Mochary Programs has awarded nine $500 grants to proposals selected from among the 90+ Teach for America corps members in the Miami area. Grants will be used to seed projects that improve student learning.

After 90 days, the projects will be evaluated for effectiveness. Whichever project is deemed most effective will receive an additional $5,000 grant for expansion throughout the Miami-Dade County public school system.

GRANT WINNERS

Amanda Simson, allowing her to take her 21 top-performing students at Jose de Diego Middle School to a Miami Heat game as a tangible reward for their superior performance. Ms Simson took the students to the April 10 2005 Miami Heat game, where all 21 students were led onto the court at half-time and high-fived the Heat players as they came out of the locker room. Starting in January 2005, Ms Simson publicly posted the grades of her 130+ students on a daily basis using their anonymous ID#s, so that each student could see where they were in the ranking but didn’t have to let it be known to others where he/she stood. Ms Simson did not notice a significant change in performance in the first few months, but in the two weeks prior to the Heat game, she saw an “amazing” increase in performance, with one student staying after school every day to improve his ranking. Ms Simson believes that this increased performance occurred once students realized that this “reward” was really going to happen. She believes that now that the program has credibility in the eyes of the students, she will see a vast and consistent increase in student performance in the future.

Joseph Cho, allowing him to take 30+ top-performing students from North Miami Middle School on four weekend field trips with both recreational and community-givng components. A typical field trip occurred on Saturday April 9 2005, when Joseph and three other NMMS teachers accompanied the students to the Camillus House (a homeless shelter) where the group dropped off donated clothing, to Flamingo Park in Miami Beach for a picnic and sports where they had lunch donated by Epicure, and finally to the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach.

Tina De La Fe, allowing her to pay for district-approved bus transportation to bring the 15-30 students in 6th, 7th and 8th grades who are in The Newspaper Club from North Miami Middle School to places like The Miami Herald, The Miami Times (African-American-owned and -run newspaper) and local television and radio stations. In these settings, her students will be able to envision themselves as professional sports writers, crime reporters, feature writers, broadcast journalists, investigative reporters, music critics, news managers, editors and the like. It is important to expand their career goals beyond rap moguls and professional athletes. The trips will occur in the months of March through May (post-FCAT testing). The result of the students’ expanded knowledge can be seen in “Tiger Roar”, their school paper.

Mary Ivy, a kindergarten teacher at Little River Elementary School, allowing her to create a Literacy Center in her classroom. This Center for hands-on activities in which several students work simultaneously, contributes to the classroom environment in which students are actively involved in their own learning. Using the Center allows students, even as young as kindergarten, to enjoy a sense of responsibility and autonomy as they complete their work independently or with a small group of classmates. The Literacy Center is used to address a variety of curriculum areas, including writing, phonemic awareness, and word knowledge, as well as some less academic areas that are equally important to student’s development such as fine motor skill development and cooperation and sharing. When students are in the Center, Mary, as the teacher, is able to work with a small group of students on reading activities that are targeted towards the groups’ level. The combination of the Literacy Centers and small group time contributes to Mary’s goal that all of her students will sound out basic phonetic words by the end of the year. Mary is using her grant to purchase the following items for her Literacy Center:

City map area rug, beanbags chairs,books on tape, ABC Sing-Along Flip Chart and Audiotape, Alphabet sorting chart, Link ‘N Spell Magnetic Letters Master Set and word beginnings phonics set, Phonics Bingo Games Set

All of the students in Mary’s classroom, currently 23, will benefit from these literacy supplies. These materials will also be functional for several years, benefiting an even greater number of students. An area rug provides a place on which students may sit and use wooden blocks (these blocks are very loud on the tile floor) as well as a comfortable place for the class to have story time. Beanbag chairs make the classroom library an inviting place in which students will spend time and explore the available books. Books on tape and the sing-along flip chart allow students to develop print awareness, an essential reading skill. The alphabet-sorting chart reinforces beginning sounds as students match pictures to letters and place them in the pockets (208 pictures are included). The Link ‘N Spell Magnetic Letters and the Phonics Bingo Games Set provide an engaging hands-on activity for young children.

Elizabeth Lennox, a 6th and 8th Grade Reading teacher at Madison Middle School, allowing her to start a Student Service and Leadership Club.

Background: It started with a pigeon. A group of students found an injured pigeon unable to fly, and as children will, began to play with it. One of my students became concerned and ran to get me. I suggested that the students gently move the pigeon to the school’s butterfly garden. Their faces fell, and they assured me that he wouldn’t like it there. We carefully transferred our fragile guest to that site, and I appreciated their concern. Madison’s Butterfly Garden is a neglected, weed-choked enclosure.

Proposal: Initiate a Student Service and Leadership Club. Members will identify projects that will benefit the school and/or regional community, will be accomplished by students under adult supervision, will be achieved within a realistic budget, and will be completed within a specific time period. Members will also create a means of evaluating project successes. In addition, students will participate in “Project Teamwork” Leadership Training, and will learn and develop skills necessary to benefit the community. The first project will be revitalizing and dedicating the Butterfly Garden.

Rationale: Positive community identity is vital for Madison students. Revitalizing the garden is a concrete kick-off project that will foster a sense of teamwork and accomplishment. This will serve as the model for future service projects, including creating artwork for the school’s front entrance, joining other schools in the Tsunami Project, and cooking meals for the local soup kitchen.

Strategy:
• Communicate invitation to join
• Enlist core group to recruit members
• Complete school protocols—permission slips, meeting time and venue, etc.
• Brainstorm for the enclosure transformation
• Encourage students to identify tasks, create timeline, assign responsibilities, review budget, and monitor progress
• Solicit loan of tools, donations of plants and materials
• Beautify the Garden
• Dedicate the garden
• Assess strengths and challenges of project
• Research new project, etc.

Budget
• Initially, cost of sturdy gloves and plastic leaf bags for clean-up and disposal
• Additional to be determined by success of plant and flower donation campaign
• The Center for the study of Sport in Society, Project Teamwork leadership packet.

Theresa Martinez, an 11th grade English teacher at Miami Edison Senior High School

Miami Edison has no windows. It sits wedged against the I-95 at 6161 NW 5th Court. Immediately I was struck with how little academic achievement went on at my school. I became disenchanted. However, the more I become a part of my school community I am newly awed. It is not the lack of achievement that is remarkable but the few who do manage to achieve and continue to exert effort despite the onslaught of hurdles in their path. Their academic achievement attests to the possibilities which learning offers. That small “window” of achievement is hard to see from the outside.

My eleventh grade English students read anywhere from the second grade to college level with most around the sixth grade level. Studies show that the only way to raise one’s reading level is to read. The problem is that while my students are reading at the frustration level their ability to think at a high level makes them eager for non-traditional books that are not found in our resource “closet”. To want to read they must be engaged, and it is not the standard reading assignment that retains their attention.

One of those assignments is the canonical The Crucible by Arthur Miller. My students are young, Black and Haitian; it is difficult for them to identify with the universal themes in a play about white settlers in the 17th century, but not impossible. In order to get the most out of this iconic play my students must see themselves somewhere in it. In the play, Tituba, a black slave, has one line. However, Maryse Conde has written I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, which makes her character from the play into the protagonist. After we read the play I would like to have the chance to pique my students’ interest by reading and comparing the play to Conde’s historical fiction. The grant will be used to purchase a classroom set of that book. Its benefit in helping to raise my students’ reading level will go beyond the three-week unit in which we will read the book. A connection with the book may just make readers out of a handful who discover the possibilities that reading offers beyond Edison’s windowless walls.

Amanda Krause, a second grade teacher at Little River Elementary.

I hope to transcend the stereotypes, and too often reality, of urban education. Located in Little Haiti within the city of Miami, Little River Elementary School does not have the luxuries of other schools around the country. As opposed to a fountain of resources and wealth, I find the availability of materials to be akin to a drop in an empty bucket.

Each day in my classroom, there are more tears shed than books for the children to read or pencils with which to write; further, their homes offer even less towards their education. With such a situation, this grant provided by Mochary Programs would greatly benefit the children and their ability to learn how to read.

Second grade requires the students to solidify the foundation of being able to read, since in third grade they are expected to pass the reading portion of the FCAT with penalty of retention. However, far too many children are being retained—in fact multiple classes are devoted only to these retained students at Little River. To aide in teaching the children to learn to read, it is necessary to provide them with more resources than currently exist. A dire problem as it stands; but additionally, Little River Elementary utilizes a reading program that bores and annoys the children along side a library that is barely filled with books and run by a librarian who does not typically allow the students to touch the books.

To this end, I would like to provide an interactive, “hands-on” learning approach to explore and conquer reading that will also blend technology with reading. This grant would allow me to use Leap Frog® reading technology inside the classroom, creating a fun and interactive escape from the urban setting stereotype. Leap Frog’s LeapPad products would engage my students and introduce them to the joy of reading. With the money provided by this grant, 2 LeapPads with read-aloud microphone capability, 2 LeapPads with writing capability, 4 backpack storage systems and A/C adapters, along with 12 leveled, focused books could be purchased and revolutionize my students’ reading aptitudes. Not only are these books focused on benchmarks that the state demands that the students learn, but additionally they contain characters such as Scooby Doo, Sponge Bob, and the Incredibles—characters that the students will relate to. The added bonus is that these LeapPad learning systems can also be implemented to teach and infuse other subjects with reading, especially math and writing. Implementing the use of these learning systems in the classroom provides an instant and direct improvement to the current scripted reading curriculum. Thus, the students will be better prepared to take on their FCAT reading, math, and writing challenges as well as the greater challenges posed to them in life.

Chris Ruszkowski, a 7th and 8th grade History and Civics Teacher at John F. Kennedy Middle School in North Miami Beach.

A Social Studies Bookshelf & Animal Farm supplies.

Chris will compile relevant social studies texts to serve as important references during lessons, clips for class analysis, and student check-out. All books listed below have been citied or discussed in my classroom over the past two academic years. This grant will allow the text to be in the classroom for teacher reference and student reading. It will also provide a source of relevant subject material for those students who do not always bring their novel during homeroom and will create a sense of responsibility, a partnership, and a sense of ownership between any particular student and my classroom, not an “outside” entity such as the library. Furthermore, for students who embrace social studies, this collection of books will push their self-education and relationship with instructor to new horizons. For some whose worldviews are shaped by the novel or pamphlet, I can foresee the possibility of “earning” the book as a reward and personally re-purchasing it again. Purchasing these texts will involve approximately 75% of grant allocation. These texts include:

Hiroshima, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Common Sense, The Federalist Papers, Leaves of Grass, I Write What I Like, The Grapes of Wrath, The Jungle,
The Red Badge of Courage, 1984, The Things They Carried, The Black Poets, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Prince, The Communist Manifesto

The remaining 15-25% will be used to purchase poster boards and other creative materials as well as small stuffed animals and set creation materials in an effort to inspire students to re-create the Orwellian scene of Animal Farm during the month of May 2005. Students will have some discretion in this literature circle endeavor, but the teacher will be the main supplier of the materials that will bring this novel to life.

Thea Williamson, 9th Grade English and Intensive Reading, Miami Central Sr. High

In my classroom, what I have found to be the biggest obstacle is the accumulation of “little things.” Our custodial services are understaffed, so some rooms don’t get cleaned as often as they should; there are never quite enough books for all the students to read together; there are never just the right supplies around to do daily or weekly chores which need to be done; the room never works exactly like I’d envisioned it working.

What I would use the grant money for are some desperately needed minor expenses, which, when put together add up to a lot. To help support our already hard-working custodial staff, I would stock my classroom with cleaning supplies to keep my floors free of sand, leaves, and the occasional piece of stubborn gum.

For my Reading classes, a set of high caliber novels which tell the story of two different Black communities: Farming of Bones, by Edwige Danticat.. The novel tells the story of two cultures interatcting in one space: Hatian and Latino coexisting on the island of Hispaniola; a large percentage of my students at Miami Central Senior High are of Hatian or Latio descent, and these minority groups need to see themselves represented in the literature that forms part of our school’s curriculum. We spend one third of our Reading class every day reading together in groups of eight, and as a class we could spend four or five weeks discussing a book together. I would then purchase a bookcase to house my novels and textbooks, which are currently hidden away in a closet, so that my students can see exciting reading materials which talk about their own history every single day.

Once my classroom is clean and organized, I would like to put the finishing touches on the welcoming reading environment in room 14 by providing my students with a reading area. With a rug on the floor to cut down on tracked in dirt and a few bean bag chairs to sit in, I would use time in the reading area as a reward for diligent students. Hard workers can trade in their hard plastic desks for a comfortable seat.

Finally, in order for me to maintain a comfortable, safe environment in my classroom, I need to communicate achievements to my students. Keeping my pupils informed of their grades is an important part of maintaining the lines of communication, and since I keep an electronic gradebook, I can easily compute averages, progress reports, and individualized notices for any one of my students. Unfortunately, I do not have a printer in my classroom, so I do all of my printing at home. Keeping a home office is not a problem, but neither is it the ideal scenario; finding printer cartridges and enough paper for 165 students can be intimidating. With a ream of paper and replacement cartridges, my students can have regular, tangible updates on their grades and learning achievements. Furthermore, with a printer in my classroom, I could work during my planning time at school, instead of at home.

Cleaning supplies, Broom, Floor Cleaner, Paper Towels, Sponges, Scraper (Home Depot)- 6.00
8 copies of the book “Farming of Bones”, tags to label and catalog each book, Reading Area Bookshelf and Rug, Bean Bag Chairs, Grading Supplies, White Printer Paper, Black Ink Cartridge, and HP DeskJet Office Printer.

Most of these supplies would last me well into next year; I use up approximately one printer cartridge each 9 weeks, the paper would last until the beginning of the 2005-06 school year, and the cleaning supplies should see me through the end of this year. All of the other items will be reused every year that I teach: the reading area, the novels, and the printer, even the broom and scraper. These renewable resources might seem trivial when taken individually, but just like individual teachers can join to form a powerfully effective coalition like Teach for America, all of these little supplies will make my classroom a cleaner, more enjoyable space in which my students can learn.