Program Initiatives
ACES works collaboratively with its member districts to foster new program initiatives, seeking resources from federal, state and private granting organizations to achieve the desired program goals. Current initiatives include:
Project LUCID (Literacy Unifying Children in Diversity)
CT State Department of Education, Interdistrict Cooperative Grants
Project LUCID provides frequent, long-term opportunities for students in Grades 1-6 to work collaboratively to improve their reading and writing achievement and increase their knowledge of diversity through culture and history. Through the use of videoconferencing technology and personal collaboration, these class-to-class visits allow students to work in small group literature discussions, virtual literature circles, and tasks that revolve around multicultural themes.
For further information, contact: Howard Gunther, (203) 407-4416
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Sister Schools Program
CT State Department of Education, Interdistrict Cooperative Grants
The purpose of the Sister Schools Grant is to foster K - 12 partnerships between urban and suburban classrooms and/or schools, and to provide high-quality collaborative educational experiences for students from diverse cultures. The goals of Sister Schools are to increase students' academic achievement in a common area of study in the Sister Schools project, and to increase understanding and collaboration among students in urban and suburban environments.
ACES provides training, training materials, and technical assistance and brings teachers of the Sisters Program together during the year to share ideas and to complete projects. ACES works with project members each year to enhance partnerships that become a natural extension of each school's curriculum. ACES also maintains a database of teachers and schools who are interested in establishing connections and planning projects. This project directly addresses Public Act 92-290, requiring school districts to reduce racial, ethnic and economic isolation by providing opportunities for teachers and students to interact with other students and teachers of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds.
Sister Schools partners make a commitment to meet a minimum of six to eight times during the year to visit each other's schools and to have joint field trip experiences. These trips give the children, their teachers and their parents rich opportunities to know each other while working on their projects.
With the support of ACES specialists, teachers and children participate in writing, technology and in multicultural workshops to create a digital scrapbook of their Sister Schools' experiences. All of these opportunities are explained during orientation sessions.
The application for Sister Schools can be found online and submitted to Janine Fiorillo. the grant's coordinator at jfiorillo@aces.org. Teachers who need a partner can contact Ms. Fiorillo for assistance.
Listed below are a samples of Sister Schools projects. Teachers may develop their own project ideas focused on a multicultural theme.
Project Name: A Bridge Between Communities
Children study the similarities and differences found in New Haven and Wallingford and the impact of Long Island Sound on both communities.
Project Name: Environmental Friends
Students from New Haven, CT and Shelton, CT join together for six or seven experiences to develop an awareness of cultural similarities and differences centered on an environmental theme to and foster a sense for our collective stewardship for the earth and our environment.
Project Name: Faces of Greatness, Past and Present
Students read various biographies of famous inventors Americans of multi-cultural backgrounds by using the internet. This project by developing an appreciation for perseverance and struggles of famous Americans.
Project Name: Celebrating Women in American History through Writing
The students learn about a variety of American women; who they are and what they have accomplished. They will also learn and write about the diversity and interlocking stories of women who have created and affirmed the American Spirit.
For further information, contact: Janine Fiorillo, (203) 407-4404
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Words! Action! Theatre!
CT State Department of Education, Interdistrict Cooperative Grants
This year 375 middle school students from the Southern Connecticut region will come together to study the arts at ACES Educational Center for the Arts September 30, 2011 through January 27, 2012. Each workshop day two different schools will come together to collaborate. The schools participating this year are:
- E.C. Adams, Guilford with Conte West Hills, New Haven
- Edgewood School and Worthington Hooker, New Haven
- Nathan Hale, New Haven and Dag Hammarskjold, Wallingford
- ACES Wintergreen Magnet and North Haven Middle School
- Hamden Middle School and Truman, New Haven
- Long River Middle School, Regional District #16 and Betsy Ross Magnet, New Haven
- John S. Martinez, New Haven and Dodd, Cheshire
Words! Action! Theatre! (WAT) provides a multidisciplinary learning experience for aspiring young artists by guiding them to bring the word alive, from process to performance. Students will take intense workshops in Theatre, Visual Art, Movement, and Mask Improvisation.
- In Art, students will use Aboriginal inspired symbolic language as a basis for exploring and inventing symbols to represent important areas of their lives. They will then create their own personal art stories using their inventions.
- In Theatre, students will explore some basic concepts of theatre including Ensemble work, Concentration, Listening, Sensory Awareness, Improvisation, Vocal and Movement Skills Characterization and Story Telling. Dramatization will springboard off of the story The Three Questions by Leo Tolstoy. The exercises and activities will culminate into a mini-performance.
- In Mask Improvisation, students will examine theatre movement through improvisation and exploration with masks, props and fabric.
- In African Drumming, students will learn hand-drumming basics: proper body and hand positioning, techniques for creating drum notes, how to breathe, relax and enjoy the soul of rhythm.
- In Movement, students will examine theatre movement through improvisation and exploration with masks, props and fabric. Students will explore how varying physical and spatial relationships affect their relationship to their partner or the group and how these changes influence the imaginary world they have created.
All art forms will include reflective discussions about the students' exploration and experience.
For further information, contact: Ingrid Schaeffer, (203) 777-5451
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Green, Green Wintergreen
Enhancing Education Through Technology Grants
ACES Wintergreen Interdistrict Magnet School (WIMS) was the recipient of a federal Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) grant for the 2010-2011 school year. This funding allowed the school to acquire the interactive whiteboards, projectors, conferencing equipment and online software packages to help enliven a year-long curriculum focus concerning the environment, sustainability of resources, and renewable energy sources. The school forged partnerships with experts from Yale University, Southern Connecticut State University and Project Learning Tree to develop model lessons and activities.
In every classroom of this K-8 magnet school, students were delving into the issues concerning our natural environment. They prepared and planted raised-bed gardens outside on the school grounds and cared for small indoor, hydroponic gardens in each classroom to compare the success in each form of cultivation. They built and maintained compost bins to nourish the gardens. Recycling projects were developed throughout the school. Bird and Plant Cams were purchased that allowed the faculty and students to observe the plant and animal life surrounding the school. Students created time lapse videos to show plant growth and inventoried the number and types of birds around them.
The new technology allowed teachers to participate in professional development throughout the year and to fully integrate technology into their lessons. The use of online courses for all grades, allowed students to find the resources needed for their study, as well as archive the results of their work. School administrators are very pleased with the significant progress toward the school's goal of integrating technology into teaching and learning. Now that the technology provided by the EETT grant is in place, the faculty is looking forward to continuing the green theme for another year.
For further information, contact: Carol May, (203) 281-9668
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Math Counts: Connecticut Mastery Test Preparation
CT State Department of Education, Interdistrict Cooperative Grants
Math counts is a fun-filled way to help your 5th - 8th grade child do well on the Connecticut Mastery Test. Math Counts offers students from New Haven and suburban communities: an opportunity to strengthen math skills; fun physical education and fitness activities; English language support for English Language Learning students; a chance to meet fellow classmates from their Open Choice school, and a supervised environment for fun.
200 students participate. Applications are considered in the order in which forms are received and adjusted according to the number of Open Choice students served in their home school.
For further information, contact: Lynn Bailey, (203) 498-6843
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Sharing Our Stories: Living and Learning in 21st Century Connecticut
CT State Department of Education, Interdistrict Cooperative Grants
Based on The Neighborhood Story Project from post-Katrina New Orleans, Sharing Our Stories brings students in grades 3 - 6 (ages 8 - 12) from the New Haven region together to research, construct and share the stories of their lives. Focusing on concepts and skills from each content area, this integrated approach to learning will support all students, including English Language Learners, as they investigate and research their neighborhoods and personal histories. Through collaborative learning experiences, students will engage in activities such as interviewing community members, writing personal responses, creating multi-media presentations, and solving relevant inquiry-based science and math problems. Students will learn from and share experiences with one another, and in the process reinforce important language, literacy, numeracy and inquiry concepts and practices.
Sharing Our Stories serves 300 students from the following participating districts: ACES, Ansonia, Cheshire, East Haven, Hamden, Meriden, Middletown, Milford, Naugatuck, New Haven, North Haven, Orange, Regional District #16, Wallingford and Waterbury.
For further information, contact: Leslie Abbatiello, (203) 407-4402
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Teaching American History
United State Department of Education Grant
Since 2005, ACES has been awarded over $5 million as part of the Teaching American History, United States Department of Education federal grant program. ACES Teaching American History projects are rigorous, primary source-centered professional development for educators throughout the region. This program involves extensive collaboration with the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University, the Yale University History Department, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Rhode Island Historical Society.
Following is a list of ACES Teaching American History projects.
2010: This Land is Your Land: American History for Diverse Middle School Classrooms
This was the only TAH grant awarded in Connecticut during this funding cycle. Find out additional information.
2009: With Liberty and Justice for All: American History for Elementary Teachers and Classrooms
2008: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
2005 - 2008: Slavery and Freedom in American Memory
For further information, contact: Joan Hillo, (203) 407-4474
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Finance Education for Middle School Teachers
Council for Economic Education Professional Development Grant
ACES Finance Education for Middle School Teachers project provides in-depth professional development in finance for 20 6th - 8th grade teachers. In turn, participating teachers provide comprehensive education in financial literacy for middle school students in their south central Connecticut classrooms. ACES conducted comprehensive finance and entrepreneurial professional development for fifteen teachers in 2009-2010. Teacher participants in this project acquired high-level knowledge of finance and entrepreneurialism and implemented finance education curricula in their schools. This program was made possible with support from the Council for Economic Education.
For further information: Janine Fiorillo, (203) 407-4404
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Keeping It Real: Teaching with Primary Sources
Library of Congress: Teaching with Primary Sources Grant
In November 2010, ACES received funding to support its Keeping It Real: Teaching with Primary Sources professional development project, a collaboration between ACES and the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale University. In April 2011, ACES Keeping It Real: Teaching with Primary Sources initiative was chosen from among 50 projects operating from Maine to Florida to be featured at the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Eastern Region Conference.
Learn more or for further information, contact: Joan Hillo, (203) 407-4474
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ECA Student Radio Show
Connecticut Council on Culture and Tourism Creative Collaboration Grant
In November 2010, ACES Educational Center for the Arts was awarded this grant to support the implementation of an interdisciplinary radio project with ECA high school students and teaching artist Richard Hill. Broadcasts of this program can be found at www.youthradioct.org.
For further information, contact: Richard Hill, mikata22@aol.com
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