Now in its second year, the LEF Summer Fellowship Program provides mini-grants up to $3,000 for Lexington Public School teachers with professional status to attend courses, seminars, or workshops; engage in research, curriculum planning, or independent study— essentially, to pursue activities that promise to enhance their professional life and increase their experience and knowledge.

LEF has awarded a total of $17,000 toward the 2004 Summer Fellowship program. Ten teachers have been named our 2004 LEF Summer Fellows—more than double the number who received Summer Fellowships last year. We are grateful for the generous financial support of so many members of the Lexington community. We also thank our very first corporate Summer Fellowship Sponsors, including Medford Cooperative Bank, a community-oriented bank, and Atlas Venture, an international early-stage venture capital firm.

The initiatives of the 2004 LEF Summer Fellows illustrate their dedication to being the best and most effective educators they can be. The professional development activities they will engage in will not only enhance their teaching practices and professional expertise, but will enrich their students in years to come.

Meet the 2004 LEF Summer Fellows!

Jennifer Burgin, 6th Grade Science Teacher, Diamond Middle School, will spend five days at the Association for the Cooperative Advancement of Science and Education (ACASE) in upstate New York. There, she will work with educators and specialists to adapt a high school level science curriculum unit, Suns and Shadows, for use with sixth graders. Ms. Burgin expects to build her abilities to develop curriculum related to her students’ needs, design experiential learning activities and instructional materials, develop performance assessments, and use an online information system to track student performance aimed at improving student learning, curriculum, and instruction. When she returns to Lexington, Ms. Burgin will offer a professional development workshop to her colleagues, focusing on practical ways to incorporate performance assessments into teaching strategies.

Karen Girondel, French Teacher, Lexington High School, creator of the LHS Advanced Placement French Literature course, will spend July 18-20 attending the Advanced Placement National Conference (APNC) in Florida. With her conference colleagues, Ms. Girondel will discuss new literary works added to the AP curriculum this year, share approaches to teaching, learn creative ways to stretch students’ minds, and offer feedback to the College Board regarding curriculum. She will also offer her services as a reader of AP exams, which will help her better understand the rigorous expectations of the College Board, and improve her ability to evaluate her own students’ writing. Ms. Girondel will share her experiences with her department in Lexington.

Shelley Chamberlain, Coordinator of Educational Technology, K-12, and Deborah Perry, Department Head, English, Lexington High School, will attend the Project Zero Summer Institute at Harvard University. Ms. Chamberlain and Ms. Perry will focus on the Teaching for Understanding framework, which is intended to improve students’ ability to understand, use their multiple intellectual strengths, think critically and creatively, and assess their own work. Ms. Chamberlain and Ms. Perry will use their knowledge of this framework to help Lexington teachers design lessons for classroom instruction, and to evaluate the uses of technology to deepen understanding for students.

John Hunt, 7th and 8th Grade Spanish Teacher, Clarke Middle School, will attend the Malaga Plus Language Institute in Malaga, Spain for two weeks for intensive study of grammar, Spanish culture, and education. He will also spend some time learning the cuisine of Andalucia as well as other regional dishes of Spain. Both courses will offer ideas, projects, and hands-on activities Mr. Hunt plans to incorporate into his lessons when he returns to Lexington. Mr. Hunt will live with a Spanish family and achieve total immersion, speaking no English throughout his two-week fellowship. Mr. Hunt will also use his IMAC film-making skills to make a movie for his students about Spanish culture.

Whitney Hagins, Biology Teacher, Lexington High School, will spend two weeks at the University of Wisconsin-Madison working with Dr. Paul Williams and his staff, originators of the renowned biology programs Wisconsin Fast Plant™, Bottle Biology, NASA’s Brassica and Butterfly, and Saturday Science. Ms. Hagins will investigate new ideas for an LHS Level Two biology curriculum and refine activities that have already been developed. The curriculum, “Roots and Wings,” emphasizes scientific literacy through biological concepts around the central theme of two interrelated living systems: Brassica plants and the cabbage white butterfly. Ms. Hagins will work with her colleagues in Lexington to help challenged learners develop skills through the implementation of the “Roots and Wings” curriculum.

Geraldine O’Neill, 1st Grade, Harrington Elementary School, will spend two weeks at the University of New Hampshire studying Picturing Writing: Fostering Literacy through Art and Image Making within the Writing Process Summer Institute. The Picturing Writing approach helps elementary school children develop a sense of setting, mood, sequence, beginning, middle, end, plot development, and use of descriptive language. Children first “picture” their writing by creating evocative crayon-resist watercolor paintings. Then, inspired by their paintings and guided by deliberately chosen writing prompts from the teacher, they write text to accompany their art. The approach appeals to a variety of student learning styles. LEF has previously funded a grant for Picturing Writing at Bridge Elementary School, where it has been incorporated into the regular curriculum. Ms. O’Neill will use Picturing Writing methods with her first graders, share the approach with her colleagues, and collaborate on lessons with the Harrington art teacher.

Mary Park Oussayef, French Teacher, Lexington High School, will study French for fluent French speakers at the Stages pour Professeurs workshop at the Accord Language School in Paris from July 19-30. She will also spend five days behind-the-scenes at the Vaour Theater Festival near Toulouse. Ms. Oussayef, who uses theater in her teaching—her students have produced and acted in full-length French plays—will study cross-curricular approaches to introducing theater arts into the French classroom. Through her fellowship, Ms. Oussayef will improve her ability to select appropriate plays and stage them with some expertise. When Ms. Oussayef returns to Lexington, she expects to integrate theater more effectively in her classes.

Martha Rogers, Music Specialist, Bowman Elementary School, will spend five days with Music for People at SUNY, Fredonia, studying the “Art of Improvisation” with David Darling, a world-class cellist, improviser, recording artist, and Grammy nominee. This in-depth workshop is intended for advanced and professional musicians across the spectrum, from classical to jazz, theater, rock, ethnic, avant garde, and more; and for all instruments. Ms. Rogers, who uses her musical improvisation skills daily with her students, will develop her skills further, and learn techniques for helping her children improvise as well. Ms. Rogers intends to design music improvisation lessons for her students, and to provide a workshop for her Lexington elementary music colleagues where they can experiment and discuss the possibilities for application with different age levels.

Sharyn Walczewski, Mathematics Teacher, Lexington High School, will attend a workshop at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Conference in Braintree, MA, July 12-14. The workshop is a professional development opportunity for teachers to explore math content, research-based ideas, and teaching strategies. The focus will be on Data Analysis and Probability, a course Ms. Walczewski teaches and developed for level one high school students two years ago. As a result of her fellowship, Ms. Walczewski will incorporate new student projects and teaching methods into her lessons, and will share what she learned with her department colleagues.