As many know, bullying has become quite the concern, due to the lack of tolerance and understanding of differing lifestyles. Puppets will be purchased to implement the strategies offered and encouraged by the school, such as, talking it out, ignoring it, telling them to stop, walking away, saying sorry, and taking turns. Through relatable puppet shows ways to handle bullying through the puppet's "eyes", will be offered to the students and will undoubtedly seem much less threatening and intimidating. Shows will be done twice a year.

 

G.W. Krieger Elementary School, $899.54

 

Educators from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies will be collaborating with the fifth grade elementary school students to develop a pilot afterschool program called the Ecology Stewards Project. The purpose of this project is to educate students on some basic ecology of the Hudson River and engage them in making a positive difference for the health of the river. We will also focus on the fact that their community both gets its drinking water and returns its wastewater to the Hudson River. During afterschool meetings, there will be in depth instruction on the ecology of the Hudson River and the concepts of a watershed. This project will also include building and decorating rain barrels, stenciling storm drains in the school neighborhood, visiting the Hudson River and seining, and creating artwork about the river to be displayed in and around the school. Students will also become peer educators and teach lessons about the water cycle and water quality to the third grade classes in the school.

 

The Randolph School, $730.00

 

To expand the school’s diversified garden, tools to make cultivation easier and to improve gardening practice: a garden cart, a compost enclosure, and hand tools that are comfortable in small hands, will be purchased. Pumpkins, corn, okra, and sunflower seeds, all heritage varieties have been collected and over-wintered, and will be planted directly in the soil in May to be used in November to serve a "Harvest Feast" to the entire school.

 

Arlington High School, $1,990.50

 

Students in 11th and 12th grade Marine Biology, Advanced Placement Biology and Science Research classes will test for the presence of road salt (sodium chloride) in neighborhoods and school streams. Students will be part of a long-term, year-round monitoring project that will assess the quantity of road salt that is spread onto the roads and is leaching into the groundwater and surface waters throughout the community. Students will become an “army of citizen scientists” measuring a variable, road salt, which is lurking in the community and threatening the health of the environment, vehicles and water resources. They will link to scientific institutes and to on-line water monitoring systems in the community to compare their data and to analyze and discuss their findings with local experts from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and the Cornell Cooperative Extension Service. The high school students will teach elementary students about the pros and cons of road salt.

 

Webutuck Jr./Sr. High School, $1,899.98

 

Students enjoy using traditional woodworking tools and techniques in middle school Technology classes. Those who take the elective high school classes work individually and in groups to research, design and build wood items using hand and power tools. To extend the capabilities in the shop and to show "real world" applications of computers in industry, a CarveWright will be purchased. This is a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine that can cut, carve, drill and route wood and other materials and will be used by high school students for individual projects in the Materials Processing class and by groups of students working on cooperative projects in the Production Systems class. Students will also prepare demonstrations of their work on the CarveWright for middle school classes. Supplemental activities will include a field trip to a local manufacturer that uses CNC equipment, composing a booklet of student work and having a video produced by our school's MSG Varsity students.

 

Arlington High School, $1,900.00

 

Students from Marine Biology, Science Research, AP Biology and the Marine Bio club will participate in the Eel Research project which seeks to discover the cause of a global population decline in eel species around the world. Research students will deliver related outreach programs for younger students using the juvenile American Eel as a lens to promote understanding of the natural history of the eel, the Hudson River estuary, the interconnectedness of species within the ecosystem. The focal point of the peer tutoring lessons is the Hudson River touch tank, which allows elementary students to interact first hand with the inhabitants of Hudson River and its tributaries. The tank will reside in the high school K-8 room which is dedicated to providing opportunities for peer tutoring in science between high school and elementary students.   Approximately 300 K-12 students will participate.

 

Dutchess County BOCES, $449.98

 

To improve social communication skills in special needs high school students ages 16-21, with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a small recordable camera will be purchased to provide a means for which the students can view themselves and others in social interactions. Research shows videotaping ASD students is an effective way to teach, and remediate behavioral learning to improve the social communication skills of the students. The recording will then be viewed by the class and discussed.

 

Dutchess County United Teachers’ Community Service Grants are awarded to public school teachers for projects involving their students in community service. These community service awards are made in memory of Dennis Markle.

  

Orville A. Todd Middle School, $1,720.00

 

Funds to continue the C.L.A.S.S. - Community Leaders And Student Support program started last year through a similar grant. This program is designed to train a group of students to lead professional development technology workshops for teachers, technology support for students, and free community workshops for local residents. Workshops will include Microsoft Office help, Google tools, digital cameras, scanners and document cameras, Smartboard tools, digital stories, webpage design and Comic Life software.

 

Chancellor Livingston School, $683.95

 

The music teacher and a third grade teacher will collaborate to extend a Folk Heritage Residency and bring it to senior citizens in the community. Students will read Patricia Polacco's The Keeping Quilt and American Quilt Making: Stories in Cloth by Ann Stalcup. They will visit an area senior citizen center to interview seniors about their background. Following the interviewing process, the students will sing folk heritage songs with the seniors. Students will use the information gathered to make a quilt square reflective of their senior.   The culminating activity will be a visit by the students to present the quilt to the seniors and perform the dances and songs learned. Each student will explain to the group what their square represents and tell something about the person they interviewed.

 

Grants are awarded to public school teachers for projects which incorporate student and/or teacher-made marionettes and puppets in the curricula.

 

Van Wyck Junior High School, $1,980.00

 

Puppets and Folk Tales is an inter-disciplinary project involving the entire sixth grade school community. Through a series of activities, students engage in a multi-cultural exploration of folk tales and puppetry. The process begins with the study of Asian countries. It continues with a "read aloud" by the library media specialist. In art class they prepare materials for a session that takes place as a one hour video conference with the Center for Puppetry Arts (Atlanta, GA).   During the conference students assemble puppets. Using the background knowledge obtained through previous activities students create original digital stories using various technology resources. This grant will provide funds to cover technology resources, video conference fees and other craft materials.

 

Grants are awarded for either professional development in the field of teaching writing or for a specific program designed to enhance the writing abilities of a teacher’s students.

 

Van Wyck Junior High School, $2,000.00

 

Grant will be used to fund the Writers by Choice Club, a teen writing club established to improve student writing literacy. The club consists of 26 students: 19 less able writers and seven proficient writers, who are known as peer leaders. Students are split into two main groups and are then broken down into three smaller groups. Each group has a designated peer leader and participates in collaborative writing and blog casting, encompassing four major writing genres: poetry, commercials, digital journal writing, and graphic novels.

PHOTO CREDIT:  Manny Vavolizza, Foto Vavs