#b#Superior Band#/b#
Ali Carraher, the band teacher at High School South for two years, led the school’s Wind Ensemble to the recent band festival at JP Stevens High School in Edison. The band received a superior rating and an award for the best percussion section.
The ensemble played “First Suite for Band” by Alfred Reed and “Bugs” by Roger Cichy. It will give an encore performance at the band concert on Friday, May 24, at South.
#b#Grant Awards#/b#
The WW-P Education Foundation, a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting innovation and excellence in the school district, has awarded grants for new programs to several teachers. Corporate sponsors include Novo Nordisk, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and PNC Bank.
Books to Home, a take home reading program, will be led by Jennifer Knoblock, a first grade teacher at Town Center Elementary School. First grade teachers will help struggling readers and English language learners to read leveled books at home. Students will meet with a teacher in a small group to choose the right book to take home that night and will read to an adult in their home. First grade teachers at the school include Patricia Boyce, Lindsey Brooks, Stacy Duffey, Richard Knoblock, Julianne Meeks, KateLee O’Hare, and Kathleen Schmidt.
Splash Into Summer Reading: Regina Lertch, reading recovery teacher, and Kelly Borup, reading specialist at Wicoff Elementary School, will work with 25 to 30 struggling readers over the summer. Children will be provided with “just right” books and will meet with teachers five times over the summer to improve their reading skills and promote their love of reading.
Invention Convention and Exploration: Helen Chang and Michelle Pellecchia, fifth grade teachers at Millstone River School, will work with students on a science invention program, enabling students to experience scientific process and discovery — and to encourage the next generation of inventors, scientists, and leaders.
Battle of the Books: Mary Hasler, Marnie Dratch, and Amy Meredith, all teachers at Community Middle School, will involve all 400 sixth grade students in a grade-level reading competition. The students will increase their reading skills and enthusiasm about reading while practicing teamwork.
Picture This: Danielle Bugge, a science teacher at High School South, will purchase a high-speed camera so that 200 physics students can record their experiments for better analysis. High school students will record the experiments so that they can revisit the investigations outside of the classroom. They can record experiments that are too fast to record and are not visible to the human eye, such as observing the compression of a ball as it hits a wall and coming up with real world applications.
Special Project Grant: STARLAB Mobile Planetarium for Third Grade Astronomers: Due to the overwhelming success of the program this year and feedback from third grade teachers and students, the program will be funded for a second year.
All grade three students in the district will have visual, hands-on learning with the planetarium that will visit all four elementary schools. Third grade teachers include Jeff Grabell at Dutch Neck, Kerrilyn Lynch at Town Center, Joan Reil at Maurice Hawk, Lizbeth Reil at Wicoff, and Ryan Smith at Town Center.
Visit www.wwpeducationfoundation.org or E-mail info@wwpeducationfoundation.org for more information.
