AEF Newsletter Fall 2011

Amherst Education Foundation
The mission of the Amherst Education Foundation (AEF) is to support Amherst area public schools in providing a challenging and enriching educational experience that maximizes the learning potential of every student and prepares them to succeed in the 21st century.

  President’s Greeting

Greetings AEF Friends!

It’s back-to-school time and that means another busy season of getting to know new friends and greeting familiar faces, returning to traditions and taking advantage of new learning opportunities. What’s true for our children is also true for AEF as we gear up for another full year!

Last year marked a year of many “firsts” for AEF. The Spotlight e-newsletter made its debut as did the Spring Sprint, a wonderful event that was attended by over 100 runners and walkers from around the region. We were delighted to support events like the screening of Race to Nowhere and the recent First Day Celebration on the Town Common. We are also proud to have provided continued grant funding for professional development activities, including a summer institute for training in collaborative practice.

AEF has been in operation since 1994 – that’s 17 years of inspired dedication to excellence in our schools. For the last two years AEF has been chaired by Katie Allan Zobel who has led the organization with vision and a constant smile. Now I am excited to be stepping into the president's role, drawing inspiration from each and every one of our supporters.

Support for AEF comes in many forms. Whether it is the energy

and talents of the nearly three dozen dedicated board and committee members or the generosity of our donors, the commitment and enthusiasm of our AEF supporters inspire all of us. Last year we raised a record breaking $51,000! This would not have been possible without the growing list of friends like Michele and Robert Dufresne of Pioneer Valley Books who contributed $5000 for a matching challenge and, of course, the hundreds of community members who made meaningful contributions throughout the year.

So what does this year hold in store for AEF? This edition of Spotlight highlights the many exciting programs funded by AEF that support our local schools and teachers. We are thrilled to be an active part of this region with its commitment to high-quality education and shared belief in AEF’s mission. We will continue to strive to make good on that trust and commitment through AEF’s community events and grant making.

I look forward to seeing you at AEF events and thank you for your ongoing support!

Erika Zekos
AEF President

AEF Funds Excellence

Amherst Education Foundation is pleased to announce a Request for Proposals for its first round of AEF Excellence Grants. The grants will be awarded in Spring of 2012 for school year 2012/2013 and will address programmatic needs for teams of administrators, teachers and staff from any of the Amherst Regional Public School district schools or programs partnering with any ARPS schools. Allocations Committee chair Sue Cairn says, “AEF’s mission is to enhance the learning potential of every student and to inspire teacher innovation. We are excited to offer this opportunity to support excellence in our schools.”

These grants are the result of an aggressive and successful fundraising campaign during the 2010-2011 school year that culminated in a matching challenge last Spring. Two major donors worked together to offer a dollar for dollar match if AEF could raise $7,000. These two generous gifts, plus the entire fundraising campaign, enabled AEF to meet its fundraising goal for the year which resulted in a record-setting $51,000 total. It’s because of this successful community-based fundraising that AEF will be able to provide funding for two to four $10,000 - $25,000 grants next Spring.

AEF Provides Funds for Summer Teacher Workshop

“In all my years as a public school teacher, I've never had such a strong sense of the whole as I do right now. "K-12" and "vertical alignment" have been more like edu-speak mostly -- I'm so grateful for having been allowed to sit in this system perspective.”
             - A teacher reflects on the summer institute

Thanks to our generous donors, AEF was able to provide $14,700 towards a summer Coaches’ Institute facilitated by the School Reform Initiative. Twenty-four teacher-leaders, coaches, principals, assistant principals and district administrators representing all of the elementary and secondary schools in the ARPS district participated in the three-day institute during June. The institute was led by National Facilitators from the School Reform Initiative, Teri Schrader (Brooklyn, NY) and Frances Hensley (Athens, GA), along with Beth Graham, who is a National Facilitator as well as Amherst’s Director of Curriculum and Instruction.

Participants learned to facilitate, participate, and present their work using various protocols and processes in order to hone the practice of working together in a professional learning community (PLC). They developed shared norms and values; focused on student learning; made their practice public to one another; engaged in reflective dialogue and collaboration and inquired into, analyzed and reflected upon data, including student and teacher work. Participants developed the knowledge, will, skill, perspective, commitment and courage to address the most important dilemmas and questions they have about their practice, in order to support student achievement.

Because the June institute was so successful, the District decided to allocate additional funds to offer a second institute in August, bringing the total number of participants to forty-two. The district is continuing to support this work with regular meetings of participating teachers. Curriculum Director Beth Graham will run these meetings to support teachers who are putting the collaborative principles into practice in their classrooms and schools. In addition, there are staff in each school who are now trained to coach their colleagues in this work.

More participant reflections on the Institute:

“I already knew that the quality of a teacher is the determiner of student learning and achievement, and I now know that teachers do better together, in collaboration.”

“I found these days to be enormously helpful as I think and plan how to move the collaborative work at my school to a deeper, more meaningful level. “

“The more we practiced the protocols the more I found the importance of following them, especially adhering to the time allowed for each step. Forcing one's self to take a designated time period to look at a piece of work helped to provide relevant feedback that otherwise would not have surfaced.”

Donor Profile
Bob & Michele Dufresne

An Interview with our featured donor, Michele Dufresne, of Pioneer Valley Books

AEF: You were an elementary school teacher for many years. Can you tell us about that, and about how you became a book publisher?
Michele: I was a classroom teacher and reading specialist for over twenty years. I did my student teaching at Fort River school and after teaching in other towns, returned to Amherst Public Schools. In 1998, a teacher friend and I started writing some stories to use with the children we were teaching. We started with ten little books illustrated with black and white photos of family and friends. Pioneer Valley Books was born. Pioneer Valley Books now has over 400 stories with both color photographs and illustration all written for readers ranging from 5 to 8 years old.

AEF: Why do you value public education?
Michele: All children deserve a great education, regardless of background, and strong public schools can make that a reality.

AEF: Why did you choose to make a donation to AEF?
Michele: I feel blessed that we have been so successful and feel it is important to give back to the community. I think AEF plays an important role in providing teachers with both professional development and resources to help them do interesting and innovative things to improve education for their students. We hope our donation to AEF will be used creatively by teachers to help children learning to read.

For the full interview, visit our website.

Interested in being a part of AEF?

• Join us for an event.
• Make a contribution to our efforts.
• Connect us to your friends or colleagues.
• Like us on Facebook
• Volunteer your time.

Whatever you choose, your participation will lend essential support to our local schools.