Aristos Scholars Program Grants for 2004-05

ARISTOS is a Greek work meaning excellent, optimum, the best

The Aristos Scholars Program received 34 grant applications this year. The judges awarded a total of $77,842 to the Project Leaders of eleven grants. Listed below are the grants, project leaders, school and the amount of the awards.

Partnership for Achievement of Special Students (PASS)	Tracy Carolan La Follette High School	$8,471
PASS is designed to increase the percent of Special Education students passing Algebra I. The project will include direct intervention with students and increase the capacity of the Special Education teachers to support their students in Algebra through professional development. The professional education component of this grant will be offered to all high school Special Education staff who support students in Algebra throughout the school district.

Signed Readers: A Vital Literacy Link	Susan Ensrud Deming Glendale Elementary School	$7,500
This grant will benefit deaf and hard-of-hearing students who are at a beginning reading level by creating signed readers with digital photos of sign language signs accompanied by printed English text. Hearing impaired readers and their parents will be able to establish a foundation of literacy and signing skills. The project will increase the signing skills of families of deaf and hard-of-hearing students as well as improve the sign language skills among Glendale hearing students and staff.

Port of the Future: Students Create e-Portfolios Using a Portable Lab	Jeff Hattori Sherman Middle School	$10,000
Students will create electronic portfolios showcasing their work, allowing them to chart their own progress and reflect on their learning over time. The project will encourage self-directed learning, foster learning about learning, and intersect instruction and assessment to provide a vehicle for students to value themselves as learners. Every 8th grader will design an e-portfolio that will be shared with community and family members at a "graduation" exhibition next May.

Summer Literacy Family Fun Nights	Kyle Jenson Sherman Middle School	$2,295
This project will provide literacy experiences for English Language Learner students during summer afternoons in order to maintain their English language skills. The students' families will participate in activities to strengthen home-school relationships and increase parents' comfort levels. Students will create and perform presentations in English and Spanish. The activities will increase the quantity of parent/teacher interactions as well as improve communication while building relationships.

Freshmen-Senior Mentoring Program/Honor Guard	Ginny Kester West High School	$10,000
This student-directed project will facilitate positive relationships between freshmen and upperclassmen to address the academic, social, and emotional needs of freshmen students. The Honor Guard are high achieving academic/leadership students of color who will offer positive peer mentoring and academic tutoring in order to reduce the achievement gap between white students and students of color. The project will give middle-achieving students an opportunity to be recognized for their work, their position as role models, and their positive influence.

Fostering Accelerative Learning in Reading Recovery	Mary Ellen LaChance Teaching & Learning Department	$10,000
Professional development will be offered to the district's 41 Reading Recovery teachers to demonstrate teaching strategies that will allow more rapid learning with their students. Reading Recovery teachers will learn how to move more students successfully through the program by decreasing the period of time each student participates in a series of lessons. The project has the potential to allow the district to maximize its investment in the teachers and the at risk children they serve.

Tell it on the Tele...	Jan Lorch Memorial High School	$1,700
A communication system that reaches the entire Memorial student population will be developed through this project. The system will reinforce good choices and expanding service-learning opportunities, while providing a variety of students with diverse abilities and interests the opportunity to participate. Students will work with a professional advertising agency, collaborate with other students in the areas of art, music, drama, and technology, and create service announcements that support asset building and engagement.

Partnering with Parents of Color in Our Schools	Barbara Rubin Franklin-Randall Elementary Schools	$9,720
The number of adults of color participating in Franklin and Randall Schools will increase as a result of parent involvement in choosing, preparing, and presenting culturally relevant materials to their own children in their child's classroom. Children of color will see their parents in teaching roles in the schools and more adults of color will establish relationships with students and teachers in the schools. Teams of parents and teachers will select and review culturally relevant materials.

Aircraft Construction Experience (A.C.E.) Project	Benjamin Senson Memorial High School	$10,000
The A.C.E. Project will engage and motivate students through the opportunity to construct a full-scale aircraft from raw materials. Students will develop mathematical, vocational, and science skills while increasing confidence in their ability to complete a long-term, complex project. The aircraft will be constructed under the guidance of a teacher, Experimental Aircraft Association Technical Counselor, and FAA Certificated Airframe & Powerplant mechanics. Students will earn credit and gain information about the role science, math and technology play in their professional and personal lives.

From Story to Screen in the Schools: Digital Film and Media Projection	Phonekeo Siharath La Follette High School	$4,216
This grant supports a reading and writing drama course that will take technology in a unique direction by using it within the context of teaching screenwriting, storytelling, dramatic performance, media deconstruction, and film construction. Students will learn the craft of writing, exploring characters and conflicts, characterization, the revision process, and reading drama by producing student films for a La Follette film fest, a time slot on the public access channel, and a student entry in the Wisconsin Film Festival. Student engagement will increase as a result of creating a project using multimedia tools.

Cyclops: biCYCLe OPportuniteS	David Wasserman Wright Middle School	$3,940
Cyclops is an after-school program that will increase engagement while providing students with opportunities to explore and develop a greater understanding of mechanics and physics through experiential learning. Through hands-on learning students will understand how a bicycle works from basic components to more complex mechanical functions. Students will also create an appreciation of service learning as they donate the bicycles back to children in the community. Each student will be able to do a major overhaul of three bicycles to a safe and functional state by the end of the program.

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