2007 Grantees

2007 Fund for Excellence in Education Grant Winners

Ellen Anderson
Our Lady of Lourdes High School
Senior Class Moderator – 11^th grade U.S. History 
 “Positive Educational Role-Modeling & Mentoring”

Eleventh and 12^th grade students will mentor 5^th and 6^th grade students attending an elementary school in an impoverished urban community to experience what it means to truly give of their time and talents and prove that teenagers can be seen as positive community role models for younger children.

Lorriane Cleaveland
Dover Middle School
6^th grade Science
Jr. Engineer Club

The creation of a “Jr. Engineer Club” will extend learning beyond regular classroom instruction for 6th grade students with “Sr. Engineer” high school students as mentors.  The Jr. and Sr. Engineers will corroborate to design and create structures using the physic concepts taught in class. 

Bernadette Condesso-DePaz
Poughkeepsie Day School
11^th & 12^th grade American and European History, AP History
Civil Rights Movement

With learning objectives that are broader than one single ethnic, racial, gender, or socio-economic group, through an indepth study of the Civil Rights Movement students will take the lessons of the Civil Rights Movement and apply them to other minority groups in understanding the processes and reasons groups seek to achieve full citizenship.

Colleen Drummond, Kelly Collins, Robyn Davis, Beth Dockendorff, Brigid Heavey and Joan Murphy
Hagan Elementary School
Technology K-5, AIS Reading
Project MOBILE

As research shows, boys seem to have a more difficult time embracing a love of reading.  By initiating Project MOBILE (Motivating Our Boys into Literacy Enjoyment), Marist College athletes will visit 4^th and 5^th grade students to promote literacy by also serving as role models and encourage boys to read by sharing their favorite childhood books and lead a “Boys Book Group.”

Creek Iversen
The Randolph School
Pre-K-12^th grade, Music, Math and Science
Basic Collaborative Composition

According to Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory, there are many ways for children to be smart.  Often overlooked in today’s typical education is “music smartness.”  Through Basic Collaborative Composition, this intelligence will be addressed by working with an experienced guest composer who will lead small groups to explore improvisation of group compositions.  By recognizing different ways for children to be intelligent, we help them develop their individual strengths. 

Maribel Pregnall
Arlington High School
9^th-12^th grade Biology
Coral Reef Propagation

Coral reefs are an imperiled ecosystem and are destroyed for the aquarium trade.  Through this program students will purchase ancestral fragments of corals from aquarium enthusiasts that specialize in the captive growing of coral populations.  They will propagate the coral in the classroom and be successful enough that they too can partake in a captive raised coral propagation trade program whose mission is to be independent of wild capture.

Jennifer Tripken
LaGrange Middle School
8^th grade Health Education
Health Fair

Childhood obesity is an issue with health and social consequences that often continue into adulthood.  Students will develop and run a Health Fair focusing on childhood obesity awareness and prevention with three main objectives: increase health awareness; motivate students to make positive health behavioral changes and, increase awareness of services and resources.

Jessica Turner and Dawn Hammond
Sargent Elementary School
2^nd grade
"Hello, We've Got Mail!"

Students will learn the history of communications and the importance of conservation.  They will research the postal service, paper making and recycling and learn how they have contributed to our history and understand their role in our future by creating a school-wide mail service complete with its own recycled stationary. 

Dennis Markle Memorial Community Fund Awards

Dutchess County United Teachers’ Community Service Grants are awarded to public school teachers for projects involving their students in community service.  These community service awards are made from the Dennis Markle Memorial Community Fund. 

Caitlin McCabe
Oak Grove Elementary School
5^th grade
Free Computer Workshops for Senior Citizens

The teacher, along with her 5^th grade students, will teach free computer workshops to senior citizens at a local nursing home or senior citizen community.  Using the students’ Apple iBooks, senior citizens will be taught how to use email, take digital pictures, make movies and use other software.  Students will master curriculum standards, respect/learn from the elderly, and follow through on being a good citizen.

Randi Morf
Dutchess BOCES Salt Point Center
Baby Blankets & Knit Caps

Students will learn to knit, crochet and sew in order to make baby blankets and knit caps for a local hospital, and will learn how to give back to their community and feel like a contributing member.  Group cooperation will be enhanced by making individual blanket squares and joining them to become a whole.

Katherine Younger
Chancellor Livingston School
Grade 5 Inclusion
Nursing Home Publication Project

Students will visit a nursing home on two occasions to enhance the literacy program and teach children what it means to care about others.  During the first visit students will bring a favorite childhood book to read with individual residents, and discuss with their adopted special friend what they enjoyed about the story and the illustrations.  On the second visit students will conduct an interview with the residents to hear stories about what it was like when they were growing up and about special events in their life that they would like to share.

Dorothy’s Marionettes and Puppets Award

Grants are awarded to public school teachers for projects which incorporate student and/or teacher-made marionettes and puppets in the curricula. 

Anita Kiewra (Art 6-8), William Burrows (7^th grade Language Arts), and Jeff Barnes (Technology)
Millbrook Middle School
Julie Gritten (5^th grade)
Alden Place Elementary
Marionette Set & Stage

Students in 5^th, 6^th and 7^th grades will use the Marionette Set and Stage for character education, playwriting, and social studies. Using prefabricated marionette kits, 6^th grade art students in teams will create characters, learn to design and make clothing to outfit them as middle school students like themselves and story lines will incorporate concepts from the middle school character education program (i.e. Respect, Impulse control, Compassion, and Equity).

David Kennon Moody Award

Grants are awarded for either professional development in the field of teaching writing or for a specific program designed to enhance the writing abilities of a teacher’s students.

Darlene Rivais
Dutchess Alternative High School – BETA
From Rough Draft to Publication and Promotion

Sessions will include: instruction in voice, craft, and mechanics; guidance from nationally-known writers of different genres; individual and group workshops, and revision; and publication with Lulu Publishers.  In addition, students will manage all business aspects of the enterprise: publishing, financial planning, marketing, and scheduling local readings.