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Our Accomplishments 2006-2007
Valhalla Schools Foundation and WestHelp
Partnership Team Up to Award More Than $30,000 in Mini-Grants to
Valhalla School Teachers
The Valhalla Schools Foundation and the WestHelp Partnership are
pleased to announce the recipients of the Foundation’s 2006-07 Teacher
Mini-Grants:
Virginia Road Elementary School
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Bobbie Overton, instrumental music teacher, a grant
of $2,040 for “Bash the Trash,” a musical program
that would bring in visiting artist John Bertles and his associates,
who will perform at two assemblies and follow up with individual
workshops for each grade, K-2, in which found objects and trash
collected by students will be rebuilt into musical instruments.
Each class will produce a small show using their new instruments
and storytelling. “Bash the Trash” encourages creative“thinking
outside the box” while laying the foundation for a basic
understanding of the principles of sound. The project will be
on display during the annual VRES Literacy Fair.
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The First Grade Teaching Team (Romina Amussen, Darlene Castro,
Kristen Cioffi, Geraldine DiGuglielmo, Megan Haughey and Dorothea
Kelly), a grant of $2,580 for a cross-curricular project that
builds on existing themes in the first-grade curriculum. The
grant would enable the grade-level teachers to purchase multiple
copies of books that reflect the first-grade themes of: The
Ocean, The Rainforest, Earth Day, Ecology, Geography, Mapping,
Weather and Science. The books will be used to develop comprehension,
reading and writing strategies, and encourage higher-level thinking
skills.
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Laura Kulers, ESL teacher, a grant of $2,127 for “More
English Language Learners Leap into Literacy,” a project
that would acquire portable “LeapPad” units that ESL
students could use both at school and at home. The units and
a series of interactive “books” would assist students
with thematic vocabulary skills and reinforce their reading
skills. Each story includes a writing component. VRES currently
provides services to 32 ESL students who speak Dutch, Gujurati,
Ibo, Korean, Malayalam, Portuguese, Slovak and Spanish at home.
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Elizabeth Cherry, special education teacher, a grant of $913
for the purchase of the Boardmaker Plus! computer program, which
uses visual pictures and cues to accompany virtually any academic
lesson. Programs include “Main Street: Community Science,”
“Full Schedule,” “Social School Stories,”
“Hands-on Reading,” and “Print n' Play Bingo.”
Kensico School
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Three Kensico teachers were awarded grants of $3,200 for the
purchase of SMARTBoards, interactive display screens that include
wireless Internet technology. The SMARTBoards will be used across
the curriculum in all content areas. Students can use the technology
in a variety of ways, including visiting virtual locations and
participating in pen pal programs with students in other countries.
The teachers are Kathy Adams, fourth-grade, Linda Guzzo, third
grade; and Melissa Salles, fifth grade.
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Linda Carpentieri, Bill Wright and Mona Voelkel, a grant of
$900 to continue Kensico's popular Family Reading Nights, three
theme-based reading nights held in October, April and June.
The grant will pay for literature, craft materials, and refreshments.
Valhalla Middle School and High School
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Holly Flannery (McDavid), art teacher, a grant of $6,229 for
an Advanced Digital Art Lab. The grant will enable the school
to purchase and use Adobe Creative Suite 2 Macintosh software
to create artwork in the Computer Graphics and Yearbook classes
offered to grades 6-12. The grant will also allow teachers to
enhance instruction through the use of new IMac laptop computers
purchased by the District for use by students in the enhanced
digital art lab beginning in 2006-07.
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Jeffrey Dulitz, instrumental music teacher, a grant of $1,300
for the purchase of equipment that will improve sound in the
auditorium. Mr. Dulitz plans to add a power conditioner, which
will control all sound components and monitor voltage; a 31-band
ultragraphic equalizer that will get the maximum use out of
an existing soundboard; a feedback eliminator to stop annoying
feedback during presentations; an 8-channel mixer to mix audio
feeds for video productions; and digital stereo monitors to
sample complete sound as it passes through the soundboard.
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Ivana Masic, art teacher, a grant of $2,624 for the purchase
of five new art/craft tables that will seat six students each.
The new tables will replace aging computer tables currently
being used in Ms. Masic's classroom, which are unsteady, loose
and too low for artwork.
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Kerry Morrison, Middle School speech and language teacher,
a grant of $1,596 for “Classroom Jeopardy,” a program
that helps to improve students' vocabulary, word retrieval skills,
auditory processing, language skills, and math, science and
social studies knowledge. Like the well-known TV game “Jeopardy,”
students are able to buzz in their answers from a wireless remote.
The cost includes a television, a cart, five game cartridges,
a scoreboard and student remote control devices.
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Nori Lustig, Middle School social studies teacher, a grant of
$441 for the purchase of “Colonial Life and the American
Revolution,” a set of lesson guides, transparencies, audio
CDs, and other materials to enhance the instruction of 7th-
Accomplishments
in 2005-2006
Accomplishments
in 2004-2005
Accomplishments
in 2002-2003
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