Highlights of ACSF In Claxton Elementary 

2011-2012 Awards

TAPAS Awards

Brooks Butler with artist David Hamilton

Andrea Giglitto with artist Ginger Huebner

Kimberly Egget with artist Ian Wilkinson

Brian Mahoney Melody McGarren

Gaelyn Evangreene, of Isaac Dickson Elementary, will continue her project and be joined by Jennie Robinette, ofClaxtonElementary. This renewal will support the Fellows in further implementing Conscious Discipline in their classrooms as well as sharing it with eight other ACS teachers.  All teachers involved will increase their understanding and knowledge of brain based discipline and classroom management.  Each teacher will have the two group study books as well as a set of classroom read aloud books.

  
Tonya Sweater, Holly Gregg, Kimberley Eggett, Victoria Angelotti, Mary Elston, Molly Peters, Jeri Lutz, & Kelly Schultz are ACS Fifth Grade teachers who will continue this year as 5th Grade Science Fellows with the leadership of Donalyn Small.  For the 2011-2012 school year they will develop assessments that build on  their work in the previous year.  Using this grant they will create lessons and adjust their pacing guide to accommodate to new science standards.  By creating an organized assessment method of current standards, they will be better prepared for teaching and assessing their students when the new essential standards are implemented. 

 

 

Brooks Butler, of Claxton Elementary, has been awarded a Forte Grant for Tuning Up with Professional Development to attend the 2011 American Orff-Schulwerk Association Professional Development Conference.  By attending this conference Brooks will inform and expand his teaching skills through workshops, performances, forums and communication with the world-wide community of Orff-Schulwerk music educators.  The workshops he will attend support a wide array of topics pertinent to better student support, including teaching to varied populations, integration of the arts, teaching literacy through music instruction, and incorporating technology in music instruction. 

 

 

 2010 - 2011 Awards

Vance, Claxton & Jones Elementary Schools are all recipients of an Energy Education Grant for the Use Motion and Technological Design Science Kits written by Donalyn Small.  These kits will provide 5th graders with the tools they need for new science experiments.

Neal Compton was given a TAPAS Grant to have resident artist, Lisa Klakulak, teach 4th graders There's Science in Felting?  This workshop will engage students in wool felting and how color, biology, chemistry and individual efforts effect their group project.

A TAPAS Grant was awarded to James Cassara for resident artist, Elizabeth Garlington, to teach students about Telling Stories with Quilts. Students will learn how to tell their own history through quilt making and make their own quilt. 

Resident artist, Adam Wright, through the TAPAS Grant will be engaging students in Memories of a Meal, Non-Fiction Planning and Writing for Victoria Casamer's 4th grade classroom. Students will learn how to build their writing skills in the areas of character development, sensory details, grammar and mood while writing about their favorite meal.

A TAPAS Grant was awarded to Vince Foriani for resident artist, Charlie Story, to facilitate the workshop Blowing Harps through History.  This project will teach students the importance of Cherokee, African Americas and Migrant Workers in the development of NC through songwriting and performance.

Claxton Elementary was awarded an ACSF Innovation Grant for Read Naturally, written by Kathy Lane.  The Read Naturally software will be used to build students' fluency, word accuracy and reading comprehension.

A Micro-Grant along with a TAPAS Grant was awarded to Brooks Butler for Bringing Moog to Claxton.  This project is bring in teaching artist, Dave Hamilton, to 5th graders and allow them to explore electronic music including a theramin.

All 5 Elementary Schools are awarded $6,000 total for 5th Grade Science Fellows, a proposal written by Donalyn Small, Tomas Seijo, Tonya Sweater, Holly Gregg, Kimberly Eggett, Kelly Schultz, Molly Peters, Jerri Lutz and Victoria Angelotti. The Fellowship Team collaborated as a professional learning community to produce high quality, hands-on, guided inquiry-based science lessons that integrated math and literacy across the entire fifth grade science curriculum. Their students got dirty in Dupont Woods on field trips to the Muddy Sneakers program. Students built model cars to test out force and motion, and used the scientific method to investigate a hypothesis of their own creation and shared at the Student Inquiry Conference.
 
 

2009 - 2010 Awards

Claxton Elementary is awarded a Deborah Sizemore Arts Integration Grant for The Bard Comes to Claxton, a proposal written by John Pruett. This project will bring the NC Stage Company to the school to plan and integrate theater lessons in 11 different classes, culminating in a student performance of King Lear.

All five elementary schools are awarded an ACSF Innovation grant for Bringing Words to Life, a proposal written by Helga Graff, Chrystal Hendrix, Martha Hayes, Beverly McBrayer, and Linda Geer.  This program brings award-winning, African American, North Carolina, author Carol Boston Weatherford to hour-long assemblies for all third through fifth graders, for which the students will have read her books and will complete follow-up activities.

All five elementary schools are awarded an ACSF Innovation grant for Science Notebooks, a proposal written by Donalyn Small. This program will engage students in writing about science exploration.