The Needham Education Foundation (NEF) announced the recipients of 12 grants totaling $40,718 in the fall small grants cycle at the Needham School Committee meeting last night. Three of the awards are for multi-school grants that will provide funding for a musician residency for middle and high school string students, reader’s theatre props chests for High Rock and Pollard, and professional development for K-12 math teachers and school administrators with Dr. Adrian Mims. Dr. Mims is the national director of the Calculus Project, and his focus will be on narrowing the
achievement gap for students of color.
Awarded grants also include:
- A series of workshops with young adult author, Tara Sullivan. These workshops at NHS will encourage students to be global citizens.
- E-Reader Tools for English Language Literacy to provide powerful comprehension tools for English language learners at Pollard.
- Mindfulness equipment at NHS to formalize the mindfulness meditation practice that is part of the health curriculum.
- A Project VOICE performance, using spoken word poetry, for 8th graders at Pollard.
- Virtual Reality equipment that will provide high school students with the opportunity to experience and create their own virtual reality environments and videos in the classroom. As a viewer, students can manipulate an object or experience an environment, like visiting Machu Picchu.
- Pollard Challenge Course, an adventure education-based challenge course to create dynamic opportunities for developing resilience in students.
- Differentiating Math at Broadmeadow, which will provide kits for fourth-grade teachers to use to differentiate learning during small group and independent instruction.
- Two Express Grants benefiting Broadmeadow and Newman which replicate a successful grant at Eliot for Kore wobble stools.