Grants: 2010-2011

Manchester Memorial School

Library Research iPad – Through this pilot program students will gain access to digital textbooks, digital literature, online sources and in-turn enhance the school library's digital content. Finally, learning information literacy skills with the iPad aims to infuse technology into the research process to allow students to be able to better locate, organize and evaluate information, create work to represent their learning and provided rich multimedia content to support students understand and differentiation of information literacy skills. The purchase of a 10 pack of iPads with storage case/keyboards would allow an increase in the size of research groups from 4 to 10 students thereby allowing for more efficient scheduling and ultimately, an increase in the number of manageable research projects undertaken each year.

Signing and Singing – Retired Memorial School kindergarten teacher, Wendy Manninen, and sign language instructor, Vicki Marsh, will teach singing and signing to the three kindergarten classes for 24 weeks during the year. In addition, they will lead the children during seven Community Gatherings, the winter holiday concert, the Celebrating Seniors’ Day concert, the annual Memorial School Kindergarten Concert and two Kindergarten concert dress rehearsals. The goal of this project is that children in kindergarten will learn to sing and sign over twenty songs related to the curriculum. The outcome is that children gain confidence and skill in order to perform at monthly community gatherings, the winter holiday concert in December, the Celebrating Seniors’ Day concert in May and the annual kindergarten concert in June.

Essex Elementary School

Folk Songs - American folk music is the root of our musical and cultural heritage. All students should be familiar with the chanteys, work songs, patriotic songs, and other folk music types that are reflective of our cultural history. For the past four years Daisy Nell has come to work with our 2nd graders as a artist-in-residence. She has introduced various folk music/song types as well as the varied instruments used in this genre. The last two years she has helped each class create their own original song. This has been a wonderful experience we would like to continue each year. This unit is a collaborative one, which blends the 2nd grade library and music curriculum.

Ballroom Dancing - The ballroom dancing unit culminating in the exhibition at the Open House has been an outstanding success. It sets the tone for the fifth grade students for the year. It highlights the school's sore values of Respect, Responsibility, Achievement, Caring and Honesty. This year for the first time the 5th grade students from EES and Memorial danced together in a joint exhibition. Without practice the students demonstrated that they had achieved the goals of the program through their outstanding performance.

Middle School

Author in Residence - I would like to invite two authors (one for the middle school and one for the high school) to work as an author in residence for the 2011/2012 school year to explore the writing process. The authors would provide our students with opportunities to focus on the development of their own writing skills.

Students would also have the opportunity to read, listen and discuss the author’s published work. Students will share their own writing with the author in a supportive environment and discover the joy of writing. They will learn what it takes to become a published author, while improving not only their reading and writing skills, but vocabulary, collaborative learning, and organizational skills.

High School

Electronics Elective - The proposal is for development and support of a one semester High School elective in Electronics to complement the Robotics elective. It will will give students an opportunity to learn about electricity and electronics beyond the pre-assembled, programming oriented environment of the Robotics elective.

The course will enhance and complement student activities, especially in the area of STEM education, that exist in the school today. Students on the FIRST Robot Team who take the elective will be able to learn required electronic skills. Students interested in Green jobs like Wind Turbine and Solar Panel Technicians will learn basics of electricity. Students who are considering a trade will learn enough basic electrical skills to help them their career choices.

Differentiation can occur based on the interests and learning needs of the students as the course will be project based. Some of the material will supplement the electricity part of High School Physics.

DECA - DECA is an organization of high school marketing students. From the consumer perspective, students learn about the forces that propel our market driven system. Students compete by performing role plays that cover specific competencies in the business world. The program stresses leadership skills, teamwork, analytical skills, and civic consciousness.

This DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC) conference will allow our students from Manchester Essex to meet other students from across the United States and beyond. Beyond competition, students will be attending workshops, meeting with business professionals. Although I can explain for hours the events and educational value of the DECA program, I believe that you have to experience it first hand.

Author in Residence - I would like to invite two authors (one for the middle school and one for the high school) to work as an author in residence for the 2011/2012 school year to explore the writing process. The authors would provide our students with opportunities to focus on the development of their own writing skills.

Students would also have the opportunity to read, listen and discuss the author’s published work. Students will share their own writing with the author in a supportive environment and discover the joy of writing. They will learn what it takes to become a published author, while improving not only their reading and writing skills, but vocabulary, collaborative learning, and organizational skills.