At the Needham School Committee meeting last night, the Needham Education Foundation (NEF) announced the recipients of three grants totaling $18,434 in the spring grant cycle.
Awarded grants include:
- Students in grades 3-5 at all five elementary schools and grade 6 students at High Rock Middle School, as well as their families, will learn healthy and safe strategies for navigating an increasingly digital world from Dr. Elizabeth Englander, a nationally-recognized expert on the topic. Dr. Englander will present to the students during two assemblies at each elementary school and High Rock school. In conjunction with these assemblies, she will host a virtual evening family presentation focused on how to help children use digital technology in a healthier and safer way. In addition, copies of Dr. Englander’s forthcoming book “You Got a Phone (Now Read This Book)” will be purchased for each classroom/cluster and school library.
— Awarded to: Abigail Hays (Broadmeadow PTC Co-President), Emma Navales (Newman PTC Co-President), and Frederica Lalonde (Mitchell PTC Co-President) - More than 500 students who are enrolled in Spanish classes at Pollard Middle School will soon have access to engaging fiction and non-fiction Spanish language books in their classrooms. The new classroom libraries, filled with a variety of tiered and interesting texts, will increase students’ language proficiency by modeling grammar structures and vocabulary in context. Easy access to these books will also help motivate students to read in Spanish and boost their confidence in their Spanish reading skills.
— Awarded to: Amy McKenna, Maura Lia, Jackie Edwards, Megan Murphy, and Susan Connolly, Pollard Spanish Teachers - Needham High School Social Studies teacher Laura Magno will participate in the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Heart Mountain Educator Workshop in support of efforts to revamp the way Japanese American incarceration is addressed within the tenth grade Social Studies curriculum. More than 14,000 Japanese Americans were confined at Heart Mountain during World War II, and many Americans know very little, if anything, about the incarceration. The grant will support improved teacher understanding, resources, and lessons to be brought back and shared with the Needham High Social Studies Department.
— Awarded to: Laura Magno, Needham High School Social Studies Teacher