2018 & 2019 Recipients

Description

# Students

Request

Approved

Elementary and Middle School Garden Project

1. The garden classrooms will continue to be a outdoor learning lab for students to apply their studies in a hands on manner. 2. The garden program will continue to provide an experience that connects students to good health and nutrition through learning about he journey from seed to vegetable and encouraging the enjoyment of fresh food.
3. The school gardens will be integrated more deeply into the curriculum at every grade level 4. The gardens will continue to enhance family engagement through volunteer opportunities.
5. Students will continue to realize their own capacity to create change, resolve conflict and function as a team as they work alongside each other in gardens.

1020

$15,500

$10,000

Latino Heritage Month and Diversity Day

The objective of this proposal is to secure funding so that the students in the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) at Easthampton High School can attend the True Colors Conference hosted at UConn on March 20, 2020. The True Colors Annual Conference is the only LGBTQ+ comprehensive resource available to our LGBTQ+ students and allies. This conference is the oldest, well-known, largest and most comprehensive program available to youth! 250 workshops, films, activities and events are offered over a two day program. Our goal is to attend the program on Friday. By attending this conference, this group of amazing young LGBTQ+ people and allies will:1. Experience a loving, accepting, nurturing environment where they can 100% be themselves for a day, feel safe, network and grow.
2. Develop the skills and strategies necessary to support their queer friends thorough advocacy for positive change.
3. Build leadership skills and bring back ideas to EHS and WBMS that will have positive results for LGBTQ youth in our learning community.4. Celebrate their diversity and knowledge about becoming advocates and speaking for themselves.
5. Leave the conference with a better understanding of how to enjoy living in school, at home, within the social service system and in the community.

500

$3,000

$2,500

Gender and Sexuality Alliance Field Trip

1. By learning deeply about the reasons for the development of the mills as well as the draw from the farm to the city, students will be prepared to engage deeply with the learning at the museum.2. After learning about the mills and the types of people who were drawn to work in the mills, students will use primary and secondary resources write historically accurate but fictionalized diary entries in the voice of a boy or girl who is living on a farm and then chooses to go to Lowell.

35

$2,540

$500

Lowell Mills Study and Field Trip

1. By learning deeply about the reasons for the development of the mills as well as the draw from the farm to the city, students will be prepared to engage deeply with the learning at the museum.2. After learning about the mills and the types of people who were drawn to work in the mills, students will use primary and secondary resources write historically accurate but fictionalized diary entries in the voice of a boy or girl who is living on a farm and then chooses to go to Lowell.

120

$5,526

$0

Storytelling-Heritage Months

Objectives
Problem:Identification of the problem & driving questions
The school climate and school culture of EHS has a direct impact on the success of all students within the building. As a result, it is important for schools to reflect on and acknowledge what type of social emotional culture exists within the building. Evidence from a 2017 and several 2017 student surveys, EHS student focus group survey indicated that more than one-quarter of the students reported hearing racist jokes at least once per day. Additionally, many students of color, Muslim students, LGBTQ students, and girls currently experience the school culture as unwelcoming or unsafe.
Solution:Taking already over extended the time away from the classroom to recognize reflect, acknowledge, and celebrate diversity takes time and energy that many educators do not have. Taking these feel-good ideals and making them a reality can be tough for educators, especially with so many other initiatives on their ever-tighter schedules.
The use of storytelling through inviting teaching performers who will share culturally absent voices from our majority white student population will assist in diversifying lessons and stories about others. These lessons will shape and introduce values-empathy-compassion-understanding, current realities, power relationships and cultural history. The teaching performer will perform primarily at: Black History Month, Women's History, Latino Heritage Month, Asian Pacific Island Month. The teaching performer will provide secondary support to informing advisory periods using state examined curriculum development where invited into the classroom by EHS faculty members. The teaching performer will also hold teaching performances in the Diversity and Inclusion Center to instruct interested students in performances of poetry, dance, song and spoken word at the various cultural events. After each of these events a survey and or focus group will be created to gain a assessment of the current school culture and what impact these events have had on the culture.

455

$3,000

$0

Kindergarten Page to Stage Program

Objectives
OBJECTIVES Students will participate in interactive read alouds, dramatic readings and theater games using teacher selected author/topic. Students will analyze story elements for several fiction texts. Students will compare and contrast story elements and theme of selected texts. Students will participate in collaborative conversations to develop comprehension and identify author's purpose.Students will develop fluency through the rereading of a selected text.
Students will retell a selected story through acting, singing, song and performance.
MASS CURRICULUM STANDARDS ADDRESSED THROUGH PROJECT Reading Literature 2.With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details. 3. With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.4. Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text. (See kindergarten Language Standards 4–6 on
applying knowledge of vocabulary to reading.) 5. Recognize common types of texts and characteristics of their structure (e.g., story elements in books; rhyme, rhythm, and repetition in poems).7. With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they
appear.9. With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in
familiar stories.10. Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding. Speaking and Listening
Comprehension and Collaboration1. Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts withpeers and adults in small and larger groups.a. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion). b. Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.2. Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not
understood.3. Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not
understood.Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
4. Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional
detail.5. Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.6. Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

130

$7500

$2,000

WE Easthampton Water Walk

The 3rd Annual Easthampton Water Walk:
The water walk is a town wide event that includes all the WE groups in the public schools in Easthampton including Hilltown Charter School. This is a student driven event which educates the community on global and local water challenges, and effects of changing weather patterns across the globe. In addition, the walk offers conservation information and offers alternatives to current practices that result in cleaner water ways and oceans.Furthermore, the walk points to the global challenges for girls in developing countries that cannot go to school due to having to collect water for their families several times a day.

250

$2,055

$1,500

Center/Pepin Student Leadership Club

The objectives of the Center/Pepin Student Leadership Club are: To encourage student input regarding decisions that affect students at Center/Pepin; To create a positive social experience for members of the club; To build a positive school environment for the students at Center/Pepin; and To promote positive action that will better the school, city, and world.

40

$700

$700

EHS Model UN

Model UN promotes students and teachers’ interest in the world around them and a student’s knowledge in a variety of subjects. Model UN also teaches vital skills in problem solving, conflict resolution, research, and communication. Model UN also gives students and teachers the opportunity to meet students and colleagues from across New England. Model UN not only involves young people in the study and discussion of global issues, but also encourages the development of skills throughout their lives, such as research, writing, public speaking, problem solving, consensus building, conflict resolution, compromise, and cooperation.

20

$2,925

$1,000

ELF Jazz Ensemble

The Easthampton Public Schools Jazz Band will be committed
towards instilling a broader understanding of the rich
canon of jazz music and providing educational opportunities
for students to explore the music of Count Basie and Duke
Ellington. Ellington and Basie represent the very heart
of American 20th Century musical heritage. Students will
learn about the cultural significance of these important
African American musicians through study and performance of their music. Knowledge of this music teaches the building
blocks of jazz which help prepare students to play any
music. Besides offering a much needed opportunity for our
student population to study music that tells an important
story of African American History, we will be able to
create important mentoring relationships between high
school and middle school ages students.

30

$6,000

$4,500

Mill Stories: Voices of Easthampton's Industrial History

Students will be able to...engage in a sustained research project into the young people that work in the Easthampton Cotton Mills between 1900-1920 starting with the street census information, followed by genealogical research and interviews with surviving relatives in order to tell the life stories of some of the workers from the Pleasant Street mills. interact and collaborate with community members in the planning, interviewing and in the creation stages of the project. create a permanent historical exhibit in the Pleasant Street industrial spaces that highlights the workers of Easthampton's history. collaborate with the UMass Public History Department (both professors and students) in research, planning and creation of a public history exhibit for Easthampton.

120

$1,700

$1,700

Bolting to Math with Sphero Bots

Bringing STEAM into my WBMS math world has been a long time goal of mine. I hope to use the Sphero BOLT class set of 15 and charging dock to guide student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking for the 85 children I learn together with each day. We will begin with an open-ended exploration into coding and progress into more specific tasks from navigating obstacle courses, playing golf with the bots, and even discovering math ideas such as slope and distance. By using the Sphero Bolts, I hope to invite students into the exciting world of coding and engage them in a whole new way of STEAM learning and success. Often students arrive in 7th grade feeling they "are not a math person." The use of the Sphero Bolts will help change student's attitudes toward math and their ability to succeed. They will be doing math and be math people!I am hoping the exposure to coding, planning and playing with the BOTS will guide students to take thoughtful risks, engage in hands on learning, persevere in problem-solving, embrace collaboration with peers, and have fun trying something completely new! My students are the innovators, educators, leaders, and learners of the 21st century!

85

$2,500

$1,000

Center/Pepin Chorus

Interested students in grades 3 and 4 will participate in weekly rehearsals to learn and practice a range of songs together. The chorus will be open to all students in grades 3 and 4 who are enthusiastic about singing in a group setting, and who agree to follow expectations for safe, respectful and responsible participation. The chorus will perform at several events throughout the year, both at the school and in the broader community. Through participating in chorus, students will enhance musical skills as well as build confidence and social connection with peers. 

50

$1,200

$1,000

Literacy partners with Diversity

Use literacy to support diversity goals for school year 2019-2020. Provide resources to support diversity events at EHS.
Give students information and understandings through literature about Diversity for yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Build the EHS library collection with updated book on topics of Diversity.

447

$1,450

$0

Student Council MASC Spring Conference and Workshop

The goal of this project is to provide leadership and leadership training opportunities to Student Council members at Easthampton High School through participation in Massachusetts and Western Massachusetts Association of Student Councils conferences and workshops for the purpose of improving school climate, culture, spirit, and the achievement of Council of Excellence status as outlined in the attached file. This training would help students better understand the qualities and skills necessary for leadership within a school or other any other organization which they may find themselves working. This will give Easthampton High School students the opportunity to work with experts in the field of leadership and collaborate with students from across the state, to share and develop new ideas for the betterment of school climate, culture, and spirit. Upon completion of their training, participating Student Council members will work to implement the strategies they have learned within the Easthampton community. Students will have to demonstrate the ability to plan, collaborate, and delegate while putting the projects into action. These projects will serve to engage their peers and make Easthampton High School a more welcoming place for all students and encourage all students to be more fully engaged in their community in whatever capacity they are able. In addition to implementing projects, council members will train other student leaders, such as class and club officers.This sharing of experience and leadership training will help to create experiences across diverse groups of students that may not otherwise interact. These shared experiences will help to improve school culture, climate, and spirit resulting in an overall positive impact on over 450 Easthampton High School students.

12

$6,560

$0

TOTALS:

3,314

$62,156

$26,400