Spring 2014
 
Arts Night - TFHS - All Art students - This grant will provide materials for students to formally mount and frame their projects.  It will also give the students the experience of 'showing' their work in a formal setting.  The Arts Night also brings in the community to view student work.
 
Bringing Books to Life - All Montague and Gill elementary children - This grant will bring a 'spark' to the literacy curriculum in the elementary schools by hearing a story teller share stories especially from a different culture.  There is an evening component where families can come and be involved in this literary experience.
 
Cyber bullying Awareness Parent Night  - Open to all parents in the GM District.  Planning for this grant has been in the works since Sept.  It is being planned by a group of 18 MS students, who have been
meeting every other week and discussing the importance of making safe decisions and then going out into the student body to do the same with their peers.  This grant includes a speaker and a free dinner for all attending.
 
Deerfield Planetarium  - Gill Students  Grades 3 and Kdg.  This grant provide transportation to  view the planetarium at Deerfield Academy.    This trip enhances the solar system curriculum being taught at each grade level.
 
Eastern European Immigration - MES Second Grades -This grant will provide funds for a guest speaker from the Deerfield Teachers' Center to present a talk on students' ancestors.  The teachers want to help their children to make a connection with what it was like for their Eastern European ancestors to come to America in the late 1900's.
 
ESL American Culture Trip to Boston - TFHS - This grant will help to defray expenses for this trip to Boston to view cultural sights.  It will also bring their class experiences to life as many are American Literature this semester and will be learning a lot of American History.
 
Field Trip to New England Institute of Technology---This grant will provide 45 students an opportunity to visit NEIT campus to view the classes there and see their many career options they offer.  Highly successful last year therefore wanted to provide the opportunity to a different group of students this year!
 
Field Trip to Northfield Mountain - Gill - first and second grade  - This grant will allow students to expand their curriculum of signs of spring and incredible insects.  The students will experience hands on activities in their subject area.
 
Kindle for IPad in the Classroom -MES Grade four classroom -This grant will allow the purchase books or apps for Kindle on the IPad.   One major objective is to allow students to read text at their instructional level without concern of their reading level versus their peers. 
 
Learning to Write Like an Author  - Gill Grade 6 -This grant will pay for a local author to visit the sixth grade and hold a 'writer's workshop'.  They will specifically zone in on Narrative writing.  The class will then use their information to publish a longer narrative at the end of the school year.
 
Light Up the Science Curriculum:  Inquiry-based exploration of light across the biological and physical sciences - 50 Freshman and 15 Juniors and Seniors.  This grant will allow the purchase of 2 PAR Sensors that will help students with experiments measuring impact of light on plants, rates of photosynthesis, etc.  As an aside, they will also  be using the CO sensors purchased with previous GMEF funds to measure carbon dioxide in the photosynthesis process!
 
Middle School to High School Transition - GFMS eighth grade - This grant will allow a guidance counselor and the ninth grade team of teachers to design a curriculum around bridging the gap between eighth and ninth grade.  They hope to design informative and transitional activities for both students and their parents. By giving this attention          to 8th/9th graders, it is hoped to decrease the dropout rate and increase academic success.
 
Norman Rockwell Museum - TFHS Jr and Sr. Honors History - This grant will provide a visit to the Museum to study his paintings and several of the 'big themes' they are learning about in History, such as progress, rights, power, and equality. They will be experiencing a different curriculum and how it helps represent historical trends and ideas.  The museum visit will also help the students in a Cold War project they will be working on later in the semester.
 
Norman Rockwell Museum- TFHS SPED students and their support staff.  This grant, and the one above, collaborated only for the purpose of transportation.  This group will be looking at art to show the students how our lives have changed for bettor or worse since 1900.  They will also be evaluating the art work and his responses to racism Civil Rights.  The students will work on explaining the 'story' of what is happening in the paintings.
 
Old Sturbridge Village Field Trip - MES Grade 3 - The curriculum of third grade studies colonial times.  Sturbridge Village is the closest opportunity to view life of the later colonial times.  It is a working village and they have the opportunity to ask questions of the "actors and actresses".
 
Table Tennis - GFMS - grades 6-8  This grant will allow the purchase of table tennis equipment.  This equipment will allow another outlet for students to participate in an after school activity.        Many students are not interested in participating in school sports or arts programs yet want to participate in something.  If the equipment is purchased, the activity could be offered each semester.   The AD is offering his support in the use of the tables and the gym during non conflicting times.
 
Visiting Field Trip From Hitchcock Center for the Environment -  Gill  - grades 1 and 2.  This grant will allow for the Hitchcock center to come to Gill school with their Live Animal Inquiry program. The program addresses the first grade animal habitats and second grade animal characteristics, life cycles, and habitats. 
 
 
Fall - 2013
 
AP Psychology Field Trip to Baystate Medical Center - TFHS - Grs 11 & 12.  Field trip to tie in two units of study- statesof consciousness and biological basis of behavior.  Hopes to   make the study of brain activity and brain waves more authentic, meaningful, and engaging.  It will also help the students to retain their information they have learned in class and relate it to real life.
 
BeneskiMuseum - Gill Kdg & 4th grade students.  To visit the museum together to view dinosaurs and fossils for Kdg and to view soil studies as well as weather and the water cycle and     erosion.  Both are relevant curricula for the participating grades.
 
Chemistry and Physics making a Bang and Swoosh at TFHS - Wants to create an "inflatable mascot" which will require cooperation and problem solving to design a mascot using material science and fluid dynamics. For this to work a purchase of  a Hydrogen cylinder.  This purchase would also the instructor to produce many demos and labs.
 
College Awareness, Career Readiness, & Exploration trip - Gr 11 & 12 Students.  This grant will allow students to travel to the Springfield National College Fair in March, 2014.  Hopefully, this will encourage students to want to further their education and to help with filling out applications, etc.
 
Field Trip to Hitchcock Center for the Environment - Gill Gr 2, Visiting the Hitchcock Center will bring to life the sec. grade curriculum  on forest habitat and forest life.
 
Higgins Armory Museum Field Trip - GFMS Gr. 8 This is a curriculum based field trip about weapons and armor used during the Middle Ages, Crusades and the Renaissance.  Also, this is the last year to view this exhibit at the armory as it will move to the Worcester Art Museum, a much smaller space!
 
Reading Science World Scholastic Magazine - GFMS Gr 7 The magazine will provide students with Science articles designed for their age group.  It also provides a cross-curricular platform for students to explore current events in Science.
 
Reluctant Reader Resources - TFHS/GFMS Library all students This grant will be used to purchase reading materials for the reluctant reader, those students reading below grade level or do not complete reading outside of the curriculum
 
TFHS 9th Gr. team after school group rewarding students for good work and good effort    According to research, if students are "invited" to after school help with all teachers present, students will be more apt to attend and complete or make up assignments missed.  With healthy snacks offered and other small incentives, students would see this extra help as a privilege rather than a punishment.  Up to 10 students a week could be "invited" to attend.