Gloucester School Connection

Creative Arts Club

Gloucester High School teacher Albina Papows was awarded $1,000 to initiate a new, weekly after school program for high school students to concentrate on a variety of creative arts. Ms. Papows’ intention was to use the arts “to motivate and engage children in learning, stimulate memory and facilitate understanding, promote relationships, and provide an avenue for building competence.” Although the club was open to all students, its target group was students in her Child Study Program at GHS.

Global Warming Awareness Initiative

West Parish fifth grade science teacher Mary Rudolf and music teacher Kathleen Dailey were awarded $1,000 for their unique collaboration to produce a fifth grade performance about global warming, to generate a student booklet “What You and Your Family Can Do About Global Warming”, and to help pay for a science consultant to create a new 7 lesson curriculum on the topic. A matching grant of $1000 from Sustainable Cape Ann was provided to augment our contribution to the effort.

Something for Everyone

Fuller Elementary fourth grade teacher Laura Smith was awarded $600 to repeat and expand a successful literacy program which introduces the entire fourth grade to different genres of literature in an effort to bring literacy alive in the classroom and to encourage
recreational reading as a lifelong endeavor. The program was expanded to include a third presentation to focus on mathematics and science.

Text Talk Vocabulary Program

East Gloucester Elementary second grade teacher Rochelle Corey was awarded $504 to purchase Text Talk, a vocabulary-building program for first and second grade students. The program supplemented current literacy teaching and gave her an opportunity to pilot one of the leading vocabulary acquisition programs offered.

Collected Poems

High School senior July White was awarded $350 to design, copyright, and self-publish a poetry collection in collaboration with GHS English teacher James Cook as her Independent Studies Project. Ms. White gave poetry readings as part of her work, including participation in the Rocky Neck open studio tours.

Digital Photography

Gloucester High School photography teacher Rosamond Hyde was awarded $777.36 to purchase a Digital Camera Kit with lens, memory, and photo paper so her students could use the most up to date technology in their studies and mastery of Photoshop. The purchase would enable her lessons to better relate to students’ own lives as most people now use digital cameras.

Art Technology Room

The Visual Art Department at O’Maley Middle School was awarded $3,377.50 to create a new art technology room for all middle school grades to introduce students to modern art skills necessary to comply with Mass. State Frameworks for education. The grant funded the purchase of three new computers, a scanner, and a photo quality color printer to enable middle school artists to reach their fullest potential as the “next great masters given the right opportunities” in the incredible history of artists on Cape Ann.

The Natural and Cultural History of Dogtown

Fuller Elementary fourth grade teacher Laura Smith, in collaboration with science specialist John Madama, was awarded $2,180 for a series of hiking field trips, classroom discussion and microscope research, and the production of a model curriculum about the natural and cultural resources of the Dogtown area in Gloucester. The program was a unique expansion of the science and social studies curriculum while giving all Fuller fourth graders a hands-on learning experience about Dogtown history and the abundant life and earth science resources of the area.

An Artist in Residency Program: Understanding and Negotiating through Creative Collaboration

Gloucester High School art teacher Jacqueline Underwood was awarded $1,748 to fund a three-day residency program for intermediate and advanced art students with local artist Susan Erony. Ms. Erony conducted both classroom presentations of her work and the creative process and afternoon studio workshops for student artists. Students were asked to choose a single image that carries meaning and relates to a concern in our community or society. Students were then required to learn methods of collaboration by working in teams to create a final image.

Lone Voyager Radio Drama

O’Maley Middle School performing arts teacher Jay DiPrima was awarded $657 to fund the initiation of a unique “radio drama” project in consort with the “Gloucester Reads” literacy program. Mr. DiPrima involved 7th and 8th grade students in the active process of creating and recording audio effects in conjunction with live performers to bring to life a rich literary text. It was a wonderful opportunity to enable performing arts teachers to make interdisciplinary connections with literature taught in the English language arts classroom.