Princeton Education Foundation

2008 Mini-Grant Awards

2008-09 MINI-GRANT APPLICATION AWARD SUMMARY Total Amount = $7,791

The Princeton Education Foundation received 18 grant applications for the 2008-09 school year. Twelve applications were from the elementary schools. Four applications came from the middle school and two from the high school.

Look What You Can Find On-Line. Media Specialists. Carolyn Bailey (JP Library) and Nina Lowe (RS Library) and Carolyn Gishlick (Media Specialist/Librarian) at Community Park School.. The media specialists/librarians at three elementary schools would like to purchase an on-line subscription for four encyclopedia programs from Grolier Multimedia (the same program used at the middle school). The encyclopedias would be available to students not only at school but at home. The encyclopedias are written for K-5 students and have some sections developed especially for Spanish speakers and English language learners.

“Just the facts, kids. Just the facts.” Emily Moorman and Sharon Ryon (5^th) at Johnson Park School. The purpose is to help 5^th grade students improve their computational fluency in math using games and hands-on materials to help students “see” and learn basic math facts. Teachers will purchase instructional materials (e.g., math games, math cards, manipulatives, cds) to create a math lending library. Based on students’ needs and learning styles, teachers will introduce and recommend games during in-class activities. Teachers will also encourage students to check out games and take them home on the weekend.

Type to Learn. Michael Rodos (4^th), Deb Schulterbrandt (Special Education) and Liz Lien (Instructional Technology Coordinator) for Community Park School. These teachers are aware that elementary students need to rely on computer technology to communicate and will be required to use their keyboarding skills extensively during middle and high school. Their goal is to help elementary students prepare for this challenge and learn to type 15 words per minute with an accuracy rate of 90%. The application requests a software license that will cover the entire school although the project will focus on 4^th grade classes this year.

Where I’m From: Community Quilts. Sarah Schwimmer, Nancy Livingston and Martha Kirby (5^th) at Littlebrook School. The purpose is to explore with students how community, history and family influence who we are and how we view the world. Students will visit the Princeton Art Council and see the quilt on display there and then write poems and create images that can be used to create their own mini-quilt. The application requests materials from fabric stores, a stipend for a guest quilter and a bus for a field trip.

Building Peace by Celebrating Diversity. Sharon A. Pagliere, Guidance Counselor, at Community Park School. The purpose of this project is to support, enhance and expand the school-wide character education program’s activities with a field trip to the KidsBridge Children’s Museum at the College of New Jersey. The field trip provides a hands-on opportunity to look at the topics of anti-bullying, respecting differences, building cooperation and peace building skills. The counselor would like to focus on third grade students. The application requests funds for bus rental for a field trip and admission tickets for students.

Finding Common Ground: Helping Students Learn Empathy. Jennifer Walters, Guidance Counselor, at Littlebrook School. The purpose of this project is to support, enhance and expand the school-wide anti-bullying initiative which is part of the character education program. The guidance counselor would like to focus on activities that educate students about prejudice, discrimination and intolerance. She believes that a field trip to the KidsBridge Children’s Museum at the College of New Jersey will be a non-threatening way to expose young children to these concepts and create age-appropriate ways to understand these concepts. The application requests funds for bus rental for a field trip and admission tickets for students.

What Does the Future Hold. Evelyn Counts and John Cronin (Guidance Counselors) at John Witherspoon Middle School. Two of the middle school guidance counselors submitted a joint application to create an activity that will bring 6^th and 7^th grade students who are struggling and unfocused in their academic life together with counselors in small groups to work on goal setting, achieving goals and linking daily educational experiences to their future career and education plans. Funds requested in this application would be used for lunches (since the project will take place during the school day), instructional supplies and bus rental for a field trip.

Connecting with Reading Enrichment Communities – A Collaborative Project Between the English and Special Education Departments. Kelley Carney (Special Education – English II), Florence Meehan (Special Education – Co-Teaching Partner in English II), Scott Cameron, Greta Muca, Doug Levandowski, Christopher Collins and Sandra Manning (English) at Princeton High School (PHS). The purpose of this department wide activity is to engage sophomores in supplemental reading, writing and discussion of texts that they have selected from a reading list. The texts that have been selected for the supplemental reading list are culturally responsive and some were recommended by New York University’s Metropolitan Center for Urban Education. The grant funds would be used to purchase copies of texts on the reading list that will be used by students in 2008-09 and in subsequent school years.

2007 Mini-Grant Awards

MINI-GRANT APPLICATION AWARD SUMMARY Total Amount = $4,883.45

The Princeton Education Foundation received 14 grant applications this fall. Nine applications were from the elementary schools. Two applications came from the middle school and three from the high school.

Inventions Across the Curriculum. Julie Fallas and Linda Gougoutas (4^th) at Community Park School. The purpose is to build on students’ prior knowledge of inventions and provide the materials for them to create their own unique invention. This is a multi-discipline project that includes science/technology, language arts, social studies, economics and the arts. The inventions will be evaluated on originality, usefulness, how well it is constructed, brochure design to advertise the invention, and the presentation of it to others. Materials requested include: handbooks, video tapes on inventions and general supplies (i.e. pulleys, levers, electric circuits, motors, magnets, etc.) to supplement each student’s invention design and field trip costs for a visit to Liberty Science Center.

Everyone Eats Rice. Lois Bach, K-5 ESL Program at Johnson Park School. The purpose is to “travel” to countries around the world through the use of authentic literature, art, music and dance to understand other countries. The students will also research the geography, ecology and environment of their chosen countries. The students will discover how these countries are unique and similar. The students will make presentations about the country they studied during a dinner featuring rice dishes from around the world. This application requests funding for materials including: CDs with music for folk dancing, art prints and books at various reading levels and transportation to the Princeton University Art Museum.

Supporting Handwriting Skills in Grades K-1. Martha Friedman, Occupational Therapist at Riverside School. This project is an adjunct to a school-wide handwriting initiative that will include general and special education students (including the autism program students at RS). The school has already purchased handwriting workbooks and teacher guides to implement the program school wide. This application requests supplemental non-consumable materials to help teachers adapt instruction for diverse learners, including: individual sized chalk boards and wood piece letter sets. The students’ work will be sampled three times during the school year.

Enhance Student Understanding of Area & Square Units. Jean Wernicki (6^th) Math at John Witherspoon Middle School. The purpose is to plan math lessons on the area of geometric solids and trigonometry using the educational game Blokus. This approach uses kinesthetic and tactile exploration and will enable students with different learning styles to “see” the concepts. The game has colorful, transparent pieces that allow the students to touch and trace these shapes as they explore both area and perimeter of convex and concave shapes. The game is an excellent educational tool which develops spatial reasoning power and has been lauded by MENSA.

We are the World. Cob Powlen (French), Regena Tardugno (Spanish), Bob Vivens (Social Studies), Paul Lynch (Social Studies) and John Cronin (Guidance Counselor) at John Witherspoon Middle School. The purpose is to introduce students in 7^th grade social studies classes to the United Nations as a world institution that promotes communication among nations of the world. They will also study the many agencies within the UN that assist people around the world. Students will visit the UN on a field trip and learn about the United Nations in social studies and world language classes prior to the field trip. The students will then identify related needs in the Princeton community and participate in outreach projects. The grant application requests funds to help defray the costs of student transportation to NYC and tickets for admission to the U.N.

Robotics as an Educational Tool for Programming Classes. Graciela Elia (PHS). The purpose of this activity is to help students acquire robotics and computer programming skills by using kits that will show them what their logical decisions will do and how their thought processes are interpreted by the electronic devices. The kits will allow the students to: problem solve, make connects with concepts, develop reasoning skills, and transfer their understanding and knowledge into actual representations. Each kit costs approximately $300.