Innovation Grants: Fall 2003 Recipients

CALIFORNIA

Teresa Gonzalez, Huntington Park
K to 2nd Grade Teacher
Middleton Street School
Partners: Blanca Pelayo, Diana Reyes
Collaborating with the Children’s Museum of Los Angeles and the Ventura County Museum of History and Art, Ms. Gonzalez, Ms. Pelayo, and Ms. Reyes use the Bernstein Learning Model—an arts-based school improvement model—to create lesson plans that draw on the arts to reinforce other standards-based curricula. Students engage in several learning activities, which include attending live performances at the Children’s Museum and participating in interactive social studies lessons that use historical artifacts and reenactments to explore other cultures and eras.

FLORIDA

Becky Peltonen, Panama City
K to 5th Grade Science Teacher
Oscar Patterson Elementary School
Partner: Faith Fowler
Ms. Peltonen and Ms. Fowler team with parents and the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to develop a scientific exploration of animal and plant ecosystems. After studying scientific methodologies and concepts, students travel to a nearby freshwater lake to collect data. To demonstrate their knowledge of ecosystems, students construct their own freshwater habitats and share them with their families.

Beth Remaly, Opa Locka
Kindergarten Teacher
Bunche Park Elementary School
Partners: Deborah Baldwin, Sharon Fils-Aime, Beverly Metro de la Cruz
Integrating their special needs students into general education classes, Ms. Remaly and her partners have developed a model to increase the literacy skills of their kindergarten and first-grade students. Students at all learning levels craft memory books that recall learning activities, events, and trips in which they have participated. Teachers and paraeducators emphasize the vocabulary associated with each activity and take photographs that each student can use to develop their books.

IDAHO

Jan Studer, Bonners Ferry
8th Grade Teacher
Boundary County Junior High School
Partner: Tama Bergstrand
Ms. Studer and Ms. Bergstrand have integrated fine arts and language arts to create an arts throughout history curriculum. For this curriculum, the students use their artwork as prompts for expository, personal, persuasive, and creative writing. Students reflect on their projects in journal entries and present a portfolio of work they have submitted for assessment to their parents and community members.

ILLINOIS

Heather Anichini, Chicago
5th & 6th Grade Teacher
Goldblatt Elementary School
Partners: Joseph Casanovas, Monica Gamble, Amber Kleeschulte, Alonzo Meyers
Through several cross-curricula lesson units, Goldblatt Elementary School students generate a portfolio that demonstrates their writing, reading, science, social studies, and mathematics skills. For one of these units, students read biographies and autobiographies to reflect on their own roles within their local and global communities, and write autobiographies. Students showcase their portfolios at family reading nights.

Bradley Stein, Morton Grove
5th Grade Teacher
Thomas Edison Elementary
Partner: James O’Malley
Mr. Stein and Mr. O’Malley have developed the “Techno-Immersion Project,” a group of cross-curricula units through which fifth-grade students mentor fourth-graders to conduct research and develop a creative presentation of the results using technology. Working in teams, students choose a topic for research—Native American studies, slavery and civil rights, geometry, or endangered animals—and select an effective medium to present the information. At the conclusion of the project, each team presents their research to their teachers and families.

KENTUCKY

Jeffrey LaBarbara, Nicholasville
4th to 8th Grade Music Teacher
West Jessamine Middle School
Partner: Kathy Parrott
To increase the self-esteem and fine motor skills of their first- through eighth-grade students with special needs, Mr. LaBarbara and Ms. Parrott have created an adapted orchestra program. Students learn to play the cello and read music, and participate in orchestra activities with students in general education classes. At the end of the year, the students perform at a concert for their families.

MISSOURI

Valorie Carmer, Grain Valley
10th Grade Language Arts Teacher
Grain Valley R–5 School District
Partner: Katie Corley
By creating a unit on the Truman Administration’s decision to desegregate the military, Ms. Carmer and Ms. Corley aim to impart lessons on tolerance, equity, and civic responsibility. Language arts students read novels that explore equity issues and research primary sources to examine the political and social reasons behind the decision to end segregation in the armed forces. Assuming the role of the federal official responsible for the policy, each student team presents evidence for or against the proposal during a mock forum at the Truman Library.

NEVADA

Roberta Martin, Las Vegas
K to 5th Grade Math & Science Coordinator
Robert Lunt Elementary School
Partner: Pedro Garcia
To engage their at-risk fourth- and fifth-grade students and provide their school with high-quality computers, Ms. Martin and Mr. Garcia teach students the technical skills required to build computers. Students first disassemble old, inoperable computers to investigate their components, and then work in teams to assemble four new computers. After each critical phase, students write technical reports that describe and evaluate their work. Students give a presentation on the assembled computers and offer technical assistance to teachers and their peers.

NEW MEXICO

Mike DeField, Farmington
10th to 12th Grade Teacher
Farmington High School
Partners: Laura Howe, Marguerite Townsend
Mr. DeField, Ms. Howe, and Ms. Townsend have developed an applied physics course that focuses on hot air ballooning and targets students who do not perform well in traditional science classes. Students research federal aviation laws and create prototypes of hot air balloons. In collaboration with two local balloon pilots, the students build and then fly a hot air balloon.

Michelle Tregembo-Allen, Los Lunas
7th & 8th Grade Teacher
Los Lunas Middle School
Partners: Brian Crawford, Lori Crawford, Kari Dutton, Amy Viramontes, Shannon Wilson
Partnering with local environmental organizations, archeologists, and historians, Ms. Tregembo-Allen and her partners create a hands-on interdisciplinary study of the natural environment of La Semilla, New Mexico. Their seventh- and eighth-grade classes, which include students with special needs, participate in research trips to La Semilla to gather data, document soil erosion, and study native plants and animals.

TENNESSEE

Rita Smith, Manchester
8th Grade Teacher
Coffee County Middle School
Partner: Kyle Harris
Ms. Smith and Mr. Harris team with local community members to construct an outdoor classroom for their school. In this hands-on laboratory, students investigate local biodiversity and ecological concepts to devise a conservation plan. Students also design a brochure to publicize the project.

VIRGINIA

James Egenrieder, Arlington
9th to 12th Grade Teacher
H-B Woodlawn Program
Partner: Dat Le
Mr. Egenrieder and Dr. Le’s seventh- and ninth-grade students use scientific tools to explore the hypothesis that coyotes have returned to Arlington, Virginia. With laser-guided cameras, global positioning equipment, and topographical maps in hand, students identify and document prospective habitats. Students present their findings to science and social studies teachers throughout the county, and simulate a public meeting where county officials consider evidence on the hypothesis.

Claire Klassen, Manassas
4th Grade Teacher
Loch Lomond Elementary School
Partners: Esther Slauson, Harriet Spor
Ms. Klassen, Ms. Slauson, and Ms. Spor aim to improve students’ writing skills with “A Work in Progress,” a project that uses individual portfolios to chart each student’s progress in writing from kindergarten to fifth grade. The student portfolios contain writing samples from each school year as well as writing strategies and rubrics for self-evaluation. During the year, students present their published work at a “Young Authors’ Showcase Night,” which includes a parent workshop that offers tips for supporting student writing at home.

WISCONSIN

Mary Anderson, Milwaukee
6th to 8th Grade Special Education Teacher
Audubon Technology and Communication Center
Partners: Richard Drida, Cynthia Eldien, Wendy Liedtke
Each Wednesday afternoon, Ms. Anderson and her partners take their students with special needs to a bowling ally for “Bowling for Numbers,” a standards-based activity designed to increase students’ mathematics and interpersonal skills. Students learn to use public transportation to travel to the site, and apply their mathematics skills to complete computations based on their bowling scores.