Each year, MMSD teachers and other district staff have a chance to compete for mini-grants from several local sources, and this is the time of year we learn who the grant winners are. And for any staff member interested in applying for one or more of these grants next year, please visit the Grants Office website in early October for the 2006-07 competition dates and application materials.

Congratulations to Jani Koester and Amanda Monson from the Transition Education Program (TEP) at Emerson Elementary. They won a $5,400 grant from the Madison Rotary Foundation (the charitable giving arm of Madison's Downtown Rotary Club) for a pilot case management program to more effectively bring health care services to homeless students.

Congratulations also go to the following MMSD staff who will share a $25,000 grant from the Evjue Foundation, the charitable giving arm of the Capital Times newspaper.

• Barbara Chusid at Hawthorne Elementary World Music Drumming Project ($7,824);
• Ben Senson for Tech Clubs at Huegel and Muir Elementary ($6,394);
• Kristine Larson Brown for the "Getting Ahead Learning Center" at Memorial ($4,908); and
• Melanie Thiel for the "Web Page Design for Business" project at West ($5,874).

This Spring, the Foundation for Madison's Public Schools also awarded 10 grants from its unrestricted fund. Congratulations to the following MMSD staff who won Foundation grants: Len Mormino (West), Gwen Kong (Lincoln), Barbara Gerlach (Falk), Kristine Larson Brown (Memorial), Jane Hallock (Jefferson), Brent Lodewyk and Kara Meyers (Stephens), Mary Lau (Midvale), Tara Affolter and William Gibson (East), Eric Hartz (Memorial), and John Rademacher and Betsy Barnard (West). For a complete list of these projects, see the Foundation page of this issue of MMSD Today.

Finally, congratulations to this year's Aristos grants winners: Tara Affolter (East), Gail Borchers (Lake View), Sara Cutler (Leopold), Heather Lott (West), Sharon McPike (East), Kolleen Onsrud (LaFollette), David Ropa (Spring Harbor), Jane Wyngaard-Innes (Allis), and Jeff Ziegler (East). For descriptions of each of their funded projects, visit the May 2, 2006 edition of MMSD Today.

District Awarded DPI Grant for Second Year of Information Technology Instructional Program

MMSD has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) for the second year of Project TCP: Transitions, Connections, and Pathways."

This project, conducted in consortium with six other Dane County school districts and Madison Area Technical College (MATC), will prepare students for post-secondary education and work in four high-demand careers in Information Technology (IT): Business Technologies (information support and services), Interactive Media, Network Systems, and Programming/Software Development.

Funded by DPI's Enhancing Education Through Technology program, the coming school year will see an intensive professional development program that expands the number of teachers who are prepared to design online courses, facilitate delivery of these courses for their students, and assess student performance. This is a critical part of developing a more engaging learning experience for high-risk students that includes real-world work experiences (e.g. job shadowing, internships, community service, etc.) that prepare students to pass industry-based occupational certification exams and secure immediate employment and/or admission to an IT-related post-secondary educational program. Through this project, participating teachers will develop new online courses, and pilot delivery of them to students, in each of the four IT pathways.

For more information about Project TCP, visit http://www.digitaldistricts.org/tcp/