Norwalk Education Foundation

 Save the Dates:

NEF Fundraiser: September 22, 6-9pm

 Old School @ The BLIND RHINO

 

Presentation: October 11, 6:30-7:30 ( CGS Room @ BMHS)

Helping your child deal with anxiety

 

College Night– October  19, 6-8 – Norwalk Public Library

Taste for Education– October 26 – 

 

Excellence in Education-April 26

The Norwalk Education Foundation in partnership with the Norwalk Federation of Teachers and the Norwalk Board of Education recognize Norwalk educators and excellence in education in each school in our district.

 

Visit from Tracy Smith,U.S. Poet Laureate– May 3

Born on April 16, 1972, Tracy K. Smith was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts, and raised in Fairfield, California. She is the youngest of five children. She studied at Harvard, where she joined the Dark Room Collective, a reading series for writers of color. She went on to receive her MFA from Columbia University.

Smith’s first collection, The Body’s Question (Graywolf Press, 2003), won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize in 2002. Her second book, Duende (Graywolf Press, 2007), won the 2006 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. Her most recent collection, Life on Mars (Graywolf Press, 2011), won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. In April 2018, Graywolf Press will publish her book Wade in the Water.

A starred review of Smith’s work in Publisher’s Weekly noted her “lyric brilliance and political impulses.” A review of Duende in The New York Times Book Review stated, “The most persuasively haunted poems here are those where [Smith] casts herself not simply as a dutiful curator of personal history but a canny medium of fellow feeling and the stirrings of the collective unconscious…it’s this charged air of rapt apprehension that gives her spare, fluid lines their coolly incantatory tenor.”

Smith is the recipient of the 2014 Academy of American Poets Fellowship. About Tracy K. Smith, Academy of American Poets Chancellor Toi Derricotte said: “The surfaces of a Tracy K. Smith poem are beautiful and serene, but underneath, there is always a sense of an unknown vastness. Her poems take the risk of inviting us to imagine, as the poet does, what it is to travel in another person’s shoes. The Academy is fortunate to be able to confer this fitting recognition on one of the most important poets of our time.”

In 2017, Smith was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States. Her other awards and honors include a Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, a 2004 Rona Jaffe Writers Award, a 2008 Essence Literary Award, a grant from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, a fellowship from the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference, and a 2005 Whiting Award. She is the director of Princeton University’s creative writing program and lives in New Jersey.

______________________________________________________________

Congratulations to our 3rd Annual Shark Tank Winners:

 

School	Student Name	Project Title
NHS	James Roberts, Jasmine Martins	Give a Hand
	Salverio Campagna, Luis Vega
	Danny Zarate-Romero, Alex Morrissey
	Emma Guilbault, Alex Ruther
NHS	Riley Robinson	How We See It
NHS	Ryan Stelly, Aasim Vhora, Mattis Karlehag	First Robotics
	Katrell Clay
NHS	Gracie Bradley and Sam Troetti	Unified Sports Teams
West Rocks	Raymond Lin, Jacob Goldstein	Robotics
	Colin Hong, Joshua Young, Jaden Alicea
	Justin Reyes, James Bergan, Jake Donovan
	Greg Fiftol, Leo Reyes
Fox Run	TJ Rysz and Stella Mazzo	Legos
Fox Run	Bobbie Dropick, Ashley Rysz	TV Studio
	Sophia Mazzo
Fox Run	Bella Dropick, Rmily Forbes, Faith Ortolano	Fidget Basket
Tracey	Holden Legette	Recyle
Columbus	Cameron Rice and Emmett Rice	Recess Equipment
Naramake	Owen Fraleigh and Carolo Tucci	Pulling out their Hair

______________________________________________________________

Teacher Mini- Grants: 

Congratulations to the winners of the Teacher Mini-Grants:

Teacher	School	Project Title
Jacqueline DellliSanti, Lisa Heimerle, Melissa O’Donnell	BMHS	Vocabulary Building Trip for ESL students
Jacqueline DellliSanti	BMHS	Common Core Reading Library
Diana White	BMHS	Bringing Drawings to life with 3-D Technology
Covilakath Pivazyan,Sobha Kizhakke	BMHS	Science Olympiad Team
David Rich	BMHS	Process oriented guide inquiry learning
Sal Bryk	NHMS	A Natures Classroom experience for those not attending NC
John Skopp	Roton	Electric Car-Class Pack
Stephanie Tom	Roton	Middle School Amusement
Dean Vaccaro,Mark Jackson	Roton	Makin History Come Alive
Catherine White,Robin Gredinger	Fox Run	Super Flex Academy
Jennifer Cobbs	Cranbury	Access for All
Jacquelyn Lamb	Marvin	Social Thinking
Kimberly Helthaler	Tracey	Seminar on Co-Teaching and Resilence
Caitlin DeForest	Wolfpit	New Wooden Table
Lisa Malizia	Fox Run	Marine Biology in Kindergarten
Iziar Mikolic	Naramake	Building Friendships Game Cart
Kerry Rice	Rowayton	Enhancing Student Engagement
Lisa Chadha	Columbus	Mystery to Every Lesson
Stefan Steiner	Tracey	Alternative Classroom Seating
Dee Walters	Columbus	Full Steam Ahead with Osmos

____________________________________________________

*************************************************************************

Overview

Norwalk Education Foundation

• Mission

The Norwalk Education Foundation is committed to providing support for student learning experiences and enriching teacher practices.  Our mission is accomplished by collaborating with community partners to fund programs that enhance student learning, promote student well-being, and expand teacher resources and innovation.

• Teacher Resources and Innovation

NEF offers teacher mini-grants to develop and implement instructional projects that motivate and challenge students to learn. Proposals must support unique classroom projects that enliven and enrich the curriculum.

• Enhance Student Learning

The Shark Tank competition requires students to “sell” a proposal to enhance their school.  In the past, ideas have addressed academics, extra-curricular activities, social-emotional well being, physical health/nutrition and safety.  We awarded several thousand dollars to support 30 student proposals in the past 2 years.

• Community Collaboration

The College Essay Mentor program began in 2015.   Teachers, administrators and volunteers from the community, were trained by a college essay consultant to coach high school seniors.  After the first year, an admissions officer from UCONN contacted Norwalk High School to say she has never read such great essays from Norwalk.

NEF partners with community organizations to host community outreach workshops.  This fall, we are hosting a College Admission Workshop and a Stress Management panel for teens and parents.

• Student Social and Emotional Health

NEF’s newest initiative addresses the high levels of stress that research has identified as a major difficulty for adolescents. In 2015, we piloted a program to teach kids stress-reduction techniques like meditation. Based on the positive data collected through this pilot program, NEF plans to offer such workshops to all middle and high school students in the fall.  NEF also partners with Norwalk ACTS working with the Health and Wellness workgroup to bring mindful meditation to the high school students.

Education News

[/box][/twocol_one_last]