• Notes from the President
• The Mini Is Coming! The Mini Is Coming!
• Gelfand Fellow Shares with Teachers and Students
• Recipe for a Literary (Re)Treat
• Mathematics/Technology Immersion
• Hands-On Science Exploration for Teachers
• Staying Current with College Applications

In 1981, when the Brookline Education Foundation was launched, a group of farsighted parents decided that the town had to respond to the fiscal challenge of Proposition 2 1/2. Their response: create a local education fund to build teacher morale and reward their hard work.

That fund, begun in a time of adversity, has grown and matured. Since 1981, our fundraising has risen steadily. We have made close to two million dollars of professional development grants to teachers and the school system. The Foundation is a key reason why young teachers choose Brookline and why experienced teachers stay.

I look back to our roots for two reasons. First, fiscal austerity and political hostility toward the teaching profession are back. In this environment, our support for excellence in teaching is critical. Second, I learned recently of the passing of one of the committed individuals who helped create the Brookline Education Foundation. Mark Leipman was an activist who loved teaching—and teachers. Both his wife and his daughter teach in Brookline. While I did not have the honor of knowing Mark Leipman, our town owes much to him and his colleagues who had the vision to create the Brookline Education Foundation.

This year, the Brookline Education Foundation awarded more money in grants to more teachers than ever before, bringing the total to $2 million since our founding in 1981. Over 80 teachers, counselors, specialists, and curriculum coordinators in all the schools are participating in 31 grants. And that does not include our system-wide grants for teaching & mentoring and closing the achievement gap!

Your support—particularly of last year’s raffle—made the difference! We hope you’ll continue to honor our outstanding educators by buying a ticket again this year. With only 600 tickets available at $100 each, you could win: a 2004 Mini Cooper or $12,000, an Apple iBook, or one of three Apple mini-iPods.

With these odds, why not take a chance and support our teachers at the same time? Tickets are available at the following locations in Brookline during regular business hours:

• Audy’s Mobil Stations, 345 Boylston Street and 198 Harvard Street
• Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street
• The Children’s Bookshop, 237 Washington Street
• Connelly Hardware, 706 Washington Street
• The Fireplace, 1634 Beacon Street
• The Studio, 233 Harvard Street

We’re also happy to hand deliver your ticket to you—just give the Foundation a call (617-232-3846) to set up a time that’s convenient for you.

Liz Cook (formerly Dennis), the third recipient of the Adam Russell Gelfand Fellowship, believes that Brookline Foundation grants benefit not just the direct recipient, but also untold students and other teachers. “I have learned a great deal from other teachers’ travels and reading & writing workshops,” states the Lincoln School Literacy Specialist.

Likewise, numerous Brookline students and educators are benefiting from Cook’s attendance at the Education Cooperative Summer Writing Institute as a Gelfand Fellow last July. Since then, Cook has formed a monthly “Teachers as Writers” group for Lincoln School 3rd- and 4th- grade teachers. Cook also plans to share her experiences with other Brookline Literacy Specialists at an upcoming meeting.

While the Foundation grant provided an opportunity for Cook to pursue her own interests in writing, it also enriched her classroom teaching with new resources and practical knowledge. Reflecting on her own struggles with writer’s block and “getting started,” Cook says she now has more empathy for students and fellow teachers who face similar challenges.

The Gelfand Fellowship was established to celebrate the work of teachers like Liz Cook who strive for excellence in their professional lives. By sharing the resources and techniques she acquired at the Summer Writing Institute, Cook has enriched the lives of many Brookline students and colleagues while honoring the life of Adam Russell Gelfand.

Read Forecast poem by Liz Cook

• Take 1 Brookline Foundation grant
• Add 2 school librarians plus 3 teachers
• Put them all in Cambridge, England. Combine with other educators, writers, and artists
• Stir well
• Leaven with laughter, tea, and tears
• Bake slowly and savor the results

The above recipe describes the summer travels of school librarians Teresa Gallo-Toth (Runkle) and Rusty Browder (Lawrence), and Driscoll 6th grade teachers Bonnie Sue Carton, Kailin Fenn, and Barbara Scotto. These five educators attended the Children’s Literature New England’s seminar, “What a Gamble Friendship Is!,” at Cambridge University in August 2003.

The conference itself “proved extraordinarily inspiring and at times challenging,” according to Browder. Presentations by notable authors and children’s literature scholars offered fresh insights and dynamic exchanges: How do protagonists perceive the benefits and the costs of friendship? Do readers see themselves in the archetypal friends Rat and Mole in Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows? Is there any redemptive element in Brother Leon’s sinister character in Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War? What do the images of friendship in books for very young children tell us?

Downtime was filled with quiet thinking and writing as well as delectable excursions. Some of the tantalizing opportunities included visiting the Christopher Wren library (where original manuscripts of A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh can be viewed alongside Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica) and attending open-air Shakespeare. Such excursions, as well as strolls through gardens once frequented by Virginia Wolff and Rupert Brooke, brought participants back to the hard work of the conference with renewed energy and motivation.

The grant recipients have all returned to their schools with wonderful stories of their experiences and many ideas for new literary programs. Browder notes that opportunities such as this seminar “remind us why we are teachers and librarians in the first place, and how germane children’s literature is to our daily lives as professionals who work with children and young adults.”

How often is a professional development opportunity everything you could hope for? Well, according to three Brookline High School teachers, this summer’s Mathematics, Science & Technology Conference at Phillips Exeter Academy had it all: relevant content, nationally known math educators, stimulating colleagues from all over the world, and a beautiful setting to boot!

Priscilla Burbank-Schmitt, Kathryn Kanter Caruso, and Betty Strong report that one of the most rewarding aspects of the program was the chance to spend an entire week focusing on the impact and application of technology in the mathematics classroom. The threesome attended seminars and workshops on statistics, geometry, algebra, trigonometry, and calculus software for use in a variety of classes with many levels of students. Well-known educators who regularly publish their research led the sessions.

“I came away with many ideas that I’ve already begun to incorporate into the curriculum,” reports Strong. She and her fellow attendees have introduced many conference resources, techniques, and materials to other BHS Math teachers at regular departmental meetings.

On a personal level, Strong also notes that attending the Conference “made me feel appreciated as a professional….It reinforced my love of math and teaching to be with other teachers who also love math and teaching.” This type of personal and professional development is at the heart of all Brookline Foundation grants.

With the support of the Brookline Education Foundation, Yasameen Sharif (Baker School 6th grade teacher), Mark Goldner (Heath 7/8 teacher), and Chris Whitbeck (K-8 Science Curriculum Coordinator) attended the Exploratorium Institute for Inquiry in San Francisco, California this fall. This professional development opportunity allowed these three educators to explore the nature of science learning and models for teaching and evaluating student understanding of science concepts.

This Institute, the second in a series, focused on formative assessment, which is the collection and use of information about students’ ongoing learning by both teachers and students to modify teaching and learning activities. The experience built on work started three years ago, when a team of Brookline educators attended the first Exploratorium Institute. The Brookline team came away not only with tools, but also with an understanding of how student learning should guide what and how we teach.

The opportunity to work with 25 other educators from around the country, to engage in thoughtful conversations and investigations, and to be challenged by the high expectations of the Exploratorium staff was a wonderful opportunity for growth. According to Whitbeck, “This was one of the most significant professional development experiences in which I have participated. I was challenged to rethink professional development and how the district helps teachers improve their practice, while the teachers were pushed to reconsider their classroom practice, what their expectations are for student learning, and a developmental framework for how students come to understand science.”

The Brookline Public Schools has embraced the work that this team began in California. With Jennifer Fischer-Mueller in the lead, the district has encouraged and supported teachers and coordinators to design assessment experiences based on the Exploratorium model. The ideas presented at the Institute continue to spur significant conversations about what it means to teach and learn in Brookline.

The college admissions process can be exciting, frustrating, and challenging for high school seniors and the adults who help them navigate it. One of the biggest challenges faced by guidance counselors is keeping abreast of changes in the process, including revisions to standardized testing and the application review process.

With a grant from the Brookline Education Foundation, Nicole LeVangie and Meridith Welch, Brookline High School Guidance Counselors, attended a week-long seminar this summer to gain new information regarding the ever-changing college admissions scene. At the 2003 Harvard Summer Institute on College Admissions, they dove into the nuts and bolts of the admissions’ process and gained a new awareness of current application trends through workshops on writing recommendations, standardized testing, financial aid, early decision, and the role of athletics in admissions.

In addition to attending these fascinating educational panels, Welch indicates that she and LeVangie were able to forge personal connections with other high school counselors and college admissions representatives, all of which “deepened my understanding and has made me a better-informed and more confident counselor.” BHS counselors continue to meet and exchange information gained from this conference in order to better serve the needs of hign school seniors.