LEF PROUDLY ANNOUNCES OUR 2008 SUMMER FELLOWS
Fourteen teachers from Lexington Public Schools have received mini-grants of up to $4000 to attend conferences and workshops and participate in research programs. These educational opportunities will enhance their teaching and enliven their classrooms.

Here’s what LEF Summer Fellows will be studying:
 

Karen Tripoli
Elementary Mathematics Specialist
Karen Tripoli has been involved in developing assessment-driven instruction, resulting in creation of appropriate instructional materials and practices, in an effort to close the achievement gap. In addition to helping her further her work in that area, her attendance this summer at the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics’ 12th Annual Leadership Academy, Building Professional Learning Communities for Equity and Excellence, will assist her in developing and leading highly effective collaborative teams to improve student achievement and in building a professional learning community and fostering its growth and improvement.
 

Karen Thompson
First-Grade Teacher
Katherine Glenn
Reading Specialist
Bowman Elementary School
Bowman School has established a sister school relationship with the Sagam School in Yala Township in Kenya. Karen Thompson and Katherine Glenn will visit the Sagam School to attend a 2-week fact-gathering field study, develop personal knowledge of the people there, and collect materials to support planned cross-cultural projects. “This experience will add firsthand knowledge to the Grade 1 Shelters Unit, which was previously only knowledge through reading,” says Thompson, “and provide valuable cultural, environmental, historical, geographical, and academic understanding to assist my Bowman colleagues as we develop projects with our sister school.” Adds Glenn, “I expect to learn about culturally specific forms of oral and written language, history, and tradition and then share this gained knowledge with students and faculty through co-teaching and consultation.
 

Ruth Litchfield
Reading Specialist
Bridge Elementary School
Ruth Litchfield will attend the Lucy Calkins’ Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Method training in New York City to become adept in a program that helps children generate, write, and edit their writing from Kindergarten through the elementary grades. Through the training, she plans to broaden her base and become more knowledgeable about current teaching practices.
 

Holly Stumpf
Music Teacher
Harrington Elementary School
Holly Stumpf, will take her summer fellowship during February vacation next year on a professional development trip to Senegal sponsored by the Senegal-America Project. Says Stumpf, “An experience in the country of Senegal, which has a thriving contemporary culture as well as memorials to the slave trade, would provide an invaluable way to bring the life of Africans into the curriculum in an authentic way. It is important for students in the United States to learn more about Africa, an emerging continent with many challenges, whether or not it is their ancestral country.”
 

Kerry Richmond
Social Studies Teacher
Clarke Middle School
During a trip to Peru this summer, Kerry Richmond will explore the anthropology, archaeology, and architecture of the Incan Civilization. She will visit Machu Picchu, Cusco, and the Sacred Valley, as well as the Indian community of Willoq, which has remained almost unchanged from the pre-Incan era. Says Richmond, “I will be able to integrate many things learned on this trip into my teachings, which will enhance my students’ global perspective. Currently, not much time is spent on discussing the ancient Americas.”

Mary Quirk
English Teacher
Josephine Petner
Colleague TBA
Social Studies Teachers
Clarke Middle School
Participation in the graduate-level course, The Examined Life: Greek Studies in the Schools, and a study tour to Greece will assist Josephine Petner and Mary Quirk in developing an integrated English and social studies unit for the sixth grade that will be simultaneously taught in English and social studies classes over a period of approximately six weeks. Lessons will include aspects of geography, history, philosophers and beliefs, economics, achievements in science and technology, and the arts, including language, literature, and writing.
 

Anna Monaco
Special Education Department Chair
Clarke Middle School
Improving Schools: The Art of Leadership, held at the Principal’s Center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education this summer, will allow Anna Monaco to focus on how to lead and manage change, implement curriculum innovation, and explore successful models for improvement in the delivery of special education. Many well-respected Harvard faculty and national leaders in education known for their work in school leadership and school improvement lead the program.
 

Valerie Marrocco
Spanish Teacher
Diamond Middle School
It is necessary for foreign language teachers to continually reinforce and perpetuate their language skills and fluency, which can best be accomplished by immersing themselves in the language of native cultures. Valerie Marrocco will travel to Barcelona, Spain, this summer to attend a one-week Spanish Intensive Course consisting of five hours per day of group classes designed to improve language skills and broaden the cultural knowledge of advanced students of Spanish. In addition, she will attend two private classes on the art and museums of Barcelona and the festivals of Barcelona to enrich her curriculum with cultural connections.
 

Kristin Strobel
World History Teacher
Lexington High School
Because of Istanbul’s central role in world history, it enters the LHS curriculum at various points throughout the school year, such as the transition from the Roman Empire to the Byzantine Empire, the Crusades, the expansion of Islam, global absolutism, the rise and disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, and today as a modern Muslim city struggling with its identity and its vision for the future. Kristin Strobel will use her time in Turkey this summer to develop four units of study that will enhance the curriculum of the World History department at the high school.
 

Karen Russell
English Teacher
Lexington High School
In April, Karen Russell will be part of an 8-member team of American educators and humanitarians working in the Bishop Forson School in Kpando, Ghana, in partnership with its Ghanaian teaching staff. As part of her activities, she plans to create a Power Point presentation that will be used with her LHS students within an interdisciplinary art and English project that she will help implement during the 2008/09 school year. She will explore ways that her students can effectively use words and images to develop their unique expressive voices.
 

Shane Wilson
Social Studies Teacher
Lexington High School
Attending a Teacher Institute at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will help Shane Wilson learn how to incorporate popular culture into the curriculum. The rise of the teenager is important to understanding the societal changes that accompanied the growth and influence of the Baby Boom generation. This teacher institute is an intensive seminar covering five full days that addresses all aspects of popular music and culture as they pertain to education to enrich the in-demand History of Pop Culture course at the high school.