 through June 2009. The Dancer in Residence will co-teach fitness and health classes which will initially encompass a total of 60 students. At the conclusion of the year, dance will become part of the Fitness Department and will be a viable choice for students to meet their five semester requirement for graduation.

Botball
The funds will be used to purchase a membership in the national Botball program that fosters hands-on learning about robotics. Membership not only allows participation in the competition, but also provides materials for construction of robots, professional development for teachers, and sample curriculum for a robotics course. The robotics program is growing, and is now an elective as well as an after school club. This grant will support robotics' growing popularity at WHS.

WBZ WeatherBug Weather Station and Archive
This grant will allow the WHS Science department to participate in the WBZ weatherbug program. The installation of a professional grade weather collection system on the WHS roof will connect the students to over 8500 weather stations across the country. Students will have access to real time data, digitally available for use in earth science classrooms. Students will learn to collect, analyze and display data which is real-time and relevant. An additional advantage of having this information available in real-time is that it can be used in making decisions about school closures and games.

Projector for Science Classroom
This grant will fund a projector for one of the science classrooms.

Mounting of LCD Projectors in Math Dept
Mounting the projectors in Rooms 234, 235 and 239 will allow the teachers to use the SmartBoards without realigning the projector each time the board is used. Additionally, the images on the board would not be blocked and the cords would not be in the way of students and teachers.