Chatham Education Foundation

This grant expands the "Thinking Classroom" within the CHS mathematics wing to four additional classrooms. The initial phase of CEF's "Thinking Classroom" grant in 2018 demonstrated the validity of the current research that supports students working on whiteboard surfaces in the mathematics classroom, resulting in observed increases in student productivity, critical thinking, and wellness. These design changes include vertical non-permanent writing surfaces on flexible seating/standing tables, and the de-fronting of the traditional classroom setting.

This grant transforms two science classrooms at CHS, similar to what has been done by CEF for nine math classrooms at CHS and CMS. These classrooms will have different furniture than a traditional classroom, including whiteboard tables, and it creates a more collaborative space to further investigative learning.

Building off the success of the Thinking Classroom, this grant allows for the redesign of Chatham Middle School math classrooms to coincide with a curriculum sequence change in which 8th grade Chatham Middle School students now take Geometry prior to Algebra 1. This sequence change provided an opportunity to reimagine what students can do with the knowledge of Geometry, and this grant provides the technology and materials to allow students to demonstrate this new knowledge. All three 8th grade math classrooms will be transformed into thinking classrooms, and the grant provides whiteboard vertical spaces and whiteboard desks and tables of different and adjustable heights for students to complete problems. Some of the whiteboards can even be brought into the math hallway, extending the classroom reach so that all students can work on math while social distancing.

Finding Gobi is a true story of an ultra-marathon runner who met a stray dog while running a race in China. This grant proposal brings the author for a visit to each school, as well as buying books for each classroom library. It is designed to introduce elementary students to a story of friendship, teamwork, perseverance, and wellness through the book Finding Gobi. It also would accompany newly designed library/media and health/physical education lessons. Danielle Dagounis shared, "We are beyond excited that the CEF is able to fund our grant so that we can host wellness events at each of our elementary schools. This grant will enable our elementary library/media specialists and health & physical education teachers to collaborate and develop learning experiences for our students to discuss and learn about the topics of perseverance, teamwork, friendship, kindness to others, and the importance of physical well-being."

Two self-contained special education classrooms at CMS will now receive updated, flexible furniture and seating options. Rocking chairs and floor rocker seats encourage healthy movement and a moderate range of motion, and wheelchair accessible desks with adjustable leg heights fit those that need it. By having flexible seating options, the students will have the opportunity to be in a conducive learning environment tailored for them and their various educational, social, and emotional needs.

This grant enhances the resource centers at WAS with furniture designed to make students more comfortable when writing. This furniture will allow students to sit and move in various ways so that they can be comfortable while writing and reach their potential.

This grant enhances the environmental science courses by having students grow food with a hydroponic system in the greenhouse and raised beds in the courtyards. The students will be responsible for designing the planting schedule, types of plants, the actual planting, and maintenance of the gardens. Students and cafeteria personnel will participate in harvesting at appropriate times, and the produce will be incorporated into the CHS menu.

This grant creates opportunities at LAF during Character Periods for students to have hands on Social Emotional Learning and related discussion through group play of familiar board and card games. Six classic board games and card games would be purchased for each of the 25 classrooms. By setting up instructional opportunities, the teachers will be able to provide the students with the necessary managing conflict resolution and socialization skills needed to work together in small groups and to manage conflicts on the playground and in other social situations.

Four kindergarten classrooms at WAS and MAS are enriched in this grant with materials to enhance reading and writing, including boogie board tablets, consonant-vowel-consonant games, and manipulatives. The grant materials are supported by research showing that students learn best when learning with a multisensory approach. The boogie board tablets allow students to participate in interactive writing activities, apply letter-sound and spelling knowledge with a quick, easily erasable alternative to paper and pencil and dry erase boards, and can be used for math and other curricular areas.

This grant brings all the choirs in grades 4-12 together on March 10, 2022 for a day of learning, singing, and program development in a first ever district-wide Choral Festival. The students will be taught for the day by legendary composer and musical artist, Stacey V. Gibbs. During the event, Mr. Gibbs will work with the students on pieces they are familiar with, including a piece of his that has yet to be premiered, on text expression, music history, and vocal technique, both as individual schools and as a whole unit. In addition to working together musically, they will incorporate social-emotional learning through various musical and non-musical team building activities.

Twenty classrooms at MAS, SBS and WAS will have math manipulatives to help their K and 1st grade students understand the relationships between numbers and quantities, and aid in their addition and subtraction skills.

This grant places Bouncybands on almost every chair in CMS's small group and special education instructional spaces, including self-contained classes and resource centers, with a few additionally in selected general education classrooms. Bouncybands allow students to self-regulate by having discreet movement breaks without leaving their seats.

This grant project gives 8th graders at CMS a hands-on approach to learning in a year-long process of inquiry and data collection. The students would raise the trout in the classroom from eggs until fingerlings and then release into a nearby, approved location to add to the current ecosystem.

TEDxYouth@Chatham is a district wide public speaking event that is the culmination of the Talking the Talk elective course at Chatham High School. The program initiated from a grant in 2018. Students deliver a professional TED talk to a live audience which are recorded and uploaded to the TED platform for public distribution. Microphone sound quality is critical to the effectiveness of these talks. This grant funds eight new body microphones, in both light and dark colors to match skin tones of different students. These microphones attach around the head, creating stability to enhance overall sound quality and also eliminating the need to tape mics up students' back. These mics will also be used by the Performing Arts Department for performances.

This grant adds alternative, comfortable reading locations in a 6th-7th grade classroom at CMS where small group ELA is taught to struggling students. Ms. Collier explained that when students are comfortable and relaxed, it contributes to a joyful reading experience, which leads to longer sustained periods of reading and a positive connotation with reading.

TedX event supplies