District 39 Educational Foundation
Inspiring Minds
Space is freaking awesome! This year’s Math in the Real World speaker was Dr. Michelle Larson, President and CEO of The Adler Planetarium.
[Read more…] about Dr. Michelle Larson, President & CEO of The Adler Planetarium, Shares Love of Space With WJHS Students
For the 7th year of Trivia Night, we changed up a lot, but made sure the fun was amped up as well! A new location at St. Joseph School created a different atmosphere. Sporcle Trivia Master and Jeopardy Champion Seth Wilson led the 19 teams through new types of trivia rounds requiring point wagering and strategy. We even added a Super Bowl Squares game to our raffle and Heads or Tails game for added fun and fundraising. The evening ended with a time for dancing and socializing so teams could mingle.
Congrats to Team Livin’ On A Square for their victory over the pack in the last trivia round!
Soymates won Best In Show with fabulous costumes and table decor!
The D39 Educational Foundation and District 39 partnered to host visiting Swiss Artist Verena Brassel May 16 – May 25 at WJHS. This initiative provided students with an opportunity to make connections across curriculum and explore different world views. The program was financed by the Foundation through the Lydia Martin Memorial Fund.
Science Olympiad Open House Wows!
Over 50 families joined Science Olympiad students and teachers at the program Open House on Saturday, February 25th. All of the courses from Food Science to Crime Busters to Bottle Rockets to Hovercraft and more were represented. Students proudly displayed the work they completed during the courses. Current HMS and WJHS students plus 4th graders looking to learn what Science Olympiad is all about were treated to enthusiastic student presentations. Congratulations to all of the Science Olympians on their great work! Thank you to Starbucks on Green Bay for donating coffee and Jewel-Osco on Green Bay for providing food for the event.
The Foundation approved two Gripp Grants for the Fall 2016 grant cycle – Breakout EDU boxes and Google Chromebooks.
The Educational Foundation and Wilmette Public Schools District 39 hosted a special Parent Night on Thursday, September 29, at WJHS.
Dr. Jo Boaler, Professor of Mathematics Education & Co-Founder of YouCubed at Stanford University and Cathy Williams, Co-Founder & Executive Director of YouCubed at Stanford University discussed what it means to teach math for a growth mindset and the implications for your child.
For more information about the speakers and YouCubed visit youcubed.org.
This event is made possible through funding from a Foundation Gripp Grant.
For more information about the event click HERE.
Questions? CONTACT D39 Department of Curriculum & Instruction. 847.512.6054
The District 39 Educational Foundation is thrilled to announce its Spring 2016 Gripp Grants and proud to distribute $12,502 to 3 D39 schools and the District’s Office of Curriculum and Instruction.
The District 39 Educational Foundation is proud to announce a gift of $40,000 over 4 years to the district, towards the learning commons initiative.
Congratulations to the JV & Varsity Science Olympiad teams for an outstanding performance at Regionals at Harper College! Varsity brought home a 1st place trophy & advances to States at U of I on April 16.
[Read more…] about Our Science Olympiad Team Advances to States!
Our 7th & 8th grade Varsity Science Olympiad team participated at the Marie Murphy competition on December 12. The kids represented the district well. They supported each other, had positive attitudes & brought home some medals
Who Done It? On March 12th students from WJHS attended a fascinating presentation by a Wilmette resident, who also happens to be a Special Agent in the FBI.
[Read more…] about WJHS Students Hear from an FBI Agent
At the start of the 2014-2015 school year, the Foundation’s Fine Arts Committee launched our Rack*It public arts program. Art teachers from all 6 schools incorporated a creative bike-rack design project into their curricula to get K-8 students involved in this new community-wide event.
The 2015 Spring round of Gripp Grants were awarded on March 26th. This grant cycle the Foundation approved four grants for projects at four different schools.
8th grade teachers Beth Kalish and Beth Cummo will pilot transforming a classroom at WJHS into a flexible learning space. Node desks with swivel seats and built-in stands for tablets, and white boards will be purchased to create a fluid environment. The classroom will be adaptable to suit different learning needs such as small-group work, whole classroom discussions, debates, collaborative work, etc.
At HMS, 6th grade teacher Eric Resis will pilot differentiated seating options with new, adjustable-height desks. The goal is to provide movement to help maintain focus and attention.
The students at McKenzie will soon have reusable water glasses and pitchers to use in the cafeteria thanks to a grant awarded to the McKenzie PTA and principal Denise Welter. This grant teaches the impact of recycling on our environment and the nutritional importance of water.
The final grant this spring funds the Emmy Noether Project at Romona. This 3-year project aims to raise awareness of deeply rooted societal attitudes and practices related to gender bias as it relates to math. Through teacher training, parent education and programming for young girls, one of the goals is to encourage girls to view their math abilities as expandable and improvable.
Visit our Gripp Grant page to learn more.
On Saturday, February 7th, 2015 over 200 friends, neighbors, and trivia buffs formed teams and came to the Woman’s Club of Wilmette dressed according to their own creative theme.
[Read more…] about 3rd Annual Trivia Night has a winner!The Foundation awarded 5 Gripp Grants this fall, totaling over $4,100. The 4th grade teachers at Romona will purchase automobile artifacts for students to examine during their inventions study using the 5 lenses of the new social studies curriculum. Romona’s Early Childhood Evaluation Team received a grant to create 3 new play scheme boxes to improve their assessment process.
WJHS Drama teacher, Dinah Barthelmess at WJHS will use her grant to conduct a Process Drama unit in her Improv Classes on “Us and Them” focusing on diversity and tolerance through a collaboration with Canadian teaching artist, Margaret Boersma. Also at WJHS, Yiyi Xu, the Mandarin teacher, will purchase an application to help students with reading proficiency and advanced vocabulary.
Lastly, Central’s 2nd grade teacher Susan Morris will use funds for technology to help with “fliperentiation” and cloned teacher mini lessons to reinforce concepts to accommodate the differentiation among students’ capabilities and learning styles. We look forward to seeing these grants in action and how our students will benefit from the innovative ideas of our talented D39 teachers!
The Foundation is excited to announce its plans for a Community Fine Arts Project funded through the Sam Mikaelian Fine Arts Fund during the 2014-2015 school year. With the help of District 39 students, the Foundation will facilitate the fabrication and installation of three artistic bike racks in the Village of Wilmette.
The Rack*It Project will begin in the art classes at all six District 39 Schools this Fall when the children are invited to design a bike rack that represents the community of Wilmette. For Highcrest and WJHS students, if your child does not have Art scheduled during the First Quarter, but wishes to participate in the Rack*It Project, he/she should contact your school’s Art Teachers.
All designs must be submitted by October 31st. Each school will review the designs submitted by the children and select five designs to submit for consideration. A Design Committee, comprised of teachers from the District 39 Art Department, Foundation members, cycling advocates and community stakeholders will choose three designs from those submitted by all six schools. After the bike racks are fabricated, we will host an “unveiling” presentation for the community in May.
For the 2013-2014 school year the Foundation has awarded over $30,000 in Gripp Grants! And, this year all six D39 schools received at least one grant to expand, enrich and complement the curriculum. Four grants were approved for the spring grant cycle.
Parlez vous francais? Highcrest’s French teacher, Katie Fox’s students will be able to develop vocabulary, grasp story meaning and flow with new French fairy tale books purchased with her Gripp Grant. Using familiar tales will give students confidence, a frame of reference and enhance the foreign language reading experience.
“Recess is a time for fun, but it isn’t much fun for kids who feel left out or lonely”. Ms. Belconis’ 5th grade class at Highcrest read that quote in a Scholastic News magazine article from a boy who came up with the idea for a “Buddy Bench”. The class submitted a grant and now HMS will have two Buddy Benches on their playground where kids can sit if they aren’t feeling included and others will know they want to talk or play. The benches can be for someone who needs a friend and for someone who can become a friend. They are a great tool for teaching empathy towards peers.
Romona’s playground will have a new Gaga Ball arena next fall thanks to a Foundation grant. This game is a form of dodge ball, played in a wooden, octagonal-shaped arena, that everyone can play. Gaga Ball will give the students another organized game to play at recess and in PE class.
Multimedia books offer additional benefits that print books can not including note-taking and highlighting abilities, a dictionary, read-aloud features, follow-along text highlighting and year-round 24/7 accessibility from home of school. Romona library will have a new multimedia book collection using funds from our fourth Gripp Grant this spring. The collection will include eBooks, interactive eBooks and digital audiobooks.
Thanks to the tremendous support of the community and a lot of hard work, the District 39 Educational Foundation has met its goal of raising $110,000 over a two-year period for the WJHS science labs. Earthquake towers, microscopes, DNA extraction kits and forensic detective labs are just some of the items purchased with these funds. The Foundation is proud to partner with District 39 to help bring science to life for our students!