The Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI) has awarded 17
Teacher Grants totaling $25,000 for projects to be carried out during the
2014-15 school year. The grants will enhance learning for approximately 1,700
Ithaca City School District (ICSD) students.
Teacher Grants fund classroom projects that are linked with state
learning standards and enrich the curricular opportunities for students and
their teachers. Proposals for a maximum grant amount of $1,500 are made by
teachers. In keeping with IPEI’s mission of “connecting school and community,”
they always include a community partner.
IPEI’s Teacher Grants Review Committee Chair Sandy True expressed:
“I have been involved with the Teacher Grants program for over 15 years and
have witnessed firsthand the incredible impact IPEI has made on our students by
supporting the curricular-based, creative ideas from the teachers that involve
partnering with our talented community.
These grants fulfill many goals including unique, creative learning
experiences for our children; support for the teachers as they explore new ways
to engage students; and community involvement in the success of our students.”
Two Teacher Grant projects were selected during the competitive
review process to be funded through the Charles E. Treman Jr. Teacher Grants
Fund of the Tompkins Charitable Gift Fund in memory of the late Tompkins Trust
Company president. They include
“Playing -- Out of the Box or In!” and “Phun with Physics.” Another grant,
“Songs, Music and Movement, and Literacy,” is funded by a gift from a retired
ICSD teacher to encourage the integration of music into elementary classrooms.
IPEI will fund the other 14 grants through the annual Adult Spelling
Bee (scheduled for March 1, 2015) and its 2014-15 annual fund, “Reach High with
IPEI.” In addition, IPEI offers four
rounds of Red and Gold Grants as well as Community Collaboration Grants and
Connecting Classrooms Grants, which are reviewed on a rolling basis. The Fine
Arts Booster Group, an affiliate of IPEI, has also recently announced the first
of its two rounds of mini-grants.
Northeast Elementary School special education teacher
Nicole Dauria will collaborate with educators and playworkers from the Ithaca
Children’s Garden for “Playing--Out of the Box or In!” The kindergartners will
experience the interconnectedness of literature, nature, and play through open-ended
play sessions, books, an evening family program, and a field trip to the Ithaca
Children’s Garden. The project will use play to support language development,
social and emotional growth, and problem-solving skills. In indoor and outdoor
constructed play spaces, the children will explore, build, and create with
nature-based materials. Observations and input from the children will inform
the development of two nature play kits. The kits and the three books used in
the program will be made available to the entire school.
“Phun with Physics” is the project of Fall
Creek Elementary School teacher Chris Bell in collaboration with Xraise, the
outreach education program of Cornell’s Laboratory for Accelerator-Based
Science and Education, and the Physics Bus, Ithaca’s traveling physics
classroom. Two first-grade classes will take monthly trips to Cornell’s Wilson
Laboratory to experiment with electricity, light, sound waves, and magnetism at
the facility’s education center and watch scientists work in the underground
accelerator tunnel. Once back in the classroom, they will help create exhibits
for the Physics Bus using recycled materials. The goal of the project is to show
students at an early age that science is accessible and fun.
Enfield Elementary School Pre-Kindergarten
teacher Sharon Ciferri will collaborate with Judy Stock, a local folk musician
and music educator, for the project “Songs, Music and Movement, and Literacy.”
Through music, books, and music-based activities, the children will play with
the sounds of words and rhymes to increase their letter identification and
letter-sound connection skills. Families will have the opportunity to become
involved in the project and support their children’s learning experiences,
share in the joy of music, and strengthen the school-home connection.
Last year IPEI released research-based evidence that the programs
and activities it funds through grants to teachers and schools effectively
increase student engagement. Data from reports submitted by teachers who were
awarded grants in 2012-13 showed that ICSD students' engagement rose by an
average of nearly 50 percent following an IPEI grant-funded activity. For
students identified as "performing below grade level," the average
increase in engagement was even higher.
Pat
Tempesta, chair of IPEI’s Grants Committee, reports that data collected from
2013-14 grant recipients indicate that student engagement again rose following
IPEI grant-funded activities. “It is encouraging to see a second year of
assessment data confirming that our grants consistently lead to an increase in
active student involvement in their learning,” Tempesta expressed. “Kudos to
our teachers who encourage this kind of student engagement by taking the time
to create great, innovative projects!"
IPEI Teacher Grants 2014-15 by School
Belle Sherman Elementary
Planning and Printing a
Community
Allison Trdan, Teacher
Hod Lipson, Professor
of Engineering at Cornell University and Gabriella D’Angelo, Professor of Art
and Architecture Studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Beverly
J. Martin Elementary
Music for Unity and Social Change; Motivational Assembly and
Workshop Series
Ahrayna Zakos, Teacher
Elisa Sciscioli,
musician and Harmony Graves, Community Unity Music Education Program
Powered By Poetry
Rachel Valenzano,
Teacher
Sarah Wolff, Poet
Dancing through the Pages
Arne Van Leuken and
Marnie Ecklund, Teachers
Lisa Tsetse,
Choreographer
Emotions through the Arts-Mad, Sad, Glad with Dance
Kelly Craft, Teacher, with Beverly
J. Martin, Caroline and Northeast Pre-K Classes
Lisa Tsetse, Choreographer
Boynton Middle School
Ithaca to El Salvador:
Bridging Communities in the Spirit of Volunteerism!
Cara Salabrici,
Teacher
Mauricio Rosa, El
Salvadoran; Margit Chamberlain, Peace Corps, Rio Abajo El Salvadore
Spanish Brass Concert and Master Class***
Michael Allen, Teacher
Aaron Tindall,
Professor of Tuba at Ithaca College School of Music and the International Tuba
Conference
Caroline Elementary
Animals in the Garden: Making Friends through Literature,
Storytelling, and Permaculture
Kathleen Downes,
Teacher
Ithaca Children’s
Garden; Regi Carpenter, storyteller
Emotions through the Arts-Mad, Sad, Glad with Visual Art
Kathleen Downes,
Teacher, with Beverly J. Martin, Caroline and Northeast Pre-K Classes
Carol Hockett, Johnson
Museum of Art and Susan Zhender, Artist
DeWitt Middle School
Extending the Growing Season at DeWitt’s Vegetable Garden
with High Tunnels
Wayne Gottlieb, Teacher
Keith Thomson, Gardener
Continuing to Leveraging Students’ Access to Literature
Monica Sherman, Teacher
Karen Yearwood, The
Village at Ithaca
Spanish Brass Concert and Master Class***
Michael Allen, Teacher
Aaron Tindall,
Professor of Tuba at Ithaca College School of Music and the International Tuba
Conference
Enfield Elementary
Enfield Shines at Literacy
Georgette Graham,
Teacher
Carol Hockett, Johnson
Museum of Art and Doug Levine, State Theatre of Ithaca
Songs, Music & Movement and Literacy**
Sharon Ciferri, Teacher
Judy Stock, Musician
Fall Creek Elementary
Phun with Physics*
Chris Bell, Teacher
Xraise Outreach Program, Cornell University and
Erik Herman, Ithaca Physics Bus
Ithaca High School
Spanish Brass Concert and Master Class***
Michael Allen, Teacher
Aaron Tindall,
Professor of Tuba at Ithaca College School of Music and the International Tuba
Conference
Lehman Alternative Community School
Spanish Brass Concert and Master Class***
Michael Allen, Teacher
Aaron Tindall,
Professor of Tuba at Ithaca College School of Music and the International Tuba
Conference
Northeast Elementary
Playing – Out of the Box or In!*
Nicole Dauria, Teacher
Ithaca Children’s
Garden
Emotions through the Arts-Mad, Sad, Glad with Music
Larissa Anderson,
Teacher, with Beverly J. Martin, Caroline and Northeast Pre-K Classes
David Plaine and Mark
Sammo, Musicians and ICSD Bus Drivers
South
Hill Elementary
Music for Unity and Social Change; Motivational Assembly and
Workshop Series
Samantha Little,
Teacher
Elisa Sciscioli,
musician and Harmony Graves, Community Unity Music Education Program
*Selected
to be funded by the Charles E. Treman Jr. Teacher Grant Endowment of the
Tompkins Charitable Gift Fund in memory of the former president of the Tompkins
Trust Company.
**Selected
to be funded by a gift from a retired ICSD teacher who encourages the
integration of music into elementary classrooms.
*** Grade 6 - 12 band, chorus, orchestra
and theory students from LACS, DeWitt Middle School, Boynton Middle School and
Ithaca High School will be involved.
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