NBEF INNOVATIVE TEACHER GRANTS PROGRAM

Since 2008, NBEF has provided over $20,000 for New Brunswick Public School teachers to implement innovative projects and activities for their classrooms. This special collaboration has involved 30 educators and has impacted more than 1,000 students ranging from Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12. The process begins with teachers submitting grant proposals that offer novel concepts and strategies which result in dynamic learning experiences for students.

Some of the projects and activities have included specialized fitness sessions for handicapped preschoolers; a SMART Board for elementary students; an in-class technology workstation for students with special learning needs; books and visits by Marcie Aboff, noted author of children’s publications in math and science for Kindergarten -5th grade students; an electronic field trip to the Philadelphia Museum for 4th – 8th grade students; and Moodle software, a web-based interactive content management system for high school students.

Below are group photos of NBEF’s Innovative Teacher Grants for Excellence recipients and brief descriptions of their projects:

2011

“I Love English: Learning Language through Technology”
Project Leader: Karen Ellingson, ESL Teacher
New Brunswick Middle School
English Language Learners enter the middle school facing language barriers that limit their ability to keep up with their peers, and stifles their confidence and motivation to learn. This project will provide these students with an innovative language-learning software system, Rosetta Stone which will help to improve their language skills and enhance their ability to become more proficient in English. Teachers will be on hand in order to provide the necessary training and ensure an accurate and effective use of the program. The software will be made accessible to students before and after school, reinforcing their language skills development outside the regular class time.

The Immigrant Experience”
Project Leader(s): Karen Ellingson, ESL Teacher and Ann Marie Barr, ESL Teacher
New Brunswick Middle School
This grant will provide English Language Learners with the opportunity to visit Liberty State Park, as part of a field and research project. Students will spend the day visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, seeing firsthand the universal symbol of freedom and democracy and learning about the immigrant experience in America as they participate in hands-on activities and analyze historic artifacts. In the classroom, students will write about their experience, and work collaboratively to create a bulletin board that will be seen by their peers and parents.

“Philadelphia Museum Electronic Field Trips”
Project Leader: Kenneth Redler, Visual Arts Teacher
Woodrow Wilson Elementary School
This grant will provide virtual presentations from the Philadelphia Museum to students in 2^nd through 8^th grade. This project which highlights four artistic expressions: 1) Art of Asia, 2) The Impressionistic Era, 3) Modern Art, and 4) The Art of Spanish and Mexican Artists, will bring the students to the Philadelphia Museum without leaving the school building. Students will have the opportunity to interact with a Docent through the electronic tours. All student participants will create works of art that replicate what they have learned.

“Traveling Museum Exhibits”
Project Leader: Brandi Gustafson, Social Studies Teacher
Woodrow Wilson Elementary School
Presenting the traveling museum exhibits (American Indian Art and Prehistoric Rock Art) will provide a unique anthropological experience for the entire student population at Woodrow Wilson. Students will create and learn various aspects of ancient art, historical preservation, and as tour guides, learn to develop their organizational and presentation skills with the intention of explaining their observations to an audience. 

“Book Club – Understanding Graphic Novels”
Project Leader: Sarah Neiderman, School Librarian
New Brunswick Middle School
This grant will support the development of an after-school Book Club that will help improve the literacy and critical thinking skills of middle school students. Student participants will meet twice a month to read as well as engage in discussion about their assigned books, using graphic novels as their focal interest. Multi-dimensional in its approach, many of the books will depict different cultures and ethnic traditions that the students will experience through food, traditional customs and parental involvement.

“The Senior Mural Project”
Project Leader: Kristine Templeton, Art and Computer Graphics Teacher
New Brunswick High School
This grant will provide New Brunswick High School seniors with the opportunity to engage in group collaboration to paint a large scale mural that details their educational journey and symbolizes their contribution to the school. Students will experience a sense of pride and accomplishment when completed. A primary aim is for student participants to work as a team and realize that the collaborative process yields far better results. In addition, the project seeks to emphasize the connection between art and the capacity to communicate effectively in a positive and productive way.

2010

“Follow the Yellow Brick Road to 66 Bartlett Street”
Project Leaders: Jessica Harris and Dayna Sacks, 4th Grade Teachers
Lincoln School
This grant funded an after-school theater program that exposed 4th through 6th graders to acting techniques and helped them improve various literacy skills. As they read and performed, the children learned about character traits, settings, moods, points of view, inferences, and character motivations. Additionally, the students learned how to identify the differences between monologues and dialogues, lines and stage directions.

“In-Class Technology Workstation”
Project Leader: Nilda Gutierrez, Special Education Teacher
Lord Stirling Community School
This grant provided an in-class technology workstation that provides special learning needs students with innovative educational software and websites, including electronic talking dictionaries, BrainPop.com and Enchanted Learning.com. This interactive learning environment offers language friendly and cutting-edge illustrative resources, which enables students to expand on their knowledge and skills in multiple content areas such as science, social studies, math, and language arts.

“Techies Got Talent”
Project Leaders: Elaine Foulides, Music Teacher and Barbara DeBaylo, Art Teacher
New Brunswick Health Sciences Technology High School
This activity was a talent production that was written, staged, directed, performed and filmed by students. The grant supplied a camcorder, a multi-format DVD Writer, and blank DVDs for students to fuse technology into the creative process by filming the rehearsals and performance, editing the performance footage, adding graphics (titles and credits), and producing a final copy for distribution.

“Using Moodle In The Classroom”
Project Leader: Anthony Mwangi
New Brunswick High School
This grant provided a web-based content management system that makes it easy for teachers and students to interact, communicate, and share materials in a supervised and safe online environment. It is used interactively in the classroom, as well as collaboratively by students at home. Using Moodle prepares students for the 21st century classroom and environment by requiring them to think and to create in innovative, collaborative ways.

“Recording Our History”
Project Leader: Carol Giordano, 3rd Grade Teacher
Paul Robeson Community Theme School for the Arts
With funding for a video camera and blank DVDs, 3rd grade students had the opportunity to integrate technology with a project designed for them to capture the oral history of their families. Students engaged their families in this enriching and exciting activity, as they learned, told and re-told stories that encompassed their history, culture and traditions.

“Home English Language Practice (HELP)”
Project Leader: Marybeth O’Connell, Speech Teacher
Paul Robeson Community Theme School for the Arts
This grant provided digital recording devices for students to rehearse speech-language lessons repeatedly at home in order to increase fluency and comprehension. The focus area of this project, which required parental involvement, was for students to develop and gain mastery in their communication skills, both orally and in written form. This structured and measurable approach was designed to increase student achievement and social competency.

“Reading & Writing ~ The Ultimate Superpowers!”
Project Leaders: Nancy Antos-Ali, Basic Skills Teacher/Melissa Howard, 1st Grade Teacher/Diane Neal, Language Arts Literacy Specialist
Redshaw School
The emphasis of this project was for K-5 students to internalize the concept, “I am a reader. I am a writer. I have the ultimate superpowers”. The grant underwrote costs for books, visits and presentations by Marcie Aboff, noted author of children’s books that have many math and science connections, such as The Pizza Palace (fractions), The Lemonade Standoff (addition & graphing) and The Tallest Snowman (measurements). It was an exciting school-wide event for students geared toward engendering a life-long interest in reading and writing.

“Traveling Museum Exhibits”
Project Leader: Brandi Gustafson
Woodrow Wilson School
This grant sponsored traveling museum exhibits for one week each to expose Pre-K through 8th grade students to Ancient Egyptian Art and the Harlem Renaissance. This virtual field trip provided a unique educational experience for classrooms without the need for students to leave the school building. Students created art work that correlated with what they learned in their Social Studies classes and from the exhibits.

“Philadelphia Museum Electronic Field Trips”
Project Leader: Kenneth Redler
Woodrow Wilson School
This grant provided four virtual presentations from the Philadelphia Museum for 5th through 8th grade students in four program areas: (1) Art of Asia; (2) The Impressionist Era; (3) Modern Art; and (4) The Art of Spanish and Mexican Artists. Students were able to actually interact with the Docent at the museum through the virtual tours and created art work that replicated what they learned.

2009

“Binding Together Good Ideas”
Project Leader: Jessica Harris, 4th Grade Teacher
Lincoln Elementary School
This project provided a binding machine and supplies for 4th grade students to “publish” their written stories, poems, and essays. The aim was to instill in students a sense of empowerment in writing by enabling them to see their work and the work of their peers being published. The culmination of this initiative was establishing a section in the Lincoln Elementary School Library that features books authored by students.

“Going Into Business Sale”
Project Leader: Anise Kaplan, Basic Skills Instructor
Livingston Elementary School
With imaginary jobs, income, interest-bearing bank accounts, and spending activities (i.e. shopping, dinner engagements, vacations, etc.), 5th and 6th grade students learned to make real life practical applications of addition, subtraction, and multiplication with decimals by using money amounts. They were also provided with hands-on training, resources, and supplies to start-up, manage, and operate a school store. Overall, this project exposed students to various math and life skills in a fun and fulfilling manner.

“It All Started With A Mouse”
Project Leader: Tami-Lyn Strachan, 5th Grade Teacher
Livingston Elementary School
This grant provided 5th grade students with books for an exciting thematic study on the life of Walt Disney. The aim was for students to see that Walt Disney’s dream all started with a mouse and that they too can accomplish their dreams from start to finish. Students created blueprints for their own amusement parks, containing 4-5 theme areas, and complete with restaurants. Students also studied the history of roller coasters and how they tie into science modules of simple machines. The project concluded with a study of EPCOT Center and various countries featured in the World Showcase.

“Success Murals”
Project Leader: Rashana Richardson, Art Teacher
Lincoln School
This activity provided 3rd through 5th grade students, with the opportunity to engage in a collaboration to paint both small and large scale murals around the school. Students were given a sense of ownership and responsibility to spread positive messages of success and achievement in school images that they conceived, organized, and ultimately painted. The school benefited by having created an aesthetically meaningful environment that can be used to visually prompt students to remember their goals and aspirations for being the very best in life.

“Classroom Performance System”
Project Leaders: Andre Bridgett, Biology Teacher/Barbara Debaylo, Art Teacher/Toni Austin, Chemistry Teacher
New Brunswick Health Sciences Technology School
With the NBEF grant, a Classroom Performance System (CPS) was included in the learning process for high school students. This innovative technology was designed to provide immediate student feedback by way of a wireless handheld response pad. Students were enabled to actively apply their knowledge, enhance their critical thinking capacity, and build their confidence. The CPS works in a similar fashion to the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” show in which the audience is polled. It embodies technology that engages all students simultaneously within a classroom setting.

“Redshaw Teachers Incorporate Smart Board Lessons”
Project Leaders: Diane Neal, Reading Specialist/Delia Homs, Math Specialist/Judy Steinitz, Literary Coach/Angela Blake, Kindergarten Teacher/Randall Miller, 4th Grade Teacher
Redshaw Elementary School
The purpose of this project was to use a mobile SMART Board, an instructional interactive technological tool that engaged and motivated students to learn targeted skills. The SMART Board enables teachers to implement lessons that are visual, tactile, and auditory, thus creating an environment that is fun and exciting, therefore, increasing student alertness and retention. The SMART Board is utilized by teachers across curriculums and measured by increased student engagement during SMART Board lessons, improved benchmark scores, report card grades, and individual and group performance-based assessments.

“Newark Museum Electronic Field Trips”
Project Leader: Kenneth Redler, Visual Arts Teacher
Woodrow Wilson Elementary School
This electronic field trip activity provided students with the benefit of an exciting educational museum experience without actually having to leave the school building. Through the use of innovative technology within the classroom, students were enabled to interact with the Docent of the museum, while getting a close up look at Art and History. In turn, students (grades 4th – 8th) created their own museum style exhibits of artwork that included statements of objectives that they aspired to accomplish.

2008

“Music In The Parks Choral Competition”
Project Leader: Libby Montiel Gopal, Music Teacher
New Brunswick High School
The New Brunswick High School Choir, “The Elite Chorale,” honed their talents and presentation skills by competing against other top-notch high school choirs in the Six Flags Great Adventure “Music in the Parks” in Jackson, NJ. The evaluation process of this exciting state-wide music competition included both written and recorded feedback from judges.

“My Gym – The Importance of Physical Fitness In Children”
Project Leaders: Theresa Strydesky, Teacher of Handicapped/Toni Ficken, Early Childhood Education Master Teacher
Paul Robeson Community School
My Gym instructors provided a fitness program devised for handicapped pre-school students. The monthly structured classes incorporated music, dance, puppets, relays, gymnastics and other original activities. The purpose of the project was for special needs students to have fun as they increased their strength, balance, coordination, agility, flexibility and social skills.

“Give Us This Day Our Daily Read”
Project Leader: Dr. Natalie R. Kreitzman, Speech Language Specialist
Lincoln School
This grant provided books and resources for a comprehensive six month reading program that engaged communication impaired students in disciplines that accentuated reading, comprehension, and vocalization. This was a student driven project with an emphasis on increasing word usage and various forms of expression, i.e. writing and performing skits as well as drawing illustrations based on the books that they have read.

“The Native Lands”
Project Leaders: Jessica Harris/Dayna Penchansky, 4th Grade Teachers
Lincoln School
Fifty-five (55) fourth graders traveled to Green Meadows in Parsippany, NJ for a presentation of “The Native Lands.” The students had up-close and personal conversations with Native Americans as well as witnessed their lifestyles and culture, including various types of music and dance.

“Garden & Insects”
Project Leaders: Karen Asson, Pre-K Teacher/Christina Campasano, Kindergarten Teacher
Woodrow Wilson Elementary School
Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students created a garden of flowers and vegetables incorporating worms, butterflies and ladybugs; and supported the local bird population, as well. The project included getting the ground ready for a garden, preparing the soil, planting seeds, caring for the habitats, creating borders, and maintaining journals. This project nourished students’ senses and fostered their creativity, curiosity, cooperativeness, and persistence.

“Here We Grow”
Project Leader: Karen Ellingson, ESL Teacher
New Brunswick Middle School
This grant helped expand an existing after school gardening program for Middle School students. The student gardeners prepared different types of soil, plant seeds, plants, and bulbs; and maintained the garden by weeding and watering. They worked as a team in making a difference for their school and community; and developed a strong sense of pride in their accomplishments. A notable goal of the program is for the students to successfully grow enough plants to one day establish a “Farmers Market.”

“Steps To Success”
Project Leaders: Stella Goyo-Shields, Bilingual Teacher/Karen Ellingson, ESL Teacher
New Brunswick Middle School
This project was designed to enrich learning for “English as a Second Language” (ESL) Middle School students with a Fifteen (15) week after school program involving peer leadership and tutoring. The focus was on various aspects of language and culture with lessons that were theme-based and communicative in nature integrating listening, speaking, writing and reading practice. Highly motivating, hands-on materials were used, as the Project Leaders assisted students and tutors in designing and producing their own language learning tools. Interactive games, technology and a field trip were incorporated in the program.

“Finding A Cure”
Project Leaders: Toni Austin, Chemistry Teacher/Elaine Foulides, Music Teacher
New Brunswick Health Sciences Technology High School
New Brunswick Health Sciences Technology High School students were exposed to science through performing and visual arts. Students dramatized the steps to developing drugs and treatments for a disease by creating storylines/scripts and acting out scenes. The story followed a disease from identification of the disease to the drug discovery for treatment of the disease. As the story unfolded, students showed the importance of the scientific method in the process. The finished product entailed videotaped performances that will be used for class instruction.

“Fun, Food, Friendship”
Project Leaders: Ann Seiderman, Pre-School Disabled Teacher/Debbie Grant, Pre-School Disabled Teacher/Irmaliz Minaya, Inclusion Pre-K Teacher/Toni Ficken, Early Childhood Education Master Teacher
Lord Stirling Community School
Kindergarten and Pre-kindergarten students of Lord Stirling Community School explored literacy, mathematics, science, and motor skills through a “Cooking” theme-based program with small appliances, basic kitchen gadgets, linens, and storage carts. The students utilized nutritional recipes to facilitate the growth of language skills, letter recognition, measuring skills, following 1 and 2 step directions, and socialization.

“B.E.A.R. (Be Enthusiastic About Reading)”
Project Leader: Renee Rivaldo, Language Arts Specialist – Basic Skills Interventionist
Lord Stirling Community School
This grant supplied books and resources for a six month incentive-based reading program for students that impacted fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. The purpose of the program was to instill the love of reading in all environments outside of school with a built-in mechanism to involve parents in their child’s learning. A key emphasis was, “By making a big deal about children who read on their own and rewarding them for their efforts, children stop viewing reading as a difficult task, but as a fun activity.”

[CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO GALLERY OF THE PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES]