Grants: 2009-2010

Manchester Memorial School

Ballroom Dancing – 5th grade students at Manchester Memorial School will be participating in a ballroom dancing program, that was originally developed for the 5th graders at Essex Elementary School in 2007. This program integrates Spanish, physical education and music classes. Ballroom dancing was funded at the Essex Elementary School by a Spaulding grant, and was a great success.

The Gloucester Times ran an article about the Essex program, and here is what they had to say: “…. Many agree that the greatest appeal of ballroom dance is the fact that it's a new experience for the students. The program was inspired by the documentary "Mad Hot Ballroom," which follows 11-year-old New York children as they learn ballroom dancing and compete. Comments from the teachers include: “It's helped to give them a more authentic perspective on the language," said Spanish teacher Margaret Sears. "It's a great way to introduce cultural conventions, like the way people greet each other in Spanish-speaking countries - kissing on each cheek. Those things are difficult to teach out of context. But when they're partnering up for the dance, it makes it much easier to teach them." The dance class is an opportunity to teach the kinds of lessons - like etiquette and diversity - that so often are not a part of the normal curriculum. For gym teacher Linda Collins, it's a chance to teach them a new form of health and physical fitness through dance. "There's a lot more respect," said music teacher Richard Carpenter.”

Singing & Signing – This grant covers funding for an instructor to provide 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. Why is this initiative important to our kindergarteners? Research has shown that sign language helps strengthen skills in reading, math and other academic pursuits. Terrific!

5th Grade Play – Spaulding is a proud 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.

Resource Room/ILC Store – This grant helped support the ILC Resource Room “Store”. In order to maximize student achievement and motivation, a reward system (behavioral management plan) is utilized within the Resource Room and Individualized Learning Center. Students have the opportunity to “earn” points everyday, which can be spent once a week in the “Store,” an area of the classroom where token prizes are chosen from categorized boxes. Examples of “prizes” include: posters, fancy pencils, super balls, etc. Behavioral and performance expectations are carefully explained, modeled, and posted in the classroom. These ‘key behaviors’ are critical to maximizing work output, increasing work accuracy, increasing on-task behavior, decreasing dependency, increasing effort/motivation/ cooperation, and improving self-esteem. Students receive concrete, immediate, corrective feedback and positive reinforcement on a continual basis. This behavioral management plan is a simple, yet effective program for increasing effort and motivation, fostering independent work habits, and encouraging cooperation.

Activboards – One 1st grade and 4th grade classroom are piloting the "Activboard" system. A similar pilot is taking place at the Essex Elementary School, and to date, it has been quite successful. Activboards are amazing "21st century chalkboards", that make learning a truly engaging and exciting experience. Teachers can draw from the Internet incredible programs designed to enhance the curriculum in ways that really speak to the students - with outstanding visuals, video, and graphic instruction. 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. If you can, ask Mrs. Colpoys for a demonstration – you'll be amazed!

Elmo Document Readers – On the heels of 1st grade's success with the "Elmo Document Reader", Memorial's 2nd grades will be getting in on the act - benefiting from this "on-the-spot" technology. What is an "Elmo Document Reader"? They are "21st Century" overhead projectors. Why are they so great? They provide teachers with instant access to visually present materials in the classroom, allowing them to grab those "teachable moments" on the spot. The old equipment would only allow teachers to project images on clear transparencies (remember those?) requiring pre-planning and trips to the copy machine. With the Elmo Document Reader, teachers can project any image at anytime from books and worksheets, to a child's writing assignment, as well as projecting images and video from the Internet. This makes learning much more visual and interesting for our 21st century kids.

American Sign Language – This grant covers funding for an instructor to provide 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. Why is this initiative important to our kindergarteners? Research has shown that sign language helps strengthen skills in reading, math and other academic pursuits. Terrific!

Essex Elementary School

Activboards - To date, this pilot program for the 1st & 5th grades have been a great success. This grant expands funding for this initiative by purchasing additional boards for the remaining 1st & 5th grade classes. Activboards are amazing "21st century chalkboards", that make learning a truly engaging and exciting experience. Teachers can draw from the Internet incredible programs designed to enhance the curriculum in ways that really speak to the students – with outstanding visuals, video, and graphic instruction. 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. If you can, ask Mr. Bodmer-Turner for a demonstration – you'll be amazed!

Middle School

Student Response System Buzzers - The 7th grade team has been successfully conducting whole-grade academic quiz bowls. Each core teacher submits approximately 25 questions from his or her curriculum to the quiz bowl pool of questions. After preliminary rounds conducted in individual classrooms, winning teams from each classroom face off in the final round in the Team 7 circle area. While the two quiz bowls have been enormous successes both in terms of reviewing and reinforcing academic content, and also in terms of generating class spirit and developing good sportsmanship and audience skills, this system will allow us to increase student engagement and activity fairness.

Also, individual teachers can use the buzzer system to review and reinforce curriculum in an engaging way in their own classrooms. The buzzer system allows for flexibility and creativity in gauging student understanding. Students may respond as individuals or in teams and up to 40 students can participate in any given round.

High School

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.

Senior Physics Labware - As a continuation to the very successful "Physics First" program funded by a Spaulding grant in 2008, the Science Department is receiving additional funding for equipment that supports second year physics at all levels (honors/AP). This equipment allows students to dive into experiential learning, learn about abstractions through the use of concrete materials of exceptional quality and to truly strengthen their foundation in physical science. This grant will also purchase lab equipment with which to teach Newtonian mechanics.

Additionally, this grant will invest in "Vernier Data Collection Systems" for the physics lab. These electronic data collection devices are the best, most state of the art systems available. They allow the student to measure forces, acceleration, wavelength, and other parameters with electronic probes and sensors that are interfaced with existing computers. Exciting!

Humanities Week - With the help of the Spaulding Education Fund, students and our community are celebrating the opening of our state-of-the-art school with a Humanities Week from April 5th – 9th, 2010. Learning about the people behind the book, the piece of art, the dance, or the music is a fantastic and effective tool to build excitement and interest in the arts for students. "Humanities Week" will be a wonderful way for students to develop a greater appreciation of music, literature, and art. Among the presenters will be author Anita Diamant, author and holocaust survivor Sonia Weitz, Tufts University, A cappella group The Beelzebubs, graphic novelist Gareth Hinds, Smithsonian author Deborah Cramer, and artist Caleb Neelon.

Flip Minos - The Flip Mino video camera is a small, easy-to-use video camera that allows the user to easily film, view, and edit videos for assessment, reflection and documentation. The applications of this simple, yet clever piece of technology are only limited to the imagination of its user. From having students narrate field trips to digital storytelling projects, the Flip Mino will allow students the opportunity to express their original thoughts and ideas and thus develop increased attentiveness and participation in both classroom and out of classroom activities.

Turning Technologies - The Student Response Systems, affectionately known as "the clickers", allow students to participate in presentations or lectures by submitting responses to interactive questions using a ResponseCard™ keypad. Native to Powerpoint, a program most teachers utilize, the clickers allow staff to incorporate multiple choice questions into their lessons and check-in with their students by using these devices to assess understanding. The system also allows the aggregated student responses to be tabulated and graphed within seconds. Teachers can then use this data to target small group instruction and to develop fun and engaging lesson presentations.

MX Hornets Robotics Team - This is the 4th year that Spaulding has helped to support the High School Robotics Team. This grant pays for the annual entry fee for registration and the actual robotics kit the team uses to build the robot that competes in the "First" (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science & Technology) competition. The High School has recently added a robotics course to their curriculum and offers an after school robotics program for students as well.

In addition to getting students excited about science and technology, the program's other educational goals include business development, project planning, media relations and team building. Beyond the obvious technical roles of hardware and software design and construction, there are several less technical but equally important roles to be filled including sponsor development/fundraising, financial management, logistics, graphics/web design and community liaison/historian work. Good luck MX Hornets in this year's competition!