• Notes from the President
• Foundation Honors Teachers
• Deborah Allen Recieves Gelfand Fellowship
• Collaborative Grants Program
• Todd Saker Endowment Author Visit
• New Board Members Elected

We recently received this note from a teacher who received a Brookline Education Foundation grant:

I just want to say how your programs and offers of grants have inspired me as a teacher to “reach for the stars” instead of think more parochially....I want to teach here in Brookline because I am surrounded by thinking people, people who want to be active learners themselves. Thank you for helping make Brookline such an inspiring place to teach.

It is letters like this that remind us why we work so hard to raise money across our community. We do it because what the Foundation does has a direct impact on the quality of teaching and learning in our schools.

At this year's energizing Celebrating Teachers event, both Caverly Award winners talked about how important it is to them to feel part of a professional community that puts learning first and that creates opportunities for collegial support of quality teaching. Jay Sugarman from Runkle and Steve Lantos from Brookline High thanked the Brookline Education Foundation for helping them—individually and as members of a community that values their professionalism.

At the Brookline Education Foundation, we are committed to making grants to individuals, to collaborations among teachers, and to the school system as a whole that inspire teachers to improve their skills, "reach for the stars," work together, and take risks that keep them fresh.

It’s working. We see the results in teachers' enthusiasm and effectiveness and, most importantly, we see the results in the engagement of our town’s children in learning.

I want to thank all of this year's many contributors to the Brookline Education Foundation. You are the heart and soul of this remarkable organization. Your generous support is making a difference.

Each year, the audience at “Celebrating Teachers” listens to the Caverly Award winners with a combination of respect, awe, and gratitude. This year was no exception. Jay Sugarman, fourth-grade teacher at the Runkle School, and Steve Lantos, chemistry teacher and member of the SWS faculty at Brookline High, represent the best in education.

The Brookline Education Foundation honors Jay Sugarman not only as one of Brookline’s great teachers, but as an educator who has been active and recognized in his field on the national level. Jay teaches at Simmons and has previously taught at BU, Tufts, Wheelock, and Stanford. Jay founded “Education Today” on Brookline’s cable channel. He also guided one of his classes through the challenging process of enacting state legislation. The result?: The corn muffin was designated as the state muffin of Massachusetts.

When Jay came to Brookline 25 years ago, he embraced the “osmosis” approach to education: present students with an engaging project and the learning will come. No need for skill work or formal lessons.

Over the years, Jay has moved from the “osmosis” perspective to one in which he values reflecting on his practice and working with colleagues both in and out of the Brookline schools. Jay no longer relies solely on process, having learned the value of content and assessment as essential elements in student learning. He credits the 1993 Education reform Act with helping to clarify what high expectations should be and the value of ongoing assessment.

“There is no clear-cut, step-by-step recipe for good teaching...the craft of teaching cannot be bottled or mass-produced.” If it could be, Jay Sugarman would be the one to do it.

Where do you start when describing Stephen Lantos? Steve is a traveler, hiker, biker, squash player, mentor in the African American Scholars’ program, and a participant in the high-school legislature. Last, but certainly not least, Steve is an alumnus of Brookline High. As Ellen Kaplovitz, SWS Coordinator, wrote, Steve “is always open to accommodating students’ learning issues, but never open to lowering standards.” And while all chemistry teachers display the periodic table in their classrooms, Steve has it in ten languages!

In his engaging talk entitled “The Risky Business of Teaching,” Steve confessed that he hadn’t intended to become a teacher. After college, he simply “fell into” substitute teaching at his alma mater. Before he knew it, he undertook a long-term substituting position, teaching five classes, writing lesson plans, preparing quizzes and tests, establishing rapport with his students, and seeking support from his colleagues. As Steve said, he was doing all the stuff of teacher training without supervision. Thankfully, it worked!

Regarding risk, Steve offered his audience important insights. “Taking risks and inviting challenge is just good teaching....Risk means challenging peers and administrators about notions of learning, educating and evaluating. [We must] continue to question and challenge the achievement gap, student by student, and not accept the default explanations of difference in access or privilege.”

In Steve Lantos, the Brookline Education Foundation honored a risk-taker and an educator committed to the growth and achievement of each student in his classroom.

Once again, the Brookline Education Foundation's Caverly Award winners thrilled the enthusiastic audience with their evident competence and warmth. We are lucky and grateful to have them in our midst.

The fourth recipient of the Adam Russell Gelfand Fellowship, Deborah Allen, was chosen from over 30 teachers who submitted grant applications to the Foundation this spring. This award celebrates the life of Adam Russell Gelfand by annually honoring a Brookline teacher who exemplifies the ideals so evident in Adam’s life: love of learning, respect for community and a love of geography and mathematics.

The Fellowship and a Foundation grant will enable Ms. Allen, a 7th/8th-grade Science teacher at Devotion School, to travel to the high-desert ecosystems of northern New Mexico and Arizona this summer to explore the natural and social history of the area. She will visit sites such as the Petrified Forest National Monument and Canyon De Chelly to examine the diverse geology and biology of the area with an eye towards ecological interaction and survival adaptations of organisms.

Having explored other unique ecosystems throughout the United States, Ms. Allen anticipates that this grant will increase the effectiveness of her teaching of geology. In her grant application, Ms. Allen averred, “…my direct experience with a particular ecosystem makes it much more interesting and engaging for my students. I can show them concrete artifacts and share fascinating descriptions and pictures, instead of having them rely on text or websites.”

The Brookline Education Foundation is pleased to launch a new grants program this year that encourages groups of teachers and administrators to learn and work together. These Collaborative Grants are designed to promote collaboration across disciplines, across grade levels, and between schools.

We were overwhelmed with the number and quality of applications for Collaborative Grants. Funding them became a cooperative effort with the School Department, which will generously cover the cost of substitutes for several grants and a consultant on one grant. Sandy Sicard, Director of Instructional Technology, will also pay for a software license out of her technology funds. Amy Martin, Grants Coordinator, and Carol Daddazio, Teacher Leader for Mentoring and Induction, played a vital role in the entire grantmaking process.

The applications fell into four broad areas, with several proposals in each:

• Teaching of mathematics
• Collaborative professional development
• SPED/pupil support
• The middle school years

Clearly, these are areas our teachers and administrators are concerned about and want to explore further. Through your generous support, the Board of the Brookline Education Foundation is delighted to fund over half of the applications in each area.

The Collaborative Grants category enables the Brookline Education Foundation to bring the core value of Collaborative Relationships to the forefront. With your help, we plan to continue our efforts to promote opportunities for professional teamwork and cooperative learning throughout Brookline.

The annual Todd Saker Endowment author visit is intended to inspire a love of reading and writing in young people by introducing them to writing as an art and as a career choice. This March, the first such author visit was a fitting tribute to the memory of Todd, a Brookline student who was a voracious reader.

Students in each of Brookline’s eight elementary schools were enthralled and enlightened by children’s author Yangsook Choi. Ms. Choi, named one of the most prominent new children’s book artists of 1997 by Publisher’s Weekly, discussed the creative process of book making, including using the imagination, getting an idea, writing, and illustrating. Using her original sketchbooks, printer’s proofs and paintings from her book New Cat, and drawing demonstrations, Ms. Choi introduced students to every stage of the writing process.

Note: To enable visits to all eight elementary schools, the PTOs and Friends of the Library groups provided financial support to complement the Saker fund monies, which inspired the process.

At its Annual Meeting on May 18, the Brookline Education Foundation elected officers for the 2004-2005 year.

• President: Richard Kazis
• Vice Presidents – Communication: Cindy Goldstein and Polly Kornblith
• Vice President – Fundraising: Linda McQuillan
• Vice Presidents – Program: Kitty Ames, Sam Solomon, and Crispin Weinberg
• Treasurer: Lucille Zanghi
• Secretary: Peggy Campion
• Assistant Secretary: Selina Chow

New board members were introduced. They represent different schools throughout the district and bring a variety of skills to the board.

• Susan Haig – Susan and her husband, Hal, moved to Boston in 1982. Susan worked in commercial banking for a number of years before pursuing her childhood dream of being a professional dancer. Before retiring to fulltime motherhood, Susan taught dance in the Boston area. She is the mother of two boys at the Heath School.
• Dan Lyons – Dan Lyons is the father of two children at the Pierce School. He is a former co-chair of the PTO and former member of the Board of the Pierce School Extended Day Program. Dan works as a realtor for Hammond Residential GMAC Real Estate in Chestnut Hill.
• Ruben Moreno – Ruben has lived in Brookline for 20 years with his wife, Evelyn. They have two daughters who attend the Lincoln School. Ruben is a real estate developer specializing in condominiums and apartments. Ruben was a member of the strategic planning committee of PALS.
• Robin Reed – Robin, her husband, and their daughter have lived in Brookline for 9 years. Robin is an internist and serves as Chief of Medicine at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital. She has been active in the Lincoln PTO and served as chair of its Diversity Committee.
• Margaret Talmers – Margaret and her husband have also lived in Brookline for 9 years. They have three children at the Baker School. Margaret is the treasurer of the Baker PTO, the coordinator of the 4th-grade “Understanding Disabilities Program”, and a liaison to the Brookline Special Education Parent Advisory Council
• Mark Weinstein – Mark and his wife, Nancy, have lived in Brookline for 12 years. They have two sons at the Runkle School. Mark is the Director of Information Technology at Charles River Ventures, an early stage, high-tech investing firm. Mark previously served on the Board and was the treasurer of The Children’s Center of Brookline.