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.