Roffman

In May, BEF Board members heard from Jen Hanaghan, BHS social studies teacher who teachers the AP Human Geography course. Jen traveled to Portugal and also spent some time in and around New Bedford, MA, studying the migration patterns and cultural history of the Portuguese populations who emigrated to North America over the last century. She brought back new insights and artifacts to share with her students, and delighted in engaging in first-person research and exploration as a student again.

At the April Board meeting, BEF Board members heard from BHS math teachers Shoshanna Kostant, Julie Padgett, and Lisa Rodriguez, who recently completed their grant "Exploring Mathematical Innovation: A Cultural and Educational Journey for Math Teachers in Greece". The journey was filled with adventure and learning, as these three veteran teachers gained new perspectives about the foundations of mathematical concepts, and new ideas and materials for enlightening their students about a broad array of mathematical concepts, from the most basic to the foundations of modern robotics and computers.

In March, BEF Board members heard from Julie Young and Erin Vebber, behavior specialists from Baker and BHS who traveled to an international conference in their field in Lisbon to learn best practices and bring home new strategies and perspectives to their students and colleagues. Professional development is required annually for BCBAs in Brookline but not provided by the District, so these professionals were deeply grateful for this opportunity. Their experience was extremely rewarding, and they returned to Brookline with many new tools in their toolbox for use with their students, and new ideas for ways to collaborate with their colleagues.

February Featured Grant: Taiwan Travels: An Immersive Understanding of East Asian Culture Emma Siver teaches 11th grade English and the 9-12 grade African-American and Latinx Scholars program at Brookline High School—a program for students who identify as African-American or Latinx with a history and identity curriculum. When she received a grant from the Brookline Education Foundation, she saw an opportunity to transform how her students understand immigration, cultural identity, and assimilation. Her five-day journey to Taiwan this year would become more than a personal adventure—it would be a teaching tool that brings new depth to her classroom. What made Siver's trip [...]

January's Featured Grant was presented to the BEF community at this year's Green Apple Event, graciously held at the home of board member Neda Toloue and her family. Driscoll kindergarten teachers Deana Shea and Kayte Lenahan reported on their grant titled  Collaboration, Connection and Learning at the 2025 NAEYC Conference. Deana has taught in the Public Schools of Brookline since 2011, and Kayte has been teaching in the district since 2017. Neither had applied for a BEF grant prior to last spring. They shared the broad array of takeaways from their trip to the NAEYC conference, including very specific new skills [...]

In December, the BEF Board heard from Catariny De Pina and Dana DeIngenis Kenwood, Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) at BEEP who received a BEF grant to attend the Black Association of Behavior Analysts (BABA) Reclaiming Our VIBES conference in Montego Bay, Jamaica. This national conference offered sessions on cultural humility, equity in schools and innovative behavior-support practices. Because BCBAs receive no district-funded professional development, despite state licensure requiring ongoing CEUs, they typically pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket each year. The BEF grant helped reduce that burden and allowed Cat and Dana to broaden their professional networks, deepen their expertise and [...]

In November, the BEF heard from Teacher Grant recipient Chima Ikonne, a special education teacher at the Hayes School and the beloved instructor of a popular after-school baking class. This summer, Chima spent ten days in Paris studying authentic French baking techniques, strengthening his French language skills and deepening his appreciation for France’s culinary traditions and history. His goal was to bring baking into more of his teaching—using it not only in his cooking class, but also to make lessons in his special education classroom more engaging, hands-on and connected to the real world. While in Paris, Chima took three intensive baking [...]

During our October meeting, the BEF had the pleasure of hearing from Jill Arnold, a recent Idea Lab Grant Winner and recipient of the Elizabeth Ascoli Award for Innovation in Experiential Learning. Jill is a speech language pathologist at Pierce School and her goal was to infuse theater, reader’s theater, puppetry and pretend play into speech and language therapy for K–4 students. This Idea Lab Grant enabled her to bring her lifelong love of theater into her therapy sessions, a dream she had always hoped to realize. After taking a "Making Puppets from Nothing" course at the Puppet Showplace Theater in [...]