School-Wide Grants Building Futures Grants

School-Wide Grants and Building Futures Grants

2007-2008

In its ninth year of awarding funds through the Building Futures Grants program and the third year for the School-Wide Grants, the Virginia Beach Public Schools Education Foundation is providing more than $119,000 to support the teachers, staff and students in Virginia Beach City Public Schools. A total of 116 projects will receive funding for the 2007- 08 school year. The Foundation selected recipients from a record 274 Building Futures Grant applications and 48 School-Wide Grant applications. This funding support is the result of community collaboration with the . . .

The mission of the Virginia Beach Public Schools Education Foundation is to raise private sector support to reward excellence and fund innovative, creative education programs to benefit students, teachers and staff of the Virginia Beach City Public Schools. 20082008 BuildingSchool-W Futureside Grants Grants

Bayside High School Salem Middle School Director: Kay Thomas Co-Director: Brian Jones Director: D. Alex Bergren Amount: $1,500 Team: Amanda Richardson, Katie Warnock, Project: "Every Day Counts" Michelle Richard Description: Every Day Counts is designed to improve Amount: $5,000 student attendance by establishing connections and Project: The Shark Bite interpersonal relationships between the student and the Description: This program will provide at-risk rising faculty. There will be grade level competitions with sixth-grade students with the opportunity to experience special programs and incentives for the winning grade. an abbreviated middle school schedule for a week over the summer in order to acclimate them to the procedures Bayside High School and expectations of middle school. Director: Kay Thomas Co-Director: Randy Pate Team: Brian Jones, Sara Dias, Alice Hundley, Meg Trantwood Elementary School Manugo, Denise Trombino Director: Nancy Lambert Co-Director: Janet Roewer Amount: $4,000 Amount: $1,500 Project: SOL Boot Camps Project: ABCD - Audio Books Complement Description: The purpose of this instruction is to boost Differentiation student confidence during high stakes testing and to Description: This project will increase the reading provide remediation for areas of identified weaknesses. comprehension and fluency of all students, but especially Reading objectives will result in increased achievement those who are reading below grade level. Younger and an increase in passing scores on SOL exams. students can check out a Read at Home Backpack containing a book, audio CD and activity sheet. Older Lynnhaven Middle School students can take home a self-playing digital audio book Director: Lydia McNeal Co-Director: Mark Kinzel called Playaway. Team: Shannon Farrell, Tamara Freeman Amount: $5,000 Virginia Beach Central Academy Underwriter: Chesapeake Bay Wine Classic Foundation Director: Michael Bolton Co-Director: Janet Project: Lynnhaven Legacy Richardson Description: Students will investigate a local Team: Sherri Dobbins environmental issue by designing and constructing an Amount: $4,000 outdoor classroom within a rain garden. This project Project: Reading Counts provides an opportunity for students to get back to nature Description: After reading a book students will take a by giving back to nature. computer generated on-line quiz designed to measure their comprehension. The quizzes provide assessment Old Donation Center information to help motivate reading, monitor progress Director: Gloria Harris Co-Director: Camille Grabb and target instruction to accelerate reading growth. Team: Kelly Hedrick Amount: $4,000 Project: IMAGE: Increasing Minority Awareness of Gifted Education Description: This program targets potentially gifted first grade students and their parents from four schools. It provides an engaging learning experience and offers parent strategies for encouraging children's thinking at higher critical and creative levels.

1 2008 Building Futures Grants Alanton Elementary School Bayside High School Director: Kay Phillips Director: Clara Heyder Team: Jeanne Crocker, Margaret Graf, Sarah Amount: $1,000 Robinson, Stephanie Poole, Susan Anderson Project: Physiology Exploration through Amount: $993 Technology (PET) Project: ALL EARS FOR READING Description: Students will work as teams in the Description: This project is designed to promote classroom using handheld computers and probes to literacy and targeting vocabulary development and gather, analyze, explore and understand data of the reading comprehension. The funds will provide a physiology of the human body through technology. subscription to Tumble Books Library, a Web-based Students will also interact with health professionals in the collection of animated, talking books. classroom and in the field.

Arrowhead Elementary School Center for Effective Learning Director: Jennifer Mitchell Director: Linda Clark Amount: $392.19 Team: Nancy Habit, Elaine Lombardi Project: Hats Off to Virginia Readers Amount: $1,000 Description: Hats off to Virginia Readers is a high- Project: Sunny Side Up: Integrating Life Skills with interest way to introduce award-winning literature to Artistic and Written Expression! primary grade students. The use of hats/visual aids assists Description: Art, teen living, and independent reading visual learners in remembering these new classics. The students, grades six through eight, will create pillows for students will connect the hat/prop with the story and will senior citizens in Atlantic Shores Assisted Living be able to visualize the story in their minds which in turn Facility. In addition to using math, art, and reading to will aid in comprehension. design the pillows, students will document their work process in a journal and describe the experience of giving Arrowhead Elementary School their work to a senior citizen. Director: Beth Schlossberg Team: Debbie Dunn, Jennifer Mitchell Center for Effective Learning Amount: $1,000 Director: Diana Mond Project: No Mystery in History! Team: Debby Christian, Carole Melvin, Carrie Mathews, Description: Famous figures highlighted in the Darcy Parker, Darlene Watts, Gwen McMillan, Jerome Wasserberg, Nikki Grossman, Randall Forbes, Rebecca Virginia SOLs will come to life! Student volunteers, Herron, Vivian Moore serving as actors, will provide clues to their secret Amount: Amount: $997.68 identities during daily morning announcements. The Project: The Village: A Video Play in Three Acts entire student body will then have the opportunity to Description: Students will develop a script, "The "solve the mystery" and be entered in a weekly drawing Village," which will display the importance of educating to win a historical fiction book. youth about bullying, and their responsibility as a "village" in following the Center for Effective Learning’s Bayside Elementary School motto: "Bullying: Not an Option." Director: Cathy Malley Co-Director: Patty Waller Amount: $940.67 Center for Effective Learning Project: Guys Read Director: Darcy Parker Description: As research demonstrates, background Team: Teresa Pitts, Carrie Campbell, Denise knowledge is a key component for students to Winters, Tina Bobo, Chris Livengood comprehend text. By providing community experiences, Amount: $904.67 the project will give students a chance to develop Underwriter: Virginia Natural Gas background knowledge that will enhance their reading Project: It's a Pond's Life- Part II enjoyment. Description: Middle school students will investigate the water quality at Back Bay and conduct lab studies to include microscopic examination of coliform bacteria and plankton. By identifying and analyzing both man-made and natural environmental problems, students will evaluate the risks associated with these problems and uncover solutions for solving or even preventing them.

2 2008 Building Futures Grants

W. T. Cooke Elementary School Corporate Landing Middle School Director: Christa Alm Director: Charlene Dean Team: Beth Lantz Amount: $1,000 Amount: $500 Project: Time Travels through Maps Project: Reading with Role Models Description: Using detailed markable wall maps, Description: Students and their chosen role models students will complete activities that cover time periods will meet to discuss books that the club is reading in American history. In addition, students will create their throughout the year. During this time there will be Book own maps and projects using various art media to Talks as well as a Blog space online for constant illustrate their mastery of the content. communication and comments about the reading. Corporate Landing Middle School Director: Donna Easter W. T. Cooke Elementary School Team: Astrid White, Laura Folden, Amy Tomasulo, Director: Julie Laidlaw Co-Director: Janina Peters Joyce LeBlanc, Elizabeth Cigich Team: Janina Peters, Dana Sizemore Amount: $750 Amount: $950 Project: Jet Stream Smoothie Bar Project: Ready Set Grow Description: Working closely with their diversity Description: Thirty third, fourth-, and fifth-grade program peers, 30 mentally challenged students will learn students will participate in an after-school program to appropriate social interaction and functional learning plant and maintain a winter and spring vegetable and skills while being trained on how to make healthy flower garden. Students, faculty, community members, smoothies. Students will select flavors of the month and and parent volunteers will work together to provide participate in community based instruction to purchase instruction in math, spatial skills and the life sciences. smoothie ingredients.

Corporate Landing Middle School W. T. Cooke Elementary School Director: Dawn Garvey Director: Cheryl Routh Team: Christopher Todd, Leann Pauley, Lori Team: Jaqueline Barmore, Sheryl Cholish Wilson, Michael Dunavan, David Remer Amount: $400 Amount: $1,000 Project: Kindergarten Investigates Life Processes Project: Landscape of American History Description: Kindergarten students will experience Description: In order to gain a better understanding of life processes in the most exciting way possible, through the physical features of various geographical regions in hands-on and real-life study, just like true scientists! By the United States, students will create paper maps and helping provide food, water, air and care to living then work in groups to sculpt 3D clay maps. Creating the organisms, students will know and understand their maps will increase the sixth grade students’ awareness of needs. In real-time, students will observe firsthand, how the relationship between geography and history. organisms appear at different stages of the life cycle.

Corporate Landing Elementary School Corporate Landing Middle School Director: Joan Harwin Director: Sherry Kelly Team: Joe Andreana, Lynda Gillikin, Anne James, Team: Belinda Graeff, Tom Frohlich, Andy Prater, Amy Brown Stephanie Riddell Amount: $990 Amount: $990 Project: Metamorphosis Unlimited Underwriter: Virginia Natural Gas Description: Through observation butterfly habitats Project: Water Quality: Team 7's Improvement Plan and larvae and ladybug habitats and larvae, students will Description: Students will share and compare data observe first-hand how change occurs in different species with students at other schools who are also studying local of arthropods. They will then release the insects into the aquatic environments. Expert guest speakers will garden in a school-wide ceremony. augment class discussions and analysis of data. A culminating activity will be a floating lab experience to seed oysters on a local reef.

3 2008 Building Futures Grants

Corporate Landing Middle School John B. Dey Elementary School Director: Amy Tomasulo Co-Director: Louisa Director: Jean Koch Morrison Team: Janice Logan, Rae Cox, Joe Arcona, Judy Team: JoAnn Baxter, Rick Miller, Shelly Norris, Beckner Brendan Flynn, Brien Egan Amount: $1,000 Amount: $1,000 Project: "Playaway" for Reading Enrichment Project: Bridging the Gaps Description: Playaway units provide a means to plug Description: During evening social studies review in to our students’ interest in technology. The Playaway sessions at school, seventh-grade students will unit is matched with the printed version of the story and work with their parents to create high-interest review students can follow along and improve their fluency, activities and take home a "bag of tricks" to review and expression and comprehension. practice pertinent social studies objectives. John B. Dey Elementary School Frank W. Cox High School Director: Kelli White Director: Karen Head Co-Director: Jay Cope Amount: $984 Amount: $871 Project: Zootrippin' A First Class Experience Project: Preparing Exceptional Students for College Description: First graders will climb aboard their Success virtual school bus for an interactive videoconference with Description: The transition from high school to higher San Diego Zoo educators to learn animal classification. education can often be overwhelming. Students with In addition, small groups of students will research an learning disabilities are often unaware of how college animal and create a technological presentation to post on differs from high school, what support is available in their class Web page. higher education, and what financial aid is available. This information will be consolidated into a booklet to be John B. Dey Elementary School distributed to students. Director: Mandy Yates Co-Director: Karen Callis Amount: $1,000 Frank W. Cox High School Project: Mapping Our Way Through Science Director: Virginia James Co-Director: Robyne Aboard the Virtual School Bus Borum Description: Pack your science kits and safety goggles Amount: $577.68 for a fantastic virtual journey. Utilizing Project: Making GREAT DECISIONS: A future videoconferencing and Smartboards, 45 students will voter's guide to world affairs embark on a series of virtual field trips for live interaction Description: World Affairs Club students will attend with staff at aquariums, museums, and zoos. Students the World Affairs Council, Greater Hampton Roads will log their experiences on the class Web site. Chapter "Great Decisions Speaker Series" and receive the latest Foreign Policy Association study guide. Fairfield Elementary School Discussions with their peers will ensue and a first-time Director: Gary Lennon voter citizenry will hold a forum to prepare other new Team: Julie Peperak, Terry Hembree, Kathryn Arn, voters. Krystina Morgan Amount: $1,000 Frank W. Cox High School Project: Civil War On Scene Reports Director: Kellie Torrence Description: Civil War reports will be videotaped Amount: $357.42 using a chroma key background (green screen effect) and Project: U.S. Exploration Team an appropriate picture or video showing a scene from the Description: Students gain first-hand exposure to Civil War era will place students "at" the location that is historical sites and document their experience through the included in or representative of their report. use of a travel journal. Relatives and friends throughout the country will share historical aspects of the region in which they live and then pass the journal on to the next friend or relative. This process will culminate in April 2008.

4 2008 Building Futures Grants

Fairfield Elementary School Green Run Elementary School Director: Rebecca Winner Director: Rebecca Atkins Team: Mary Stoakley, Susan Ryan Amount: $999.26 Amount: $480 Underwriter: Supreme Council of America AASRM, Underwriter: Virginia Natural Gas Inc. Project: Science Mobile Labs Project: Playaways-Beyond Braille: Reaching out to Description: Two hundred and fifty-five students in the Visually Impaired the third, fourth, and fifth grade will experience Virginia Description: In order to serve a diverse population aquarium life through workshops presented by the including the visually impaired, the library will Virginia Aquarium staff. Workshops cover the scientific offer new technology to second-grade students in the method using authentic scientific instruments and form of digital audio books called Playaways. Ear buds specimens, studying and exploring the zones of life in the will be used so all students can experience engaging ocean, and more. literature together.

First Colonial High School Green Run Elementary School Director: Jeannine Jones Director: Rebecca Atkins Team: Paul Bennett, Donna Draeger Team: Amy Wisilosky Amount: $290 Amount: $521 Project: Job Hunting Made Easy Project: Financial Fitness Week Description: Teams of three to four marketing Description: Virginia Beach Schools Federal Credit students will be trained to teach groups of 15-29 students Union staff will help teach students about saving and how to properly complete job applications and prepare spending, income and expenses in fun, hands-on lessons for an interview. Each student will receive a copy of The that use reading and math lessons as a vehicle for Job Hunting Handbook as part of the 45-minute session, teaching personal finance topics. held during study blocks.

First Colonial High School Green Run Elementary School Director: Carrie Knoche Director: Jennifer Vazquez Amount: $850 Amount: $1,000 Project: Read, Respond, Recycle Project: Reading Across Time: Using Historical Description: Senior English students will select Fiction to Develop Enduring Understanding approved paperback books to read independently, Description: Sets of historical fiction books will be discuss online on a SharePoint discussion board and in purchased for four gifted cluster classrooms, grades two literary circles, read each other's posts and choose other through five and cluster teachers will receive training in books to read. The purpose is to encourage stress-free writing curriculum that integrates language arts and reading, improve reading and writing skills and expand social studies objectives through historical fiction. student discussion about books beyond plot. Green Run High School Glenwood Elementary School Director: Patty Caskill Co-Director: Cheryl Foster Director: Eva Bryant Co-Director Carolyn Falor Amount: $1,000 Team: Kathleen Lee Project: Book Club: Reading Leading to Succeeding Amount: $1,000 Description: Male and female book clubs will meet Project: Young Writer's Celebration during lunch periods and study blocks to read and discuss Description: Every student at Glenwood Elementary selected fiction and nonfiction literature. Students will be School will write and illustrate his or her own original encouraged to blog” and review books on the Library book. Classes will collaborate with PTA volunteers to Media Center SharePoint. create rough drafts, sloppy copies, and Bare Books before the final works are published and displayed at a Young Writer's Celebration.

5 2008 Building Futures Grants Green Run High School Holland Elementary School Director: Kathy Sargent Director: Ann Piland Team: Cindy Smith, Lee Cooper, Wayne Adamson, Team: Kathy Baise, Cindi Carter, Amy Dirks, Chris Lisa Krisik, Randy Vaiden (posthumously), Robin Dozier, Anna Cyr, Cindy Carter, Evette Eure, Carmen Watson Witherington Amount: $963.96 Amount: $1,000 Underwriter: Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Department Project: Husky Puppies (Jumpstart Kindergarten II) Project: Kids to Kids (K2K) Internet Safety Description: As part of this continuing project, pre- Description: With a goal of eliminating the kindergarteners and their parents will attend Husky communication gap between adults and pre-teens, 10 Puppy Night at their future school to participate in a book Future Business Leaders of America members will create reading session and related hands-on activities. Take- and deliver an interactive presentation to area elementary home materials are also available to improve the child’s school fourth and fifth graders about the importance of readiness for school. Internet safety. The older students will act as mentors as well. Independence Middle School Director: Kellie Jordan Green Run High School Team: Kenneth Edwards Director: Cynthia Smith Amount: $951.25 Team: Mark Pacomio, Mary Jo O'Connor, Kathy Project: "These Pedometers Were Made For Sargent Walking" Amount: $850 Description: The use of pedometers in class will be Underwriter: Virginia Society of CPAs used in conjunction with WalkSmart! With the use of Project: It's a Taxing Time! pedometers in physical education activities, students will Description: Twenty accounting and advanced keep track of the number of steps they are taking during accounting students at Green Run High School will class or throughout the day. With this information, they open an on-site tax preparation center for classmates with can then examine their own personal activity levels and after-school jobs. Students will receive assistance from make necessary adjustments for improvement. their teacher and an alumnus of the school who is currently an accountant. Kellam High School Director: Chris Freeman Green Run High School Amount: $1,000 Director: Caretha Walker Team: Sandra Gaillard, Gineen Stine, Christine Ward, Underwriter: HBA Architecture & Interior Design Diana Golub, Cheryl Foster, Marsha Warren, Anita Whitehurst, Project: Science Fair Projects for a Healthier, more Jean Atkinson, Daryl Cherry, Shawn Wilson, Kevin Keogh Sustainable and "Green" Environment Amount: $1,000 Description: Through conducting four separate Project: Life Net studies, students will gain a better sense of how science Description: Fifty young men and women will work and engineering can make the local and global climate after-school with teachers and mentors to develop healthier. Students will study eating habits of students, leadership skills while working on community service environmentally friendly designs, sand erosion, and projects to promote academic excellence. The project global warming. includes college visits and constructing bears for young surgery patients at CHKD. Kellam High School Director: Timothy Kennedy Holland Elementary School Amount: $ 1,000 Director: Marie Culver Project: U-Pod Amount: $1,000 Description: Communications technology students Project: "Holland's Secret Garden" - Children and will combine pod casting and You Tube to create Nature Growing Together in Harmony digital video lessons. These lessons will guide students Description: Young scientists will have opportunities through classroom activities all in a digital video format for investigating, exploring, researching and creating which will allow them to play authentic connections with the environment. "The Secret Garden" will provide students with an appreciation for natural resources in our world.

6 2008 Building Futures Grants Kellam High School King's Grant Elementary School Director: John Merritt Director: Gloria Jefferson Team: Barbara Devnew, Laura Howell Team: Shannon Manning, Helen Gradwell Amount: $1,000 Amount: $835 Project: Nonfiction Niceness: K! True Digital Project: Focusing by Projecting Stories Description: This project allows fourth graders Description: Seventy-six ninth-grade English students immediate access to multi-media projectors during will plan and implement their own service learning language arts instruction. Students will become more projects to "change the world" in and around the school stimulated and focused. Note taking skills and basic community. Based upon reading nonfiction accounts of computer skills will be enhanced. people who change the world, students will publish K! True Digital Stories on the Web and in hard copy format Landstown Elementary School which they'll present to their peers, parents, teachers and Director: Rhonda Coursen community organizations. Team: Melissa Taylor, Nancy Lindgren, Kris Haberdash, Cynthia Hodges, Kimberly Spruill, Kathleen Kempsville Elementary School Wirth, Lynne Jennings Director: Jennifer Quick Amount: $1,000 Amount: $896.57 Project: WE BOTH READ Project: Rhythm of Life: World Percussion Description: This projects is designed for parents to Description: In the music classroom, students will read with their children and share the reading experience. participate in rhythmic musical activities with percussion Parents read more complex text and the storyline found instruments purchased from grant funds. This will on the left-hand pages of the book. Children read the enhance their study of world cultures, specifically those right-hand pages which feature leveled text specific to of Africa and China, and help to develop their literacy their developmental reading needs. skills and mathematical pattern recognition. Landstown Elementary School Kempsville High School Director: Marilyn Haste Director: Meghan Timlin Team: Marilyn Payne Amount: $500 Amount: $1,000 Project: We've Got Spirit! How about you? Project: Read the Days Away! Description: Creating, purchasing and selling a Description: Based on their individual reading levels, product - that is what marketing is all about! Students kindergarteners will participate with their parents and will research, design, purchase, price and sell a chosen other family members in a home reading program. product, experiencing marketing functions first hand. Reading logs and comprehension tests will measure They will actually immerse themselves in a business student success. model of creating and selling a product. Landstown Elementary School Kempsville Middle School Director: Tressa Valentine Co-Director: Angela Director: Tammy Stafford Bishop Amount: $367.69 Team: Lisa Weers, Alicia Kelly, Renee Lesher, Underwriter: Virginia Society of CPAs Sharon Carey, Kevin Johnson Project:Mathematics Vocabulary -"Words Up!" Amount: $1,000 Description: To improve the conceptual density of Project: Touch Screen Learning mathematics text for grade seven math students, parents Description: Up to 30 special education pre-K and teachers will receive training to implement students will have the opportunity to use "Touch vocabulary building activities for the students. Teaching Screen Learning" daily in our classroom to connect with tools and textbooks will be available to parents and classroom instruction and in a center to encourage teachers at the school library. Underwritten by Virginia students to work together to improve socialization skills, Society of Certified Public Accountants. sharing and turn taking.

7 2008 Building Futures Grants Landstown High School Landstown Middle School Director: Ginny Baillargeon Director: Gary Jordan Team: Ann Shufflebarger, Sandy Cameron-Adams, Team: Marcos Christodonte Doris Fisher Amount: $500 Amount: $1,000 Project: Gentlemen's Club Project: REACHing Struggling Readers: It's Still in Description: Students will meet bi-weekly for 90 the Bag minutes with staff, Virginia Beach police officers, Description: Using REACH specifications, students military personnel, and community volunteers in order to will become workers on an assembly line where they will gain knowledge in developing and maintaining a positive custom design the outside pocket of book bags. Upon attitude. Stereotypes, media images, cliques, and completion, students will deliver the bags to the REACH prejudices are just a few of the topics that will be United Way agency and assist in filling them with books. covered.

Landstown High School Linkhorn Park Elementary School Director: Ginny Baillargeon Director: Jennifer Biange Team: Sue Hitchings, Suzette Johnson, Rev. Team: Jenny Sue Flanagan, Terri Darnell Margery Howell, Tina Cutherie Amount: $1,000 Amount: $1,000 Underwriter: Atlanta Bread Company Project: Lap it up! Students helping Seniors Project: Got Science? Parents as Partners Description: 45 Students enrolled in the Introduction Description: This program will train parents to serve to Design Occupations I and II classes will design and as facilitators in the classroom. In addition to improving create lap blankets for residents at a local nursing and self-efficacy for parents and teachers, the program will rehabilitation center. During the community service build relationships between parents, teachers and project, students will use technology to custom embroider students. a design with the recipient’s name on it. Luxford Elementary School Landstown Middle School Director: Richard Kinsey Director: Diana Cotter Team: Janene Gorham Amount: $800 Amount: $1,000 Project: Ladies Club Project: Positioning Students for Success with GPS Description: The “Ladies Club” allows middle- Description: Fourth graders will use Global school-aged girls to meet and interact with community Positioning System handheld receivers to actively solve volunteers and leaders who serve as mentors and role problems, collect and apply data and extend their models. Among the program goals are to increase the understanding of geography and history content students’ self esteem and academic achievement. knowledge through higher-level thinking challenges. Students will be guided through progressively more Landstown Middle School challenging activities with a culminating activity at First Director: Mary Gunsalus Landing State Park. Amount: $971 Project: Trading Up!- Exchanging Textbook for Luxford Elementary School Trade Book to Enhance the Teaching of American Director: Molly McHone History Team: Rich Kinsey Description: Through the use of trade books, 105 Amount: $420 students will experience American History in a real and Project: POWERful Instruction using Powerpoint visually appealing way. The engaging pages of each book with Qwizdom enhance motivation and open the young readers to Description: Fourth-grade students will use endless learning possibilities ActionPoint software in conjunction with the existing Qwizdom Remote Response system to add a dynamic, interactive component to lessons that use PowerPoint slideshows. The instruction will support students in mathematics and reading.

8 2008 Building Futures Grants Lynnhaven Middle School Malibu Elementary School Director: Carolyn Brown Co-Director: Robyn Director: Amy Furlich Johnson Team: Amy Abbott, Jill Speasmaker, Jan Roth, Beth Amount: $999.80 Estill Project: Into the 21st Century Amount: $1,000 Description: With the purchase of Wacom Graphics Project: Traveling the Virginia Divide: Civil War Tablets, digital pens and software, existing laptops will History Trunk be made more "user-friendly" for middle school students Description: The Civil War in Virginia will come enrolled in art as they explore the artistic potential of new alive for students as they unpack the living history trunk. technology. Students will synthesize the information and perspectives gained from artifacts, song, art, letters, diaries and Lynnhaven Middle School photographs to write historical fiction writing pieces Director: Robyn Johnson based on their research. Amount: $906 Underwriter: ABS Technology Architects Malibu Elementary School Project: Art and Technology Academy Director: Amy Furlich Description: More than thirty students will create art Team: Amy Abbott, Jill Speasmaker, Jan Roth, Nate and technology projects for residents of Atria, a school Kinnison, John Maher, Wanda Johnson, Beth Estill partner. Students will create sculptures for the school's Amount: $1,000 outdoor classroom while developing confidence and self- Project: Within the Waves esteem in this after-school enrichment program. Students Description: In an interdisciplinary project that will also explore art and technological careers. humanizes the abstract concept of sound, students will act Underwritten by ABS Technology Architects as scientific investigators to determine if evidence links the use of sound waves to whale stranding. Fourty-five Malibu Elementary School fifth-grade students will think creatively as they apply Director: Beth Estill their findings in multimedia presentations. Amount: $1,000 Project: Building Better Readers One Book at a Malibu Elementary School Time Director: Amy Furlich Description: Two hundred students will have the Team: Beth Estill, Denise Williams, Kathy Benson, opportunity to enroll in a Book of the Month Club. They Leslie Weaver, Becky Starbuck, Marilyn Anderson, will discuss their selections at “Chat and Chew” Amanda Jeffrey, Kelley Kasmark, Martha Putnam, Pat lunchtime meetings. Parents will be provided strategies Mills, Kristin Peterson, Jill Speasmaker, Amy Abbott, for improving their child’s language arts skills at a Eileen Treon Literacy Night. Amount: $1,000 Project: Digging Up the Past: Part II Malibu Elementary School Description: Digging Up the Past will continue the Director: Beth Estill transformation of our elementary school into an Team: Jill Speasmaker, Kristin Peterson, Marilyn archaeological dig site. Students will apply their Anderson, Kelley Kasmark, Kathy Benson, Leslie knowledge to the problem of finding, mapping and Weaver, Kristin Shuman, Sue Moody, Kelly Brennan, analyzing artifacts from ancient civilizations and the Jan Roth, Laura Howell, Kathy Sands, Ellen Pontiff American past. Amount: $1,000 Project: The Keepsake Collection - Writing Our Family History Description: Children and their families will share personal memories as students create personal narratives as well as expository pieces based on family history. In addition, Parent Writing Clinics will be held to educate parents on how they can support their child's writing and in turn become better writers themselves.

9 2008 Building Futures Grants New Castle Elementary School Ocean Lakes High School Director: Keitha Havey Director: Jim Cartwright Team: Debbie Field, Michelle Krolikowski Team: Erika Connolly, Robert Weisenbeck Amount: $897.38 Amount: $1,000 Project: All the School's a Stage! Project: Smart Globes. Smart Kids. Description: This project will use Reader Theater to Description: This active hands-on tool is perfect for build fluency, improve listening and speaking skills, and both students with disabilities and regular education encourage the enjoyment of reading. Small groups of students. This project uses the power of a high-tech students will perform the text of literature reminiscent of computerized globe with geography and marketing old time radio programs. Raise the curtain and let the fun classes to raise students' awareness of the world begin! economy.

North Landing Elementary School Ocean Lakes High School Director: Barney Barkey Director: Mackenzie Glassco Co-Director: Kimberly Amount: $998.99 Montgomery Project: The Minute Club Team: Jim Cartwright, Cindy Copperthite Description: Students in grades two to five practice Amount: $989.51 rereading short nonfiction selections at home with the use Project: "The Marketplace" at OLHS of a CD until they are able to read each selection fluently. Description: This integrated program is designed to Parents become active partners in the One Minute Reader assist students who have mild to moderate cognitive fluency program by assessing and monitoring each disabilities in mastering living and work skills needed to practice session. be productive citizens. Students will create and assemble items to sell in the school store, using spreadsheets, North Landing Elementary School graphics, the Internet, and digital cameras to display and Director: Barbara Messina track their items. Team: Susan Hale Amount: $750 Ocean Lakes High School Project: Let's Read! Talk! Think! And Grow! Director: Allison Graves Co-Director: Adrian Description: Students in a first-grade inclusion class at Hayes North Landing Elementary School will have the Amount: $1,000 opportunity to participate in whole language arts Project: Visual Persuasion: Redefining "Text" for instruction using the Junior Great Books Read-Aloud Student Writers program. This project will enable readers at varying Description: Using new technology, two conventional levels and non-readers to work together using high- elements of the eleventh-grade English curriculum–the quality literature. persuasive research paper and the writing portfolio–will be transformed for students as they create their own North Landing Elementary School persuasive "infomercials" and Web-based electronic Director: Rebecca Wallace portfolios. Team: Carrie Sims, Tracy Coffin, Marty Asire Amount: $1,000 Ocean Lakes High School Underwriter: Beach Bully Director: Beth Hubbard Co-Director: Jim Cartwright Project: RISK Amount: $1,000 Description: The program opens students' creativity Project: Future Teachers Portfolio Project and allows them to broaden their experience base through Description: Students who have identified teaching as the use of many volunteers and experts in dynamic areas. a career choice will develop a portfolio of teaching and RISK will develop the talent potential of young people by instructional activities which can be used to gain assessing strengths, enrichment, and flexible curriculum acceptance into teaching programs across the state. The development. portfolios will include components which demonstrate a mastery of the professional, practical, and personal skills necessary for a successful teaching career.

10 2008 Building Futures Grants Ocean Lakes High School Plaza Middle School Director: Christine Thornton Director: Robert Carroll Team: Yolanda Bothe, Jennifer Grinnell, Kathy Amount: $670 Harcourt, Jack Harcourt, Hank Craft, James Prince, Ed Underwriter: Virginia Natural Gas Lowery Project: Students Restoring Oysters in the Amount: $1,000 Lynnhaven River Project: Strength in Numbers Description: In this pearl of a project, students will Description: This project will have a success oriented restore/grow 6,000 juvenile oysters and release them onto fitness training component that will increase scores on an intertidal reef in the Lynnhaven River. Using standard fitness tests, while also teaching a lifelong skill classroom aquaria and oyster habitat cages, students will to enhance healthy, fit and wellness-based lifestyles. monitor oyster growth, water temperature, and salinity throughout the school year. Ocean Lakes High School Director: Leeane Turnbull Princess Anne Elementary School Team: Amy Hunley, Nidia Miller Director: Karin DeWispelaere Amount: $1,000 Team: Tammy Franklin, Kathy Thompson, Betty Project: Leadership Ingredients: Leadership Tecson, Jill Barger Excellence Accountability Discipline Amount: $998.80 Description: High school students will develop the Project: Fast Forwarding Fluency with Reader's skills necessary to assume leadership roles in their Theater school, community and personal lives, including Description: To improve developmental reading, motivation, involvement, accountability and discipline, third, fourth and fifth-grade students will perform plays during several hands-on, three-day weekend training using Readers Theater materials. This will aid with their sessions. reading fluency, sight-word vocabulary and, ultimately, reading comprehension. Old Donation Center Director: Teri Davis Princess Anne Elementary School Team: Anna Cassalia, Sandra Chang, Frances Director: Amy Ellison Hatzopoulos, Nancy Jones, Pamela Knecht Team: Tammy Thrasher, Bev Berman, Windsor Amount: $986.18 Shewbridge Project: Scrapbooks Plus! Amount: $1,000 Description: Students will use technology to create Project: Literacy Work Stations their own scrapbooks of 13 writings over the course of Description: One hundred first-grade students will be the year. The students will learn the writing process given the opportunity to grow as readers, writers, through teacher modeling, shared experiences and spellers, thinkers, and learners by engaging in enriching individual attempts to pre-write, create a rough draft, reading and writing activities. Children will play games, revise individually with peers and create a final work read in small groups, and perform group activities in publish to their scrapbook. these guided reading small group clusters.

Parkway Elementary School Princess Anne Elementary School Director: Tiffany Baldwin Director: Amy Ellison Amount: $695 Team: Christine Dalton, Kristin Hildum Project: Taking a closer look at learning-capturing Amount: $1,000 it with a camera Project: It's All About Kagan! Description: Visual learning students, including Description: This school-wide initiative expands the special education and English as second language use of Kagan Cooperative Learning strategies at Princess (ESL) students, will become more involved in day-to-day Anne Elementary School. Monthly S.A.M. (Structure a lessons through the use of a digital visualizer camera. The Month) club meetings, a Kagan professional library, and teacher will project up-close experiments, text, and an additional set of dry erase boards for use in music, art, manipulatives onto a screen, to enhance the experience of library, and P.E. classes will increase usage of Kagan visual learners. structures throughout the entire staff.

11 2008 Building Futures Grants

Princess Anne High School Providence Elementary School Director: Susan Vierra Director: Sarah Muth Amount: $932 Amount: $1,000 Project: Shaping Young Minds Underwriter: Virginia Natural Gas Description: Through a multi-disciplinary approach, Project: Schoolyard Habitat Project: The Growing pregnant students will learn how the brain "grows and Classroom develops." The complex process shaping children's brains Description: Students will create a school courtyard will be explored. Students will learn how to enhance their habitat with the assistance of faculty and community literacy, their child’s growth and developmental members and attend training by the Virginia Department requirements. of Game and Inland Fisheries to develop a wildlife and environmentally-friendly area to enjoy. Princess Anne High School Director: Susan Vierra Red Mill Elementary School Amount: $999.80 Director: Kyle Williams Project: Behavioral Strategies for Pregnant Teens Team: Jane Trueblood, Lauren Calcutt, Steve Description: Through interactions, students will Strausbaugh, Donna Barba, Daniel Koach, Tina understand the decision making process, recognize the Patterson, Melissa Hill, Ann Hobbs, Michelle Young, need for parenting information, support and assistance. Nick Boothe, Ryan Zimmerman, Lefty Barba Amount: $1,000 Princess Anne Middle School Project: "Guys R Us" Book Clubs Director: Sherry Caruana Co-Director: Shannon Description: To help reluctant readers become life- George long lovers of books, this club targets male students in Amount: $648 grades 2-5 who are below grade level in reading. Male Project: Exploring Non-Fiction mentors regularly attend the club’s lunch-time meetings Description: Five hundred and twelve students will to read and discuss novels and nonfiction literature. have reading brought to life through the colorful pages of National Geographic Extreme Explorer magazines. A Rosemont Forest Elementary School variety of topics will appeal to the reluctant reader while Director: Valerie Frederick Co-Director: Barbara offering a broader background of knowledge and a more Imrich extensive academic vocabulary development. Amount: $1,000 Project: Audio-matically Tuned into Books Princess Anne Middle School Description: Students will increase their enjoyment of Director: Vickie Dean Co-Director: Donna Abrams reading and understanding of historical events. Fifth- Team: Ann-Lee Hayward grade student and their parents will participate in this Amount: $985.27 project, which encompasses a multifaceted approach to Project: Let's Make Reading Fun differentiation through learning styles. Description: Existing seventh-grade literature units will be enhanced through the use of parallel reading Salem High School activities aimed at increasing SOL reading scores. A Director: Tom Clouser variety of additional novels will be available for each Team: Barbara Whaley, Rosa Jones unit, exposing students to a multitude of authors and Amount: $500 providing teachers with additional opportunities to adapt Project: Connecting to a Virtual World - Oh the and differentiate learning strategies. Places We Will Go! Description: Through the use of videoconferencing, students in foreign language, history, and geography classes will gain a better understanding of world cultures, languages, governments, and historical events by interacting with students outside of the United States.

12 2008 Building Futures Grants

Salem Middle School Shelton Park Elementary School Director: Charleen Paxton Director: Vanessa Richard Co-Director: Karen Team: Jackie Hassell, Toni Beth Kaup, Jeffrey Bristow Castonguay Amount: $567 Amount: $961.25 Project: CUBs Project: Stained Glass Geometry Sun Catchers Description: On three different occasions, parents and Description: This project will offer concrete children will take part in a variety of activities which experiences in geometry, improve student achievement, include listening to an author, building a book from a kit, encourage enthusiasm for math and tap into the making a musical instrument and crafting a puppet. community for volunteers. These skills will be taught through the design of geometric sun catchers. Shelton Park Elementary School Director: Carole Wasilewski Shelton Park Elementary School Amount: $ 603 Director: Marie Booz Project: Building Lasting Connections Between Team: Becky Bates, Larry Burnsworth Home and School Amount: $774 Description: In an effort to meet the academic and Project: Giving Voice to SharePoint emotional needs of some students and gain a deeper Description: Through this project, teachers will use insight as to their home environment, a teacher will meet handheld digital voice recorders to create and post audio with parents at their home to discuss their child's recordings on their class SharePoint sites. Familiar academic performance, parent involvement opportunities mnemonics will help students remember grammar rules, and curricular expectation. The teacher will also provide spelling mechanics, historical facts, and science concepts. a supply of homework tools to enable the student to In addition, students will create and produce their own complete homework. audio recordings. Tallwood High School Shelton Park Elementary School Director: LaMont Adger Director: Marie Booz Amount: $756 Amount: $1,000 Project: A-Team Mentorship Program Project: Get Smart with AlphaSmart Neo Description: The A-Team program will pair 58 ninth- Description: Fifty kindergarteners will take home grade African American males with African American AlphaSmart Neo, a portable word processor, with guided male teachers who will serve as mentors throughout the reading questions that will guide students and parents to year. Daily discussions and activities will foster good retell and discuss stories the children have chosen to read decision making, study habits and social interaction. at home. Book bags with guides, writing prompts and a tangible object (number, letter, puppet) will go home with Tallwood High School the student to aid with this parent-child learning Director: Linda Anderson connection. Team: Robert Anderson, Shannon Crum, Barrett Elliot Shelton Park Elementary School Amount: $ 757.02 Director: Marie Booz Project: Tiptoe Through the Tulips in the Memorial Team: Becky Bates, Janis Hurd, Shannon Haas, Garden Kathy Rivers, Carrie Middleton, Stephanie Fay, Cathy Description: This project will entail planting tulips in Bowler large heart-shaped designs on each side of the school’s Amount: $785 existing Memorial Garden. Students will observe the Project: Digital Scrapbooks bloom on interactive maps, collect and share their own Description: Students will create vivid and meaningful data, and note how seasonal climatic factors influence digital scrapbooks of project-based activities. These plant growth. reflections of their learning experiences collected from photo stories, videos, voice recordings and pod casts will be shared with their parents, as well.

13 2008 Building Futures Grants

Tallwood High School Thalia Elementary School Director: Bob Anderson Co-Director: Lydia James Director: Nikki Smead Co-Director: Gaye Team: Lisa Walker, Toni Craig, Dora Granby, Techanchuk Michelle Hall Team: Sylvie Barnett, Bill Dickerson, Ingrid Squires Amount: $500 Amount: $300 Project: Time to Fly Project: It's All Relative, Families That Read Description: Through a series of community based Together, Succeed Together Family Night instruction trips, special needs students and their Peer Description: As the culminating event to January’s Buddy gifted students will learn to use public Reading Month, parents and students in every grade will transportation systems to find work, visit service participate in a special evening event which will include agencies, keep doctor appointments, and attend workshops that will instruct parents on how to encourage recreational events. This co-operative partnership will their children to develop a love of reading. The program increase student transition success. will continue throughout the year with story tellers, book swaps, and door prizes. Tallwood High School Director: Jo Ann Andrews Co-Director: Sherry Thoroughgood Elementary School Coates Director: Anna McGinn Amount: $1,000 Team: Dr. Cheryl Zigrang, Leslie Horton, Christina Project: Timber Wolves and Lions Partners in McGinn Reading Part IV Amount: $1,000 Description: This continuing program brings high Project: Home-School Connection for Seagulls' school and elementary school students together for one- Success on-one tutoring aimed at raising the developmental Description: During five sessions, the Extended Day reading assessment levels of the elementary students. In Kindergarten (EDK) teacher will meet with students and addition, high school students enrolled in the Child Care parents to provide instructional strategies and resource Occupations course will be exposed to work with materials to work with their child at home, thereby younger children. increasing the education success rate for each EDK student. Tallwood High School Director: Cynthia Chadwick Thoroughgood Elementary School Amount: $1,000 Director: Troy Saunders Co-Director: Scott Project: Tomorrow's Teachers Experience Howard Excellence in Education Amount: $1,000 Description: This course is to encourage exceptional Project: Looking at Weather Through a and highly motivated students to consider the education Meteorologist’s Eyes profession by providing a glimpse into the classroom Description: The weather station will provide many teaching experience through educational instruction and opportunities to extend and enhance the current elementary school classroom field experiences. curriculum. The weather station data will be available at the school’s new media room, which will be supported by Tallwood High School community volunteers and real-world ties at WTKR TV Director: Deb Plummer Channel 3. Team: Ken Andrews, David Baumer Amount: $1,000 Thoroughgood Elementary School Project: Beyond Horizons: Our Maritime Heritage Director: Jeanne West Description: High school language arts and social Team: Kathryn Wilkens, Jean Krail studies students will visit local naval bases, industries, Amount: $856.70 museums, landmarks and points of historical maritime Project: Fifth-Grade Science Enrichment interest and share what they learn with students at several Description: Fifth-graders will grow items such as VBCPS elementary schools. body parts and bacteria and examine these to provide data for graphing practice. Students will also examine prepared microscope slides, as an illustration of real- world scientific application.

14 2008 Building Futures Grants

Trantwood Elementary School Windsor Oaks Elementary School Director: Mary Hawley Director: Deana Hubbell Team: Sheila Teri, Nancy Lambert, Kassidy Team: Corinne Cornwell Vuyovich, Robin Birdwell, Jennifer Mello, Mona Farmer, Amount: $520 Lynn Ashmore Project: Amazing Animal Adaptations Assembly Amount: $997.94 Description: Third-, fourth- and fifth-grade science Project: Get Passionate About Learning students will participate in hands-on demonstrations at Description: All 287 students in grades 3, 4 and 5 will her school with scientists/instructors from the Virginia meet weekly during a five-week period with 24 Living Museum during a program called "Amazing classroom teachers and school specialists, plus parents Animal Adaptations." and community volunteers. They will engage in small group explorations of topics which they have chosen as Windsor Oaks Elementary School an area of passionate interest, so that the students can Director: Noreen Skills acquire advanced-level content material. Team: Melody Copper, Debbie Simmons Amount: $1,000 Virginia Beach Central Academy Underwriter: Electronic Systems, Inc. Director: Bobby Huntley Co-Director: Paul Project: Audiobooks for Student Success Arrington Description: Self-contained digital audiobooks and Amount: $800 corresponding printed materials will enhance the at-home Project: Gentleman's Club learning experience for 25-50 special education, ESL, Description: Fifty-five young men enrolled in Virginia and at-risk students at Windsor Oaks Elementary School. Beach Central Academy will meet with school staff, Playaways audiobooks utilize MP3 players to store pre- members of the police department, and community recorded stories for recreational use at home during silent volunteers for activities aimed at building self-esteem and reading time. fostering respect for others. Windsor Woods Elementary School Virginia Beach Central Academy Director: Mary-Ellen Davis Director: Nikki Steckroth Co-Director: Vivian Moore Team: Crystal Hodges, Becky Tillery, Marty Allen, Amount: $650 Kawana Ansell, Dana Maurice, Pat O’Reilly, Jo Anne Project: "SOS: Saving Our Students - Suicide Hart, Stephanie Hathcock Prevention Program" Amount: $650 Description: According to the U.S. Census, suicide is Project: Wildcat VoiceThreads the third leading cause of death for 15-19 year olds. This Description: Approximately 120 kindergarten and nationally-recognized program has shown a 40 percent first-grade students will become authors and use child reduction rate in suicide attempts and will educate teens friendly digital cameras to illustrate their original stories. at Virginia Beach Central Academy that depression is Parents, teachers, and volunteers will work with students treatable. The program will equip students to respond to a to identify topics appropriate for their learning level. potential suicide using an action-oriented technique, ACT (Acknowledge, Care & Tell).