Past Grant Recipients
2008 Grant Awards
Program: Movie in the Classroom - $3,300
Teacher: Cathy Jackson • Amesbury Elementary School
Program: Greenhouse Studies - $3,575
Teacher: Pam Gagnon and Peg Welch • Amesbury Elementary School
Program: Real Time Science - $4,000
Teacher: Mark Joseph Casto • Amesbury High School
Program: Creating Alternative Art Forms - $3,000
Teacher: Kenneth Parkinson • Amesbury High School
Program: Visual Art Technology Package - $2,996
Teacher: Ann Bartkiewicz and Susan Olson • Amesbury Middle School
Program: Quizdom in the Technology Multimedia Center - $2,398
Teacher: Beth Cavalier • Cashman Elementary School
Program: Music and Movement Material, Instrumental and Music Request
Teacher: Sandra Stanton • Amesbury Elementary School and District
Program: Leap Frog Early Literacy Systems - $1495
Teacher: Bruce McBrien • Amesbury Elementary School
Program: Digital Science Lab - $1893.30
Teacher: Bruce McBrien • Amesbury Elementary School
Over $23,000 in grants were awarded this year, bringing our total amount awarded in the last 6 years to over $93,000!
2007 Grant Awards
Program: Boston College Seismology Project - $2,149
Teacher: Gale Regis • Amesbury Middle School
Program: Enhancing Instruction Assessment and Learning in Mathematics • $3,652
Teacher: Karen Iworsky, Beth Cavalier • Cashman Elementary School
Program: Jump Start - $500
Teacher:
Margaret Welch • Amesbury Elementary School
Program: Historical Perspectives Through the Arts - $3,700
Teachers: Maggie Furlong and Tom Horan • Amesbury High School
Program: Visual Image Projection - $1,500
Teachers: Ann Bartkiewicz, Ken Parkinson • Amesbury Middle School
Program: Poster Outreach Project - $2,500
Teachers: Leslie Barnaby and Peg Laufer • Cashman Elementary School
Program: Basic Aid Training for Grade 5 - $375
Teachers: Laura Mirandi and Catherine Hill • Amesbury Middle School
2006 Grant Awards
Program: Spotlight Assemblies • $2,450
Teacher: Bruce McBrien • Amesbury Elementary School
These funds will be used to install a projector in the ceiling of the gym in the Elementary School. The school currently has a wonderful sound system and this is to complete an overall package that is needed by the school.
Program: Vote for Your Favorite Book • $3,000
Teacher: Maureen Hardin • Amesbury Middle School
This will encourage all 5th grade students at the Middle School to read for pleasure as part of a statewide Massachusetts children’s Book Award Program. This program will focus on the 25 titles from the 2006-2007 list which will be published in June, 2006, by Salem State College. These funds will purchase 8 classroom sets, as well as 4 copies of each book for the library.
Program: Art Tech III • $2,000
Teacher: Ann Bartkiewicz & Ken Parkinson • Amesbury Middle School
These funds will be used to purchase additional digital cameras to enhance the Art Tech II grant which expanded the Middle School’s Study of Photography which has promoted both technological and visual literacy for students.
Program: Historic Amesbury Preservation Project • $500
Teachers: Paul Jancewicz & Russ Munroe • Amesbury High School
These funds will be used to assist in the purchase of equipment to aid HAPP in promoting the collaboration of various groups and individuals for the preservation and dissemination of information about historic people, places and events within and around Amesbury.
Program: Cashman Game Night • $1,825
Teachers: Laurie McAllister, Beth Cavalier & Dee Vachon • Cashman Elementary School
The object of this grant is to involve parents in their children’s learning of current math skills and ultimately to improve MCAS math scores. By inviting parents and families to a Math Game night at the Cashman Elementary School, they can explain how they can help their children to become better math students and support what their children are learning at school.
Program: Graveyard Local History Project • $1,000
Teacher: Carol Grosky • Academy of Strategic Learning
This interdisciplinary project will give students an opportunity to investigate the rich historical value of their community within their local cemeteries. Activities will be provided that will encourage students to study the art, language and symbolism that are found on older tombstones. Students will come away with a deeper understanding of their local history and an appreciation and respect for cemeteries as a community resource and treasure.
Program: Year Round Student Art Exhibitions • $485
Recipients: Karen Greenfield & Carol Bartlett / Central Office • All Schools
This grant will be used to obtain display rails for walls at the Central Office in the Horace Mann building on Congress Street to exhibit student art work. The use of these rails will be rotated among all the schools.
Program: ABC Quilt Project • $1,540
Teachers: Laura Mirandi, Catherine Hill & Sean Rogers • Amesbury Middle School
This is a hands-on community service based project for 7th and 8th grade students in the Life Skills classes at the Middle School. The students will design and make crib-size quilts for at-risk babies and children in orphanages and hospitals around the world. This will be accomplished in collaboration with Health classes in which students will receive current, accurate, age-appropriate information about current issues. This prevention and community service program teaches kids to make choices to prevent the behaviors that create at-risk infants. The quilts will be displayed in the school and then donated to the appropriate charities.
Program: US History Alphabet Book Project • $470
Teachers: Sue Dosick & Kristin Walsh • Amesbury High School
This grant will provide funding to underwrite a project that will give students an opportunity to procure a book on a historic topic and then combine the visual and written media. It will allow the students to work cooperatively and integrate technology, art, writing and history research.
Program: MCAS Math Remediation • $4,000
Teacher: Cindy Yetman • Amesbury High School
Four Amesbury High School teachers will be trained in the use of the PLATO learning system. The PLATO learning system will be implemented at Amesbury High School in grades 9-10 to assist in the remediation of MCAS failing and needs-improvement mathematics students. The teachers will guide the students in the use of the PLATO program in a pull-out mathematics remediation classroom, as well as pilot the use of the program in all math classes.
Program: The Next Step in Recycling • $600
Teacher: Patti Sanborn • Amesbury Elementary School
This project will initiate a pilot program involving 25 fourth grade students in collaboration with 100 lunch students, high school student interns, cafeteria personnel, custodial staff, teachers and volunteers. This program will assist students in developing awareness, knowledge, skills and commitment which will lead to responsible behavior, constructive actions and future informed decisions concerning their environment.
Program: Headphone Haven: Escape to Learning Island • $3,910
Teachers: Leslie Barnaby, Cathy Eddy, Lisa Dupere & Marianne Mueller • Cashman Elementary School
The goal of this project is to provide each classroom with an updated listening island to meet the Strategic Plan program standards and accommodate newer compact disc technology. This will help to increase both the fluency and comprehension of young readers.
Program: Spotlight Student Success • $1,000
Teachers: Susanne Morin & Margaret Welch • Amesbury Elementary School
This program seeks to improve the quality and performance of students participating in monthly spotlight assemblies. AEFI will fund the purchase of a portable two-section collapsible stage.
2005 Grant Awards
Program: Cashman Enclosed Playground • $964.99
Teacher: Florence Emerson • Cashman Elementary School
These funds will be used to develop a small enclosed playground space for young children with special needs that do not always understand the natural boundaries that are provided in the large playground area. This space will also provide a safe area for students with special needs to receive therapies for physical needs.
Program: CO2 Dragster Motion Project • $1,210
Teacher: Bill Gallant • Amesbury Middle School
This will provide 8th grade students in the Technology Education Program the ability to learn how to design, build and race Co2-powered dragsters. This will add to the current Matter in Motion where students learn to investigate forces acting on objects and Newton’s laws of Motion.
Program: Art Tech II • $2,000
Teacher: Ann Bartkiewicz • Amesbury Middle School
This will expand the Art Departments at the Middle School’s Study of Photography to be able to uncle 7th grade students. This will promote both technological, as well as, visual literacy for our students.
Program: Music and Movement • $1,000
Teacher: Cathy Mamakos • All Schools
These funds will be used to expand the music, movement and drumming program that AEFI has funded previously. The core concept of Massachusetts Art Curriculum Framework states that “In dance, music, theater and visual arts, people express ideas and emotions that they cannot express in language alone. In order to understand the range and depth of the human imagination, one must have knowledge of the arts.” Many of the children who are in this program are nonverbal, have physical or developmental delays, or social and emotional disabilities. This gives them the opportunity to participate and succeed in an environment that encourages participation and self-expression.
Program: Global Institute for Student Aspirations • $2,500
Teacher: Peter Hoyt • Cashman Elementary School
The school will work with consultants to establish a professional development program that challenges and maximizes the individual student’s creativity, skills and knowledge. We will provide teachers with workshops and training opportunities regarding the eight conditions of student aspirations. The eight conditions are: Belonging, Heroes, Sense of Accomplishment, Fun and Excitement, Curiosity and Creativity, Spirit of Adventure, Leadership and Responsibility, and Confidence to take action.
Program: Design and Implementation of a Wireless Computer Lab • $1,487.95
Teacher: Bruce McBrien • Amesbury Middle School
The Amesbury Middle School recently received a donation of a complete classroom set of late model laptops. This grant will enable the school to equip each laptop with a wireless card and purchase a wireless hub. Currently, all 24 computers are on a rolling cart and are available to all students and teachers in the Middle School. Connecting these laptops to a wireless router will now provide the school with a portable lab.
Program: Establishing Low Brass Inventory • $2,000
Teacher: Nick Costello • Amesbury Middle School
This grant will enable the Music Department to purchase brass instruments, such as Tuba or Baritone Horn, for use within the music program. The music program currently has 225 students involved. This year at the Music Educators National Conference, they describe a strong music program as one that has 10% participation of the students in the schools. Amesbury is proud to state that they have 28% participation.
2004 GRANT AWARDS
Program: Reading Through the Ages • $715
Teachers: Anita Marsh, Maureen Hardin, Maureen Donahue & Margie Shepard • Amesbury Middle School
The purpose of this grant is to support "Reading Through the Ages" an intergenerational book discussion group that will bring senior citizens and middle school students together. The program will focus on two award-winning titles from recent years, Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo and A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck. Grant funds will be used to purchase 15 copies of both titles, as well as several audiotapes and large print versions of the books. The programs will be held on two different dates during the school year. Each participant will read the book and then meet and discuss it over tea and cookies. One program will be held in the fall of 2004 and the other in the spring of 2005.
Program: Food and Nutrition Mentoring
Teachers: Margaret Furlong & Linda Young • $1,500 Amesbury High School
Interns and Big Brothers /Big Sisters will mentor students with special needs to help them gain independence in food and nutrition skills. By matching up a mentor with each student with special needs, individual skill work and repetition can be done until new skills are mastered. The credit course will run for one term and students will plan foods to be prepared, shop for and then purchase the foods they choose. Nutrition and balanced meals will be also stressed throughout the term.
Program: Ignite Mentor Program • $1,000
Teachers: Mark Casto, Margaret Furlong & Ralph Noon • Amesbury High School
The Ignite mentor program will provide a link for all freshmen students to an upperclassman. The juniors and seniors will mentor the freshmen and will provide formal and informal connections with five to seven mentees. The seniors will welcome them to the high school and share information about school activities, co-curricular organizations and will help freshmen set academic goals. Ignite will provide someone to say "Hi" to in the hallway, or to eat lunch with – examples of the "informal connections" that will be made monthly between mentors and mentees. Formal connections will also be made once a month when the entire freshmen class is brought together for small group activities. This will allow freshmen students to get to know a few students better and will give the mentor a chance to know five to seven freshmen. The mentors will be selected through a nomination and application process. They will receive leadership training and, undoubtedly, get as much, or more, out of this program as the freshmen they will mentor. The mentees will help to organize, set up and run the activities through an "E-Board" and tasks will be delegated to mentors who will help run these activities each month.
Program: ArtTech • $1,962.30
Teachers: Ann Bartkiewicz & Ken Parkinson • Amesbury Middle School
Art/Tech will upgrade computer technology in the Art Department at the Amesbury Middle School. The two student computers now in use are six years old. The purchase of two new Dell computers with CD burners and two photo printers will greatly enhance and support the study of digital photography and computer-related classes for all eighth graders. These students study art throughout the school year and new computers will enable eighth graders to keep a digital record of photographs, photo essays, Power Point presentations, slide shows and art projects for a portfolio. Art/Tech will give these students an opportunity to gain access and experience with digital technology, currently not available and will promote visual and technological literacy for our students.
Program: Drumming Circles • $2,000
Teachers:
Cathy Mamakos, Linda Young, Sandy Stanton, Chris Perry,
Bonnie Joe Koester-May & Kristina Raymond • District Wide
This project will expand upon the creative movement and music experience that began last year through the generosity of AEFI. We will present a rhythm and drumming program to a group of students with special needs as a means of enhancing their arts education.
A collaboration of six teachers, as well as other staff members from the learning centers of the Amesbury Elementary and Cashman Elementary Schools, the Amesbury Middle School and Amesbury High School, will provide enhanced music and movement experiences to approximately 40 students with special needs in grades K-12. The staff will receive training from a Boston Institute of Arts therapist, a Lesley University instructor and a local drumming musician. The trainers will lead twelve, forty-five minute training sessions for two groups, coming to the schools every other week. After completion of the training, the program will continue at the individual schools, with Amesbury Public Schools' staff facilitating the program.
Program: Staging Social Skills • $1,500
Teachers:
Suzanne Morin, Margaret Welch & Carrie Keefe • Amesbury Elementary School
The Amesbury Elementary School is committed to creating a school culture that addresses the needs of the whole child. To that end, empowering students with appropriate social skills, positive behavior management and respect for diversity is at the epicenter of the school's goals. This program will be delivered by a core group of fourth grade students who will be trained in social skills, language and communication. These students will evolve into a theatrical troupe that will use puppets as tools for character education instruction. They will be enlisted to help teach social skills to their younger, first and second grade peers. After receiving instruction in writing scripts about social behavior, these students will be trained in the art of puppetry as a tool to convey new concepts and to inspire positive behavior and improved communication.
2003 GRANT AWARDS
Program: Historic Amesbury Preservation Project • $460
Teachers: Paul Jancewicz & Mia Rowlands • Amesbury High School
The Historic Amesbury Preservation Project (HAPP) is dedicated to the research, recording, preservation and dissemination of local historical information within Amesbury. HAPP's foremost goal is to preserve local history in properly organized and preserved formats that will be easily accessible by the public for the use of future generations. HAPP is designed to promote the collaboration of various individuals and groups within the Amesbury school system and the greater community in order to supplement and protect an accurate and thorough record of Amesbury's local history. HAPP aspires to educate pupils regarding effective methods of historical research, recording and preservation in order to lead pupils to greater appreciation of their personal connection to a unique heritage, to engage students with the living, breathing history that is the legacy of their forebears. Preservation, dissemination and education - these are the prime objectives of HAPP. There are many ways to accomplish these goals and it is hoped that many cross-curricular efforts will evolve.
Program: Music Movement Therapy for Special Needs Students K-12 • $1,500
Teachers: Bonnie Jo Koester, Cathy Mamakos, Chris Perry, CaroleAnn Quinlan, Sandra Stanton, and Linda Young • Amesbury High School, Middle School, Elementary School & Cashman Elementary
This project will provide a creative arts/music and movement experience for students with special needs who attend the learning centers in all Amesbury schools. This collaboration involves 40 students in grades K-12. There will be an eight week training session where students will be divided into two groups. One group will include elementary students, K-5; the second group will be a combination of students from grades 6-12. A movement / music therapist from the Boston Institute for Arts Therapy will lead four, 45-minute training sessions for each group, in the schools, every other week. The teachers and staff from the learning centers, as well as therapists and regular education teachers, will lead the sessions in alternate weeks. After completion of the training, the program will continue at individual schools, for 45-minutes per week, enhanced by visits from the community and in-house talent throughout the school year.
Program: Literacy Loft & Family Literacy Center • $970
Teachers: Geraldine Fegan, Billie McLane, Elizabeth Morris & Diana Sanborn • Amesbury Elementary School
The Literacy Loft is an extension of our school library and part of a school-wide incentive program offered to students. Students are recognized for diverse accomplishments including effort, acts of kindness, academic achievement, service to the school and community or attainment of individual goals with a visit to the Literacy Loft. Their reward is the opportunity to self-select books of personal interest and the time to read for pleasure and enjoyment. The message to the school community is clear and highly visible through our glass-encased Literacy Loft: At Amesbury Elementary we value the personal achievements of the whole child and literacy is an integral part of our school's culture.
Program: Home I School Literacy Connection • $970l
Teachers: Lisa Dupere & Maria Ferrandini • Cashman Elementary Schoo
The Home / School Literacy Project aims to improve reading achievement by increasing parent involvement in children's literacy development. The project focuses on enhancing parent involvement by generating positive attitudes toward literacy, making the necessary materials and resources available to parents and educating parents on how to support children in their literacy development. In an effort to generate excitement around reading and celebrate literacy in our schools, parents and teachers will work collaboratively to schedule regular literacy events for both AES and CES families. Materials and resources needed to support families in educating their children will be available to parents through a school resource library. The resource library will include such things as: literacy backpacks, writing suitcases, educational videos, books, games, literacy activities, pamphlets and brochures. Parents will be educated on how to support their children at home in a variety of ways, such as: workshops, videos, articles, schools newspapers, cable TV and home / school literacy kits.
Project: Woodlands Trail Project • $1,100
Teachers: Pamela Gagnon & Bruce McBrien • Amesbury Elementary School
Our group, comprising staff at AES, parents and community volunteers is in the process of creating a nature trail connecting AES with the ENHA/Amesbury Historical trails network on Po Hill. We are in the process of working with the National Wildlife Federation to be listed as a National Wildlife Federation certified Schoolyard Habitats site. Schoolyard Habitats projects provide unique, hands-on, outdoor learning opportunities that cannot be duplicated in the traditional classroom setting. Our plan is for this to become an important component of our local ecosystem. Current trails exist which connect Lake Gardner and Camp Kent, with Battis Farm and Po Hill between. The historical significance of Po Hill is considerable, with uses dating back to prehistoric times and through the early life of what we know as Amesbury. The Amesbury Elementary School makes extensive use of its natural environs, but being able to connect to the resources that the trails offer, as well as Camp Kent Nature Center itself, will be a tremendous asset.
