The Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI) has awarded 17 Teacher Grants totaling $25,000 for projects to be carried out during the 2014-15 school year. The grants will enhance learning for approximately 1,700 Ithaca City School District (ICSD) students.
Teacher Grants fund classroom projects that are linked with state learning standards and enrich the curricular opportunities for students and their teachers. Proposals for a maximum grant amount of $1,500 are made by teachers. In keeping with IPEI’s mission of “connecting school and community,” they always include a community partner.
IPEI’s Teacher Grants Review Committee Chair Sandy True expressed: “I have been involved with the Teacher Grants program for over 15 years and have witnessed firsthand the incredible impact IPEI has made on our students by supporting the curricular-based, creative ideas from the teachers that involve partnering with our talented community. These grants fulfill many goals including unique, creative learning experiences for our children; support for the teachers as they explore new ways to engage students; and community involvement in the success of our students.”
Two Teacher Grant projects were selected during the competitive review process to be funded through the Charles E. Treman Jr. Teacher Grants Fund of the Tompkins Charitable Gift Fund in memory of the late Tompkins Trust Company president. They include “Playing — Out of the Box or In!” and “Phun with Physics.” Another grant, “Songs, Music and Movement, and Literacy,” is funded by a gift from a retired ICSD teacher to encourage the integration of music into elementary classrooms.
IPEI will fund the other 14 grants through the annual Adult Spelling Bee (scheduled for March 1, 2015) and its 2014-15 annual fund, “Reach High with IPEI.” In addition, IPEI offers four rounds of Red and Gold Grants as well as Community Collaboration Grants and Connecting Classrooms Grants, which are reviewed on a rolling basis. The Fine Arts Booster Group, an affiliate of IPEI, has also recently announced the first of its two rounds of mini-grants.
Northeast Elementary School special education teacher Nicole Dauria will collaborate with educators and playworkers from the Ithaca Children’s Garden for “Playing–Out of the Box or In!” The kindergartners will experience the interconnectedness of literature, nature, and play through open-ended play sessions, books, an evening family program, and a field trip to the Ithaca Children’s Garden. The project will use play to support language development, social and emotional growth, and problem-solving skills. In indoor and outdoor constructed play spaces, the children will explore, build, and create with nature-based materials. Observations and input from the children will inform the development of two nature play kits. The kits and the three books used in the program will be made available to the entire school.
“Phun with Physics” is the project of Fall Creek Elementary School teacher Chris Bell in collaboration with Xraise, the outreach education program of Cornell’s Laboratory for Accelerator-Based Science and Education, and the Physics Bus, Ithaca’s traveling physics classroom. Two first-grade classes will take monthly trips to Cornell’s Wilson Laboratory to experiment with electricity, light, sound waves, and magnetism at the facility’s education center and watch scientists work in the underground accelerator tunnel. Once back in the classroom, they will help create exhibits for the Physics Bus using recycled materials. The goal of the project is to show students at an early age that science is accessible and fun.
Enfield Elementary School Pre-Kindergarten teacher Sharon Ciferri will collaborate with Judy Stock, a local folk musician and music educator, for the project “Songs, Music and Movement, and Literacy.” Through music, books, and music-based activities, the children will play with the sounds of words and rhymes to increase their letter identification and letter-sound connection skills. Families will have the opportunity to become involved in the project and support their children’s learning experiences, share in the joy of music, and strengthen the school-home connection.
Last year IPEI released research-based evidence that the programs and activities it funds through grants to teachers and schools effectively increase student engagement. Data from reports submitted by teachers who were awarded grants in 2012-13 showed that ICSD students’ engagement rose by an average of nearly 50 percent following an IPEI grant-funded activity. For students identified as “performing below grade level,” the average increase in engagement was even higher.
Pat Tempesta, chair of IPEI’s Grants Committee, reports that data collected from 2013-14 grant recipients indicate that student engagement again rose following IPEI grant-funded activities. “It is encouraging to see a second year of assessment data confirming that our grants consistently lead to an increase in active student involvement in their learning,” Tempesta expressed. “Kudos to our teachers who encourage this kind of student engagement by taking the time to create great, innovative projects!”
IPEI Teacher Grants 2014-15 by School
Belle Sherman Elementary
Planning and Printing a Community
Allison Trdan, Teacher
Hod Lipson, Professor of Engineering at Cornell University and Gabriella D’Angelo, Professor of Art and Architecture Studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Beverly J. Martin Elementary
Music for Unity and Social Change; Motivational Assembly and Workshop Series
Ahrayna Zakos, Teacher
Elisa Sciscioli, musician and Harmony Graves, Community Unity Music Education Program
Powered By Poetry
Rachel Valenzano, Teacher
Sarah Wolff, Poet
Dancing through the Pages
Arne Van Leuken and Marnie Ecklund, Teachers
Lisa Tsetse, Choreographer
Emotions through the Arts-Mad, Sad, Glad with Dance
Kelly Craft, Teacher, with Beverly J. Martin, Caroline and Northeast Pre-K Classes
Lisa Tsetse, Choreographer
Boynton Middle School
Ithaca to El Salvador: Bridging Communities in the Spirit of Volunteerism!
Cara Salabrici, Teacher
Mauricio Rosa, El Salvadoran; Margit Chamberlain, Peace Corps, Rio Abajo El Salvadore
Spanish Brass Concert and Master Class***
Michael Allen, Teacher
Aaron Tindall, Professor of Tuba at Ithaca College School of Music and the International Tuba Conference
Caroline Elementary
Animals in the Garden: Making Friends through Literature, Storytelling, and Permaculture
Kathleen Downes, Teacher
Ithaca Children’s Garden; Regi Carpenter, storyteller
Emotions through the Arts-Mad, Sad, Glad with Visual Art
Kathleen Downes, Teacher, with Beverly J. Martin, Caroline and Northeast Pre-K Classes
Carol Hockett, Johnson Museum of Art and Susan Zhender, Artist
DeWitt Middle School
Extending the Growing Season at DeWitt’s Vegetable Garden with High Tunnels
Wayne Gottlieb, Teacher
Keith Thomson, Gardener
Continuing to Leveraging Students’ Access to Literature
Monica Sherman, Teacher
Karen Yearwood, The Village at Ithaca
Spanish Brass Concert and Master Class***
Michael Allen, Teacher
Aaron Tindall, Professor of Tuba at Ithaca College School of Music and the International Tuba Conference
Enfield Elementary
Enfield Shines at Literacy
Georgette Graham, Teacher
Carol Hockett, Johnson Museum of Art and Doug Levine, State Theatre of Ithaca
Songs, Music & Movement and Literacy**
Sharon Ciferri, Teacher
Judy Stock, Musician
Fall Creek Elementary
Phun with Physics*
Chris Bell, Teacher
Xraise Outreach Program, Cornell University and Erik Herman, Ithaca Physics Bus
Ithaca High School
Spanish Brass Concert and Master Class***
Michael Allen, Teacher
Aaron Tindall, Professor of Tuba at Ithaca College School of Music and the International Tuba Conference
Lehman Alternative Community School
Spanish Brass Concert and Master Class***
Michael Allen, Teacher
Aaron Tindall, Professor of Tuba at Ithaca College School of Music and the International Tuba Conference
Northeast Elementary
Playing – Out of the Box or In!*
Nicole Dauria, Teacher
Ithaca Children’s Garden
Emotions through the Arts-Mad, Sad, Glad with Music
Larissa Anderson, Teacher, with Beverly J. Martin, Caroline and Northeast Pre-K Classes
David Plaine and Mark Sammo, Musicians and ICSD Bus Drivers
South Hill Elementary
Music for Unity and Social Change; Motivational Assembly and Workshop Series
Samantha Little, Teacher
Elisa Sciscioli, musician and Harmony Graves, Community Unity Music Education Program
*Selected to be funded by the Charles E. Treman Jr. Teacher Grant Endowment of the Tompkins Charitable Gift Fund in memory of the former president of the Tompkins Trust Company.
**Selected to be funded by a gift from a retired ICSD teacher who encourages the integration of music into elementary classrooms.
*** Grade 6 – 12 band, chorus, orchestra and theory students from LACS, DeWitt Middle School, Boynton Middle School and Ithaca High School will be involved.