Dear Friends and Supporters,
We are thrilled to announce the recipients of our 2022 Equity and Innovation Teacher Grants. This week we awarded $59,261 of grants to 76 teachers, social workers, ed techs, and librarians at 15 different schools. This funding will impact over 10,000 student experiences this year!
Here are just a few funded projects to give a sense of what the incredible PPS staff are planning:
|
|
|
Kristen Tedsco and the kindergarten team at Lyseth received $1000 to bring all kindergarten classes to the Maine Audubon in Falmouth as part of a unit on habitats. Students will learn about the factors that characterize habitats such as shape of land, amount of water, vegetation, temperature, and sometimes human impact.
|
|
|
|
Elizabeth Long, a commercial art teacher at PATHS, received a $1000 grant to continue to partner with Little Chair Printing. Her students will design, print, and sell T-shirts at Pinecone & Chickadee in the Old Port.
|
|
|
|
Maggie Burgos, a 7th-grade teacher at Lincoln Middle School, is one of many teachers across the district who applied for and received funding to bring their students to Portland Ovation’s presentation of Wabanaki Stories at Merrill Auditorium in February.
|
|
|
|
Amelia Clancy, a special education teacher at Rowe Elementary School, received $997 to create a therapeutic and trauma-informed safe space for her school. This space is where students can go to regulate, access social-emotional tools, and take a break if they need one. She plans to use the funds to purchase things like rugs, a weighted blanket, a sound machine, noise-canceling headphones, art supplies, and more.
|
|
|
|
Kristina Catomeris, a science teacher at Portland High School, received a grant to purchase five Pocketlab Voyager Sensors for use in student research projects. With the sensors, students can collect data such as altitude, temperature, acceleration, or magnetic field in various locations.
|
|
|
We are grateful to our all-volunteer community review team for their time and energy in reviewing almost 100 applications this year. Board member and PPS parent Lisa Page tirelessly coordinates and leads this effort. Our other reviewers this year were Ahmed Abdirahman, Nyalat Biliew, Mike Bove, Carol Hager, Rosie Lenehan, Naomie Mayavanga Maku, Laura Newman, Dawn Ng, and Leah Whalen.
And, of course, we’d like to thank all of you for your support of FPPS. These grants are made possible by donations from our community.
Here’s the full list of 2022-23 grants.
Best,
Andi Weisman Summers, Executive Director
|
|
|
|
|
