Grants: 2008-2009
Manchester Memorial School
Math Literacy - Books that reinforce math concepts taught in the classroom in a fun and interesting way for the “Everyday Math Program” in both Elementary Schools.
American Sign Language - An instructor provides an overview of American Sign Language and deaf culture to the Kindergarten program. Classes include games that teach signs of animals, colors and feelings. Sign language will be taught to accompany songs that the children are learning in class. Research has shown that sign language helps strengthen skills in reading, math and other academic pursuits.
4th Grade Laptop Headsets –These headsets have been an excellent addition to the laptops purchased by a prior Spaulding grant. These headsets allow students to work independently in the classroom, focusing on individual keyboarding exercises and or practicing dictation with the teacher. Not only are the headsets helpful in keyboarding, but also allow students to extend their research and communication skills to include blogs and podcasts. The teachers and students give the headsets a big thumbs up!
African Percussionist/Artist in Residence - Spaulding enthusiastically supports music and the arts. A recent grant for a weeklong “artist in residence” brought Afro-percussion musician, Michael Wingfield, to both Manchester & Essex third grades. The students were drumming, singing (in different African languages), and performing every day. At the end of the week, the third grade Essex students joined their Manchester third grade classmates for a special hour-long performance for parents at Memorial School. The program was a great success!
Elmo Document Readers –The “Elmo”document readers have made an incredible difference across all curriculum areas in the first grade. Teachers say that it is now hard to imagine the classroom without one. In math, teachers are able to project real manipulatives onto the board and have students come up and problem solve using them. In writing they can immediately peer edit work as a class. This technology has been a great benefit to students and teachers.
Podcast Equipment - With this grant, the fifth grade has been able to achieve one of the school district’s technology goals. Podcasting was high on teacher lists as an objective for the 2008-2009 school year. With only two microphones in the computer lab, the first podcasts took over three weeks to complete. Thanks to a Spaulding grant, they now have 75 microphones. The students’ podcasts coincide with the unit of study, are completed in a timely manner, and can be heard on the school website immediately. This is a grant that supports our technology-minded kids and gives them great incentive to read, write and learn - a win/win for everybody!
5th Grade Play Sponsor/Merrowvista - Spaulding is a proud corporate sponsor for Memorial School’s annual 5th grade play. Profits from this production go directly to helping fund the classes’ annual trip to New Hampshire’s Camp Merrowvista. During this weeklong adventure, students work on team building and communication skills. One of the goals of the trip is for children to strengthen their foundation as a class before they set off to Middle School.
Essex Elementary School
Activboards - To date, this pilot program for the 1st & 5th grades has been a great success. Activboards are amazing “21st century chalkboards”, that make learning a truly engaging and exciting experience. These boards work in conjunction with Activote™ -a handheld input device which in combination with Activprimary™ software allows teachers to receive immediate feedback from every student in the class regarding their understanding of the lesson. The teacher poses the question and students input their answers which are immediately tabulated for reference and discussion.
Middle School
MS Science Lab Equipment - The first piece of equipment, “duel view” and projecting microscopes, will enable teachers to project “live” images of things at the microscopic level ranging from cells to the crystal structure of minerals and rocks. The second purchase is a human torso/mannequin showing parts related to the digestive, muscular, nervous and skeletal systems. This model is for health or science classes.
One of the ongoing goals for the science teachers is to improve student observation and communication skills. The microscopes provide a new way of looking at everyday objects in a different and often intriguing way. Viewing something as simple as a penny or salt crystal opens up the fascinating world of microscopy. The expected outcome is that students will be better observers and through discussion more practiced in communicating their observations.Laptop Carts (30 laptops) - The goal of this project is to integrate technology into the core curriculum of middle school enhancing both teaching and learning. Providing for the availability of laptops in the classroom will prevent the delay and disconnect that the middle school was experiencing due to the difficulty they had in gaining access to equipment. Teachers will be able to plan, enrich, and conduct classroom instruction with all of the benefits of a networked computer lab, without having to leave their classroom. Students will have more opportunity to see the connections of a technological world while studying in all areas of the curriculum giving it more relevance. Students will be able to utilize technology in a seamless fashion during the normal course of instruction. The benefit to students will be the ability to do research, outlines, and writing in a rich, hands on learning environment where the teacher can facilitate and collaborate with students.
Middle School and High School Author Visit - Creating lifelong learners is a primary objective of our school and an author visit can only enhance this. Imagine the impact of having an author sharing their life, their work, writing techniques and career. The author will make a connection between the curriculum and the themes, topics and writing style of the book. In preparation for the author visit, many high school students will read one of his books (The Dante Club or The Poe Shadow) and have a book discussion in English class. Middle school students will study stories by Edgar Allan Poe such as The Tell-Tale Heart and The Black Cat. The author will give a presentation and conduct a writing workshop. During the presentations the author will speak about his life, the writing process and about the research he did for the books. A visit from an author will inspire the students to want to read, write and learn more about the writing a book.
High School
MX Hornets Robotics Team - The Robotics program is an extra-curricular activity where a team of students organize themselves to plan, fund and execute a robot development project that culminates in a regional (and possibly national) competition with other schools across the country. Students volunteer for the team which includes participation and support from the high school, industry sponsors and mentors/parents. This year’s team started in September and will continue through at least the end of March with an intensive 6 week period of robot design and construction that starts in January. The team’s robot then competes with (and against) robots from other teams in an organized “game” at the regional competition held at Boston University in March 2009.
Submarine Field Trip - This is the 2nd year that Spaulding has helped to support this unique and unprecedented look into the “physics of Submarines” at Naval Submarine School, (SUBSCOL), Groton CT. Submarines are arguably the most sophisticated engineering & applied physics marvels of the world, only rivaled by the NASA space shuttle itself. Physic students will be given detailed tours and participate in operational trainers and simulators, specifically designed to train the officers and enlisted members of the U.S. Submarine force, in the physics that apply to all tactics of submarine warfare. Students will see and experience firsthand the kinematics of submarine motion, how pressure and buoyancy physics affect real submarine dynamics and damage control, the application of Newton’s laws of motion in three dimensions of a 7000 - 9000 ton submarine. Electricity, electronic, light and sounds principles of physics will be shown in action as applied to sophisticated ship and SONAR systems, periscope implementation and navigation in three dimensions using the most advanced tools ever designed. Only from seeing and hands-on experience of these devices, will students truly appreciate all the physics they have learned in the class room and how “Physics truly is everywhere”, even many hundreds of feet below the surface of the ocean, on and in a U.S. Navy submarine.
DECA Funding - DECA is an organization of high school marketing students who learn how to apply general marketing concepts in a realistic and competitive scenario. The high school’s DECA team has been phenomenally successful over the years – often traveling and winning in national competitions. Spaulding has been a consistent supporter of this important MERSD organization so that they have the resources necessary to travel and compete.
Anatomy & Physiology Models and Materials - This Spaulding grant has helped support the Human Anatomy and Physiology class offered to juniors and seniors at both the College Prep and Honors level. This class has gained popularity in the past two years, going from enrollments of 4-6 to 26 students. This is exciting development from a curriculum and academic perspective.
The Science department has had to increase the budget for this class to accommodate the large increase in enrollment, which includes consumable teaching materials, such as the Coloring Workbook, as well as a class set of Laboratory Manuals. In addition, the Science department replenishes parts for broken models, skeletons, microscopes and slides, preserved specimens (eyes, hearts, brains, rats, fetal pigs), dissection kits, gloves, etc.
Teaching Human Anatomy & Physiology (A&P) presents challenges that are not encountered in other science classes. In addition to the above teaching materials, the class revolves around instruction by models, which are integrated in laboratories throughout the year. Anatomical models provide 3-dimensional and accurate representations of both microscopic and gross anatomy structures and physiological processes. As such, they are invaluable and necessary teaching tools. In fact, students perform better when taught with models than when taught with traditional diagrams and notes. They are also expensive and currently exceed budget limitations of the Science Department.
This grant has made a big difference in helping students achieve success in this challenging science course.
Research Seminar Series and Summer Internships - This grant funds a project designed to expand the existing Science curriculum by hosting a Research Seminar Series. This seminar program will invite research scientists to our school to talk about their work and its implication in the field of Science. We will also invite professionals who work in the field of Science to talk with students about career possibilities.
This project will also support the summer internship that is sought and acquired by students enrolled in the Authentic Science Research program. ASR internship students travel to science research labs and participate in hands-on research during the summer between Junior and Senior year.
The goals of this project are to provide high school students the exposure to cutting-edge Science research and career possibilities. Faculty and staff in all district schools are always invited to the seminars, and often attend. A secondary goal of this project is to support the summer internships of ASR students between the Junior and Senior year. The MERSD Science Department expects to have continued success with internship placements at major research centers in the Boston area – a phenomenal opportunity for our kids!
Debate Team Mentor - MERHS has hired a new debate teacher/coach to begin September 2009. This is a complex and involved position that ultimately provides students with debate training and opportunities to compete. The learning curve in acclimating to this position in the high school is steep and requires that this new teacher accomplish many important goals to ensure a successful debate year. Specifically:
- Setting the debate calendar for 2009-2010
- Development of fundraising materials
- Revision of permission forms/health forms/parent information
- Hiring of 2 assistant coaches
- Home tournament logistics
- Operating procedures for use with newly hired bus company
- Registration for Yale and Bronx Science tournaments
- Coordination of division of tournament responsibilities between 3 coaches
Physics Learning Systems- This system will be used by physics students in grades 8-12. This will be a very powerful injection of inquiry learning materials, spanning middle school through graduation. This initiative mirrors the school’s commitment to strengthen the physics background of our students. The goals of this project are to provide class sets of equipment that are very fun to use, and are widely recognized in the science education community as being of the highest quality. They result in significant learning of physics concepts and of guided inquiry methods. Lab experiences will help students learn, enjoy, and not be afraid of getting involved in physics.
Project Adventure Snow Shoes Program - One of the foundations of Project Adventure has been stewardship of nature and building a healthy relationship with the outdoors. This program will promote winter activities “outside” that are plausible in the time allotted for each PE class. In addition to snowshoeing, teachers have plans to incorporate winter mountaineering skills with use of traditional compass and map navigations skills. They would also like to incorporate more technological techniques in the future using handheld GPS units and possible geocaching.
Manchester Essex Regional High School Film Club - This grant was initiated by high school student, Charlotte Cheshire. Charlotte, who had an interest in filmmaking, took courses outside of the school system and began filmmaking on her own. Her personal interest turned into great success – recently winning the “Salem Five Minute Film Festival” – a great achievement at the age of 17! Her success and love of filmmaking inspired her to create this film club at the High School, providing a much needed afterschool activity that focuses on the arts. Students will be able to write, shoot, and edit their own digital films and will be able to engage in peer review and critique of each other’s projects, as a process for improving their own work. Students will also be able work on script writing conventions, principles of cinematography, and theories of editing.
Digital Science/Math Labs - This project will allow any math or science teacher in the district to use digital collecting equipment for the purpose of augmenting and enhancing their curriculum, or to develop new lessons that they otherwise would not be able to do.
This equipment will allow the students of MERSD to be exposed to technology that they will see at the college level, as well as in industry. There are extremely few tasks that require analog data collection (by hand), and the world at large is using digital equipment. In the science fields, nearly everything is digital. In the math (geometry, trigonometry and calculus in particular) and science (chemistry, physics) all students can benefit by using the graphing of data for analysis and extrapolation. The staff of the middle and high schools can utilize these instructional tools to further engage their classes.Revolutionary Thinking - The high school English, history and library teachers have developed an inter-disciplinary research project for the ninth grade on “Revolutionary Thinking”. This initiative creates an interdisciplinary collaboration between English, history and the library helping students to understand history through literature and makes content more relevant and interesting to the students. This initiative’s goal is to aid in improving research, debate and writing skills and will culminate in an end of year debate and term paper. This grant funded the purchase of books and audio visual equipment to support this project as well as funding for a speaker and field trip.
Student Response System - This grant purchased a “Student Response System” that teachers integrate during classroom instruction to determine “in the moment” assessment of student understanding. The product includes a classroom set of 24 student response devices for each school and two sets available for the High School. The goals of this project are to incorporate technology to facilitate teaching and learning, increase student attentiveness and participation in classroom activities, and enhance student performance in key subject areas. This system will provide immediate feedback to teachers regarding student understanding and these devices call for 100% student participation. Feedback on this system has been outstanding – both students and teachers think it is a terrific and very valuable teaching system.
Digital Portfolio Course - This grant will provide high school art teacher, Marion Powers, access to a Salem State technology course enabling her to help students to digitally keep portfolios. She will also be able to provide material for a website, college entry portfolios, NEASC, exemplars, teaching aids (for individual and department sharing), portfolio assessments, AP Portfolio, and contest entries. In today’s evolving world of technology, this training is invaluable in staying current with the electronic needs of the students and the district art program and curriculum.
Development Officer - The Development Officer for the Manchester Essex Regional School District is a newly created position, being funded for the first year by a Spaulding grant. This person is responsible for defining a fundraising strategy with a clear mission and targeted goals and identifying and procuring funds to support additional resources for the District’s buildings and programs that meet its educational needs and policy. The Development Officer will work closely with the Fundraising Task Force, District Administration and report directly to the School Committee.
Essential Functions of the Development Officer will be:
- Create and implement a plan and strategies for raising funds, creating awareness, and identifying volunteer leadership for a capital campaign, incorporating a timeline compatible with the opening of the new middle school and high school in the fall of 2009.
- Research, develop and secure funding opportunities from private and public sources which enhance Manchester Essex Regional School District's instructional programs. Develop partnerships with potential donors, business and private foundations.
- Develop collateral materials that provide important data and information regarding educational programs, student achievement, and other educational and/or system information for potential funding providers.
- Manage the funding process from beginning to end. Develop the mission and goals and project plan with timeline. Work closely and collaboratively with current fundraising groups to coordinate overall activities and areas of opportunity. Create reporting system to monitor expenditures, provide funders with necessary reports and up-dates, and secure future funding in identified program areas.
- Research and evaluate prospective matches to available monies.
- Work closely with the Fundraising Task Force to keep members informed of progress. Prepare and disseminate a monthly report of Fundraising Activities. Upon request, facilitate work sessions with the School Committee and Administrative Team.
