The Arlington Education Foundation (AEF) has completed its fall grants cycle and has awarded a total of $22,434 in two grant categories, Innovations in Education and the Continuing Scholar Award.

“The diverse pool of grant recipients in this cycle really illustrates our broad partnerships across the district. AEF is supporting projects from our district METCO director, several classroom teachers, a music teacher, an ELL teacher and even some inspired parents. In total, the grants awarded this fall will enrich the learning experiences of students from kindergarten through high school over a variety of disciplines,” remarked Ann Pirone, AEF president, in a Dec. 13 news release.

Innovations in Education grants support innovative teaching and learning in classrooms throughout the district. This fall there were nine such grants awarded:

• Building Culturally Responsive Skills for Engaging All Students: Teachers, administrators and staff districtwide will receive professional development about the complex issues raised by race and racism and their impact on student engagement and achievement;
• AHS Wellness Day 2018 and 2019, an annual all-day event focused on mental health and self-care for high school students and staff;
• Storytelling Residency and Curriculum, a storytelling residency at Thompson school will explore genres and forms of storytelling to teach public speaking, specific curricular content, and the art of storytelling;
• Mobile and Flexible Digital Investigating: Mobile digital probes will allow high school science students to conduct experiments and capture data outside of the classroom;
• Hands-on, Nurturing Experience in Middle School General Music: Flexible seating will allow Ottoson students to actively engage in music lessons;
• Diversify and Innovate Stratton Library: Culturally diverse books and related exploration stations will expand student learning for all Stratton students;
• STEAM for Second Grade: Dallin students will explore engineering and design concepts with hands-on building sets;
• Professional Collaboration Swivl for Student Discussion and Perspective Taking: Videos of student literature circles at Gibbs School will guide the teaching of discussion techniques that incorporate various perspectives; and
• One Book, One School: All Brackett students will learn and connect as a community through the shared experience of reading the same book.

AEF also awarded one Continuing Scholar Award, which supports individual teachers’ professional goals and personal interests. This fall’s award recipient is Brandy Whitney, an engineering and technology teacher at Ottoson Middle School, who will be traveling to Washington, D.C., to visit the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

The Arlington Education Foundation is committed to enhancing teaching and learning in all of Arlington’s public schools. Through charitable donations and business sponsorships, the foundation grants over $100,000 annually. For more information, visit www.aefma.org.

This news announcement was published Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018.