ABOUT TEACH FOR YOUR DREAMS

Teach for Your Dreams was formed by Alex and Cherlene Wright in the winter of 2006 and the spring of 2007. Both Cherlene and Alex have served as PTA Presidents for their sons' school and it was there that the initial spark for this program was lit.

The dedication and compassion exemplified by the teachers, principals and staff within the Redwood City Elementary School District is exceptional, to say the very least. As if teaching itself isn't already a challenge, too often our schools are met with outside constraints that make the task more difficult. While larger granting organizations and education foundations thankfully exist to provide necessary funding for district and school-wide programs and services, Teach for Your Dreams exists to reach directly into the classroom, to touch the teachers and inspire young minds.

Ask most teachers and they will tell you that they were inspired to teach either by a specific memory from their own schooling or by a specific teacher. Often, these same teachers have long had a concept, a program and a dream in their own mind that they wish they could share with their own students. Teach for Your Dreams exists to bring these programs to life by providing the necessary funding to the teacher.

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Alex Wright, Chair
Cherlene Wright, Vice Chair
Cheryl Monroe, Secretary
Erin Callaghan, Treasurer
Robbie Moffat
Steve Penna
Bethannee Witczak

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PAST RECIPIENTS

2008

Ms. Naomi Wile Hamburger, Garfield Charter School
"Creative Response to Nature"
Teacher's Statement: "Creative Response to Nature" is an interdisciplinary arts and writing unit. Students will apply narrative writing skills while gaining new artistic skills through a series of lessons that explore key visual arts concepts. The unit is built around a shared experience the class will have on docent-led hike at Edgewood County Park and shorter neighborhood walks.

Ms. Deborah E. Wood, Northstar Academy
"North Star Medical College -- Human Anatomy and Physiology"
Teacher's Statement: To teach 7th grade Human Anatomy and Physiology, I want to promote all students to "physician-in-training." Working in groups, they will be assigned a specialty: gastroenterology, pulmonology, cardiology, orthopedics, neurology, and reproductive medicine. Through this project they will master, then teach their own specialty to the rest of the students.

Ms. Pamela A. Barasch, Henry Ford Elementary
"Kindergarten Family Nights"
Teacher's Statement: This program will allow me to schedule and implement 8-10 parent and child "FAMILY NIGHTS" for my K class during the 08-09 school year. Each month, I would offer a theme related night for approximately 90 minutes in my classroom for up to 20 children. These evenings would be designed to build community in my classroom, instill a love of learning in both parent and child and create meaningful and simple activities that parent and child could share together and continue at home. Themes for these evenings could include, but not be limited to: "Getting to Know You" Pot Luck, Pajama Story Time, Family Math, Kindergarten SIng A Long, Art, KLUTZ Build-A-Book, Science on a Shoestring, PROJECT AIMS, Kids in the Kitchen, Write with ME, 100's DAY (NIGHT), ETC. Funds would be used to purchase theme related supplies and take home resources for the families and to simply be able to PROVIDE these experiences to my K community, outside of the K day and with their families.

Ms. Mary K. Kahn, Selby Lane
"Special Day Class"
Teacher's Statement: I would like augumnetative communication devices (switches or voice out put devices) to be available to my students to allow them to more fully participate in school and feel a sense of control over their lives. I would like my kindergartners who use wheelchairs to have an adapted tricycle to use at recess.

Ms. Meg Van Buren, Hoover Elementary
"Paint Your Dreams / Dream a World of Readers"
Teacher's Statement: This cross-age creative literacy project pairs two classes each of 7th graders and 2nd graders, in the creation of books that reflect and validate students' experiences and draw on their imaginations, by offering them a parallel process of using images they have created to collage their illustrations, as they develop their text. This project incorporates a research-based approach (Beth Olshansky -- Center for the Advancement of Art-Based Literacy) that addresses the multiple learning modalities of our students (kinesthetic, visual, artistic, verbal-linguistic) in an innovative way. It also celebrates students as authors through a "Young Author Book Fair" and permanent display of their work in the school library.

2007

Ms. Susan S. Clarke, Fair Oaks Community School
"Chickens in the City"
Teacher's Statement: We will be studying the life cycle of chickens...from eggs through incubation and hatch. We will raise the chickens to maturity and allow them to begin laying eggs. We will then maintain a coop and egg production throughout the year, providing eggs as food, eggshells as vermi-compost food which supplies our school garden.

We will purchase and construct a chicken hutch and exercise pen. We will also construct a brooder for our developing chicks after hatch. We will order fertilized eggs from Murray McMurray hatchery or the local provider in Half Moon Bay. We will incubate eggs for 21 day period and then observe the hatch. We will also add day old chicks if necessary to continue to program in the event of an unsuccessful hatch. We will raise the chickens to maturity, feeding, watering, cleaning and caring for them. They will provide eggs for food and manure for our school garden and will also eliminate our unhelpful pest problem as they graze in their pen.

Ms. Martha C. Dikun, Clifford School
"Adventure Technology"
Teacher's Statement: Students will explore the genres of mystery and adventure in their literature classes as well as short stories in the technology class. They will then use these stories as a springboard for developing their own adventure game. Students will create a storyboard for their adventure game and seek approval and suggestions from their teacher and peers. They will then create a story map using Inspiration software to assist in developing their adventure game. Students will then evaluate each other's story maps to make sure that they flow smoothly.

Students will use GameMaker software to create their actual adventure game. They will use this program to create images as well as text to lead the adventurer through their game. These games will then become stand-alone games that they can then use and share with their family on their home computers. At the completion of the adventure games students will take turns playing and evaluating each other's games. The top ones will then be presented at the end-of-the-year showcase.

Ms. Regina Lynn Mainero, Hoover Magnet School
"Know my world, Know me."
In this English language development class, each student will be given a digital camera with instructions to take a specific list of photographs (family, best friend, neighborhood, hobby, etc.). The students would then learn to edit their photographs and prepare a presentation. In preparing their own presentation and seeing those prepared by their classmates, they would learn not only how they differed from eachother, but how they were the same.

Ms. Jennifer L. Valenzuela, Selby Lane School
"Ceramics"
Teacher's Statement: Funds will be used across grades 5th-8th in a variety of ceramic projects. The projects all follow an interdisiplinary standards-based curriculm which begins with an art history lesson, a demonstration, implementation, and a critique. The students will be introduced to a ceramic artist and study an example of the artists' work to use as inspiration for the assigned project. The students will learn ceramic/scuplting techniques,vocabulary, the firing process, and glazing.

The 5th grade students will be introduced to Claes Oldenburg's "Two Cheeseburgers, With Everything", 1962, and in response create clay sculptures of food. The 6th grade students will learn about the Egyptian "coffins of Henettawy" 1040-991 B.C. and sculpt a ceramic coffin using Egytpian motifs. The 7th graders will study an Ivory bracelet by the Yoruba tribe and create animal sculptures that symbolize a characteristic of themselves. The 8th graders will study the "WoodGatherers" by the Mimbres and create clay pots using Mimbre motifs in the glaze design.

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