General News
Maxi celebration for mini-grant winners
Jan 18, 2007 1:37 PM
Paricia Dye-Asante of Science Skills Center HS, surrounded by members of her dance company, explains, “This is what funding does for our kids.”
It was Oscar night on Broadway — celebrities, exploding flashbulbs, applause and acceptance speeches. Only the red carpet was missing.
The winners at this celebration are the stars of the city’s public school education community, selected for their exceptional, innovative projects that motivate their students and strengthen professionalism. They were honored at the Teacher Center Mini-Grant Program award ceremony held at UFT headquarters in Manhattan on Nov. 28.
UFT Vice President Aminda Gentile, director of the Teacher Center, portrayed the creative thinkers who won 71 mini-grants valued up to $2,500 as “our shining stars.” In her welcoming remarks, she noted, “Teachers don’t often have the opportunity to be praised.”
And praised they were at the dinner program, a collaboration of the Teacher Center and the Center for Arts Education, by a full-house audience of colleagues, family members, friends, administrators and even students.
Greg McCaslin, director of programs for the Center for Arts Education, cited the UFT as a “key partner in encouraging the arts in public schools.” He congratulated the winners by pointing out, “It’s individuals who get the work done.”
Maria Ayala, parent coordinator at PS 751, Manhattan, who helped literacy coach Magaly Guignard create Parents Outreach: Supporting Your Child’s Development With the Wilson Reading Program, was visibly moved in thanking the grant program. The grant, she explained, would make it possible to buy books to be used at home in a program designed to improve parent literacy so parents can help their children.
South Richmond HS’s Jodi Pugliese (right) shares the spotlight with 10th-grade student Katie Stubing who persuaded her to apply for a grant for Thinking It Through.
A judge stopped by Michael Lynch’s table with a congratulatory “great.”
Lynch, of Food and Finance HS, was there in his white chef’s coat as winner for A Student-Run Business Enterprise. In his acceptance speech, he described himself as “a proud member of the UFT.”
Like the scores of winners who have been in the classroom less than five years, Vivian Rorro-Porcu [see “Teaching adds up for former accountant” on page 46] is in her second year at PS 19, Staten Island, and has already garnered three grants, this time for Omnipotent Algebra — Patterns, Patterns Everywhere! An accountant for 16 years before becoming a 4th- and 5th-grade teacher, she credited math coaches and the UFT summer program, The XYZ’s of Algebra, for part of her inspiration. Her two earlier grants were for geography and electricity projects.
Spokeswoman for her winning team’s Math Talk — Let’s Walk the Walk, Susan Knaster of PS 163, Manhattan, expressed thanks “from the bottom of my heart.” She added: “The grant will help us buy books and will help us create a culture of talking about math and empowering children so their voices can be heard.”
Sharon Small of IS 126, Queens, one of the trio of winners for the Options for Innovative Females Program, cited her “fantastic principal and Teacher Center coordinator for harassing us to try for a grant.”
Another principal came through for speech teacher Andrea Guzman of PS 133 in Brooklyn, who received a basket of flowers for her award-winning A Day with Bonga, Music and Movement.
The celebration may be over but the challenge of putting the winning projects to work in classrooms all across the city continues. Only now it will be easier with the help of the mini-grants.
Jerrill Adams of PS 316, Brooklyn, is all smiles as he receives his award for Books for Boys: A Young Male Reading Initiative Program, from Gerri Herskowitz, Teacher Center coordinator of the mini-grant program.
Chef Michael Lynch of Food and Finance HS is flanked by students Israel Jackson and Elizabeth Ubinas, juniors participating in his winning project: A Student-Run Business Enterprise.
The winners
Establishing a Learning-Rich
Environment for English
Language Learners
Paula Kohm, Perla Bautista, Grace Nelson, Susanne Kraut of MS 217 (D28): Life Between Cultures: An Author Visit with Reading and Writing Connections for ELL Students; Kelly Russell of IS 145 (D30): Creating an Advertising Campaign; Katherine Kurjakovic of PS 11 (D30): Reading in English; Eleanor Conger-Milnes of PS 56 (D27): After-School Violin Program; Evelyn Rosario of PS 19 (D31): Bilingual Special Education Students Learning Through Their Senses and Manipulatives; Nicole Levin, Monique Michael of PS 184 (D1): ESL and Intervention Language Resource Library.
Increasing Learning Opportunities
for Students
Letitia Laberee, Vic Madho, Robert McCullough Jr. of MS 391 (D10): Los Voces — Increasing Learning Opportunities for Students; Joseph Nardone, Gail Thompashefsky, Nancy Maurer of PS10@304 (D75): Hooked on Books; Jodi Pugliese of South Richmond HS (D75): Thinking It Through; Noreen Walsh, Giovanna Palermo, Rosalinda Chirinos, Angela Pollina, Deborah Padmore of PS 212 (D30): Passport to Cultural Knowledge; Robert Kowles of IS 126 (D30): IS 126 Student Senate; Megan Cahill of Bushwick Leader’s HS for Academic Excellence (D32): Writing Power; Deborah L. Siner of PS 190 (D19): Success With Chess; Amaris James, Shelley Caesar of PS 140@PS/IS 323 (D75): Science Exploration Through Hands-On Experiences; Andrea Oliver, Jeanette Wilson, Rene Ramirez, Julica Henley, Jacquie Watson of PS 77@178 (D23/25): Begal Talk; Jerrill Adams of PS 316 (D17): Books for Boys: A Young Male Reading Initiative; Clemencia Saleeby, Donna Casiano, Jeanine Villamagna, Samatah Cronk, Anne Marie Matteo of PS 170 (D20): Ole! Mexico; Maureen Boyle of PS 170 (D20): Personal Listening Pals; Dava Schilder, Jennifer Campanella of Abraham Lincoln HS (D21): Teacher-Student After-School Book Club; Vivian C. Rorro-Porcu of PS 19 (D31): Omnipotent Algebra — Patterns, Patterns Everywhere; Susan Fisher, Christopher Chieh of College of Staten Island HS for International Studies (D31): S.P.I.R.A.L.S. — A Science Teaching Toolkit; Sheila Kapur, Laura Jackson, Dawn Webb, Jessica Staub of The Agnes Y. Humphrey School for Leadership (D15): Are Parks for People, Plants or Animals?; Linglih Wang, PS 347 (D2): Preschool Mad Scientist.
Pioneering Exciting Ways
to Promote Collegiality
Linsey Miller, Alphonse Volta, Janet Manolarkos, Sherma Williams of PS 721 (D75): Bright Futures; Susan Knaster, Regina Leonard, Angelo Monserrate, Carolyn Weinberg, Jill O’Brian, Denis Soto, Athena Sharpiro, Lindsay Copell, Yesenia Alfaro, Sheila Young of PS 163 (D3): Math Talk — Let’s Walk the Walk.
Creating Alternative Learning
Environments
Nancy Johnson, Tesha Edwards of PS 112 (D11): Garden Project; Ana Roldan, Elaine Bernabe of PS 182 (D28): Developing Better Expressive Readers; Ludney Jean-Philippe, Alesia Edmondson-Ross of PS 993 (D75): Using Girls’ Club to Promote Speech, Language and Communications Skills; Teresa Noverr-Chin of PS 145 (D32): Bushwick Begins; Natalie Sabini-Sberna of PS 44 (D31): Chess Club; Alycia DeSio of PS 19 (D31): A Living Classroom; Margarita Zavala of PS 168@MS 203 (D75): Learn-A-Cise; Elizabeth Merrigan of Austin H. McCormick Island Academy: Traveling the World Through Video.
Designing and Implementing
a Family Engagement Program
Melissa Toribio-Boughner of CS 211 (D12): Families First; Arlene Rattien, Maureen Bilewich of PS 206 (D28): Math Madness; Meredith Broderick, Christine Caputo of PS 373 (D75): Virtual PTA at 373; Marie Ribuado of PS 56 (D31): Breakfast with Books and Family Literacy Nights; Candace Villecco, Chau Ngo of School of the Future (D2): At-Home Support Guide; Joyce Malave of PS 155 (D4): Speech and Language Enrichment Program: Connecting With Parents; Dawn Brooks-DeCosta of Thurgood Marshall Academy Lower School (D5): Living, Learning and Literacy Through the Arts; Magaly Guignard, Maria Ayala of PS 751 (D75): Parent Outreach: Supporting Your Child’s Development With the Wilson Reading Program.
Incorporating Arts Into
Standards-Based Instruction
Stephanie Karpell, PS 46 (D10): Blast to the Past: Video Films; Nancy Orens of Benjamin Cardozo HS (D26): Presto Poetry; Kasey Stofflet, Carolyn Pritchard of IS 126 (D30): S.T.A.R. Light Theatre; Margaret Gerson of IS 227, Bryant HS (D30): Supporting Teachers to Utilize Free Resources for Incorporating Arts into Standards-Based Instruction; Jannet Franco, Gladys Castillo, Melanie Diaz, Meredith Mills, Theresa Amore of PS 145 (D32); Tia L. Walker of PS/MS 306 (D19): The Wizard of Oz; Donna Barclay of PS 161 (D17): Celebrating African-American Culture Through Literature and the Arts; Suzanne Delahunt, Diane Kaye of PS 206 (D22): Staff Development: Linking Music and Technology; Roma Karas, Thomas Buxton of IS 259 (D20): New York Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s — A Sculptural Mural; Andrea Guzman of PS 133 (D13): A Day With Bonga, Music and Movement; Patricia Dye Asante of Science Skills Center HS (D13): International Dance Awareness; Valerie Lewis, Joe Caracappa, Erica London, Marcy Sutherland, Lennard Charles of The Agnes Y. Humphrey School for Leadership (D15): How Does Red Hook Work?; Edda Cruz, Linda S. Laverpool of PS 396@PS 304 (D16/75): Rising Dancers of Tomorrow; Doris M. Meyer of PS 158 (D2): Hero of 9/11; Eric Morales, Nicole Sivilich of PS 168@MS 204 (D75): Expressive and Informational Writing Through Comic Books.
Designing Projects That Make
Connections Between School
and Career
Ronald L. Smith of MS 144 (D11): It’s Your Choice; Sharon Small, Fotina Lambos, Camille Ratteray-Vann of IS 126 (D30): Options for Innovative Females Program; Jill Adler of William Grady Career and Technical HS (D21): Interrelating Math Skills and the Positive Work Ethic in the Automotive Academy; Michael Lynch of Food and Finance HS (D2): A Student-Run Business Enterprise; Lori A. Calbert of CS 200 (D5): I Dream of a Future.
Utilizing Technology as a Tool
to Support Teaching and Learning
Stacie Harris, Latoya Walker, Keisha Anderson-Saunders of PS 112 (D11): Making Connections: Social Studies Meets Technology; Natalia Nakazawa of Long Island City HS (D30): Assistive Technology: Supporting Equality in the Visual Arts for Students With Disabilities; Erica Ward, Ellen Asregadoo of PS 190 (D19): Bridging the Social Studies Gap; Lisa Tuffy of IS 146 (D27): Implementing Technology and Instruction of Research Skills for Enhanced Research Abilities for Students; Mary Sheridan of PS 19 (D31): Introduction to Robo Technology; Tamia Moore of Manhattan Hunter Science HS (D3): United States Immigration Policy; Lorraine Gutierrez, Bethany Clark of Harlem Renaissance HS (D79): Digital Media — Literacy Exit Portfolio.
Supporting the Adolescent Learner
Maureen Robins of JHS 149 (D25): Writers at Work: Creating Historical Fiction for a New Generation; Pedro F. Gonzalez of PS/IS 131 (D6): Forensic Science; Maria O. Martinez of Austin H. McCormick Island Academy (D79): Forensic Science Workshop Series; Travis J. Bristol of Manhattan Hunter Science HS (D3): The Male Adolescent: Tools for Success in Life.
Winners of 71 mini-grants, many of them teachers with less than five years experience, proudly fill the staircase at UFT headquarters during a ceremony in their honor.
