Foundation Manager

Tanzania Sister School Program (Central)

Central School classrooms will be receiving Tanzanian artifact boxes to complement their Sister School Program thanks to a Gripp Grant from the D39 Educational Foundation. These boxes will include hand-crafted artifacts, maps, flags, games and many other items that will enable Central students to make personal connections with the students in their sister school located in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. This program has expanded students’ perspective of our cultural similarities and differences and the foundation is pleased to be able to broaden students’ awareness of different cultures with these hands-on materials.

Solar Car (WJHS)

Debbie Clark, 8th grade science teacher at WJHS, has been awarded a grant to fund a Solar Car science initiative. This project will engage all of the 8th grade students in real world problem solving and allow them to experience inquiry-based learning as well as provide deeper understanding of an alternative energy source. They will build and race cars and then seek to improve their vehicles’ performance based on experimenting, learning, and adapting angles, mass, and other parameters.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference – Professional Development (WJHS)

Andrea Kowalchik, and 3 other WJHS math teachers will attend the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics annual conference in April 2011. This conference will allow our teachers to collaborate with colleagues, drawing on best practices from math teachers around the country. These teachers will learn about new math technologies and approaches to teaching math to 7th and 8th graders across the academic spectrum. They will then share their experiences and learning with their WJHS colleagues through collaboration at weekly meetings of their Professional Learning Community.

Lunchtime Ecology (Central)

As part of the Foundation’s ongoing support of the District’s garden-enabled curriculum, a grant has been awarded to Central School for the piloting of a lunchtime recess activity enabling a hands-on exploration of ecology and ecosystems through creation and nurturing of tropical and desert terrariums. Through exploration and discovery of soil, plants, and animals that thrive in these varying eco-systems, as well as problem-solving skills and creativity associated with building the terrariums, students will have the opportunity to experience many of the learning components called out in the District’s strategic plan. This initiative will be piloted this spring in conjunction with the Evanston Ecology Center.

African-American History Presentation (Harper)

Harper third grade teacher Laura Nerenberg has been awarded a grant to enhance the Social Studies curriculum as third grade students learn about Wilmette and Glenview history. This grant will bring Dino Robinson, founder of Shorefront Legacy Center, to Harper to speak to students about the important historical contributions and lives of African-American Northshore residents.

Bottled Water Phase-Out (WJHS)

In an effort to support an all-school green initiative, the District 39 Education Foundation will be supporting efforts to phase out water bottles in the WJHS cafeteria. This initiative focuses on an applied understanding of the environmental impact of bottled water consumption, with students viewing the documentaries “Tapped” and “The Story of Stuff”, complemented by a service learning component where students engage in the decidedly “low-tech” approach of pouring water for their classmates in the cafeteria line. This grant is part of a community-wide partnership with D39 Food Service, WJHS PTO Environment Committee, local business leader Dean Thanos of Ridgeview Grill and Wilmette’s Go Green Foundation.

Architecture in Education: Building in Community (Highcrest Middle School)

The Foundation is pleased to support a pilot grant for several Highcrest 5th grade classes to participate in the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust’s “Architecture in Education: Building in Community” program. Preservation Trust instructors will visit Highcrest to work with students on architecture and design. Students will learn how to use their measurement and math computation skills to lay out an architectural floor plan and design a building and community. Grant recipient Joe Taylor, a HMS 5th grade teacher, says “Doing this project will inspire students to learn math and build their confidence in their math problem-solving skills.”

This program complements the Foundation-sponsored “Math: Let’s Get Real!” program, where students learn how math is an important component of many careers. Last spring, a local architect, airline pilot, and basketball team statistician demonstrated to HMS 5th graders how math is vital to their everyday work. The 2010 HMS program, scheduled for mid-March, will feature composer, conductor, and music educator Gary Fry, who will speak on tempo and math in the music industry; and Liz Johnson, a Northern Trust portfolio manager, who will talk about math in the financial industry.

Lunchtime Mileage Club (Central School)

The Foundation will pilot PE teacher Carol Fritz’s lunchtime fitness program. Based on the The Feelin’ Good Mileage Club model, which has been successful at many schools nationwide, this program encourages students to walk, jog, or run on a designated course several times a week during recess. More than 2.5 million children in participating schools logged almost 30 million miles last year. Central students will earn tokens and other rewards for the miles they log. The goal is to broaden student physical fitness, as well as encourage goal-setting and enhanced student focus in the classroom after lunchtime. Carol Fritz notes that “It’s fun, it channels kids’ energy, it gets kids ready to learn, it aids in a child’s educational development, and it’s getting the child physically fit.” Central staff will also be able to participate.

Kindergarten Finger Fun

In an effort to support our students’ development from the outset, the Foundation is awarding a grant to Barbara Bruno, Patricia Patrick and Paula Lundell that will impact kindergartners across D39. This grant will provide sets of manipulatives for teachers to use to improve our youngest students’ fine motor skills.

4th Grade Orienteering

The Foundation is pleased to support efforts that enable practical and real-world application of concepts taught in the classroom. This grant, awarded to Central School fourth grade teachers Marc Elman and Jim Tingey, will provide compasses, hand-held GPS units and orienteering handbooks, allowing students to learn how to use these devices and extend beyond the map-reading skills learned in the classroom.

Green Initiatives

As part of the 6th grade ecology unit, and in conjunction with the District health & wellness initiative, students at Highcrest Middle School will now be able to grow food-producing plants from the seedling stage to promote sustainable life practices. This grant, awarded to Brenda Day and Penny Straub, will allow for purchase of Indoor Grow Light Sets. Additionally, a grant has been awarded to Kirsten Stadheim at McKenzie School to support integration of the two outdoor learning spaces to create one cohesive Outdoor Classroom, allowing for expanded usage of these spaces to meet broad curricular, ecological and social-emotional goals.

Diverse Learning Styles

In supporting the District’s effort to teach across various learning styles, the Foundation is awarding two grants in this area. A grant has been awarded to a former D39 student (and current New Trier High School student), Colin Morris, to provide materials to construct six podium desks. These desks will be available for “kinetic learners” across the District as a place to work while standing up. Additionally, a grant has been awarded to Sally Schoenberg at McKenzie, to purchase a document camera, a technology used to promote visual literacy as text and imagery can be enlarged and projected and thereby engage more students.

Eval-U-Write Software Pilot

The Foundation has awarded a grant to Eric Senne and Stephanie Raue at WJHS to fund a pilot of writing evaluation software. This is an innovative tool to guide emerging writers and will enable real-time feedback on editing, organization, sentence structure, and word choice as essays are compared to a bank of 5,000 other grade-level essays.

Youth Connection Drop-In Center at WJHS

As part of on-going efforts to support the emotional health and growth of our adolescent students, this grant will be used to create an inviting and compelling space at WJHS that kids will want to go to after school. District Administration has committed to providing the space, the YC will staff the center and the Foundation grant will be used to create the environment that will encourage students to drop by, and create a sense of comfort while they are there.

Classroom Performance System Pilot

The Foundation is pleased to help fund a pilot program at Harper School to test the Classroom Performance System, which makes use of personal interactive pads in conjunction with LCD projectors. This project will link the technology used by third and fourth graders closer to the level of technology applications at HMS and WJHS, where smart boards and document cameras are in use.

Connecting Kids Playground Project

The Foundation teamed up with Wilmette School District 39 to help fund this two-phase project located at District 39’s Early Childhood pre-school program, which is housed at Romona School. This integrated program serves both typically developing children and children with special needs. The project will provide a developmentally appropriate playground that encourages collaborative play among children, regardless of their varied abilities.