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College Specialist Digs in at SHS

L ast summer, Summit High School hired a College Specialist, AlisonGrill, following approval of a grant from SEF for the position. Herresponsibilities in the Guidance and Counseling Department are

two-fold—support the counselors as they guide families through thecollege selection process, and market SHS to admissions officers,developing relationships with a broad range of colleges.

So, what exactly does aCollege Specialist do? Firstof all, Grill revamped all ofthe college process mater -ials for students and createdthe very useful, “Tips forCom pleting the CommonApp lication”. For seniors,she’s conducted applicationsup port work shops, andworked with students to

prepare for interviews. She’s also offered workshops for juniors onwriting the college essay/supplements. Grill is joining counselors intheir individual meetings with junior families—developing lists ofcolleges and testing timelines, and connecting students toworkshops and summer programs. Most importantly, she is linkingunder rep resented populations at SHS to scholarship, internship, andenrichment opportunities on college campuses.

For teachers, she is planning professional development trainingon writing the best letters of recommendation for students. Grill hasspoken at parent meetings about the college application process,and she’s reaching out to peer institutions to share best practices.

With many early decision and early action college decisionscomplete, Grill has been busy reaching out to college admissionsreps to review results for SHS students. Part of her responsibilityincludes meeting with every college rep who visits SHS to greetstudents. And campus tours in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Ohioare on tap for this spring.

Finally, in conjunction with the district office, Grill is developing acollege and career database to connect students to careershadowing, internships, and/or lectures available within the Summitcommunity.

Grill is excited to be part of the staff at SHS and has alreadyaccomplished quite a bit. She explains, “My personal philosophy oncollege counseling is about finding the best ‘fit’ for students.” It sounds like Alison Grill ‘fits’ in wonderfully at SHS!

Students and parents at Lawton C. Johnson Summit MiddleSchool turned out in force the evening of Monday,October 28, 2013, to meet R.J. Palacio, author of the NY

Times bestseller, Wonder. The visit was funded by an SEF grant.Wonder was required reading for all students, and tells the storyof August Pullman, a 12 year-old boy born with serious facialdeformities. The book’s theme, ‘Choose Kind’, has resonatedwith children and adults around the country since its debut inFebruary 2012.

The author spoke movingly of an experience outside an icecream shop six years ago that served as the inspiration for thenovel. Finding herself sitting next to a girl with differencessimilar to August, Ms. Palacio tried to move away quickly toprevent her young son from being frightened. In her haste, shecaused a scene and afterwards regretted and obsessed over it.What bothered her most was that she missed the opportunityto use it as a teaching moment. Thus the story of AugustPullman was born. The author hopes it will inspire empathy toall those who read it.

During the question and answer period, students eagerlyengaged with Ms. Palacio. Students wanted to know who the inspiration was for certain characters,why some chapters were in lower case onlyand why some character perspectives weremissing. After wards, while waiting in line tohave his book signed, Jack Quinn, sixthgrader at LCJSMS, was asked what hethought of the book. ”I thought it wasgreat! I have already read it three times!“

Creating Possible

Winter 2014

A Day of Wonder

LCJSMS librarians Megan Hartley (left) and Beth Thomas (right) welcome author R.J. Palacio

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Q uintessence, SHS’s Art and Literary Magazine, has beenhonored with two prestigious awards for its 2012-13issue by the American Scholastic Press Association. The

magazine received First Place with Special Merit. This award wasgiven to only 15 schools in the country within the studentenrollment range of SHS. Quintessence was also honored among23 schools nationally as Most Outstanding Literary-Art Magazine.

Comments from the judges were,“Quintessence is an amazing pub -lication! You have mastered not only the elements of a good pub li ca -tion, but you have also publishedexcellent works from your schoolpopulation. Quin tessence is a modelfor those up-and-coming magazinesand an inspir ation for those mag -azines that haven’t quite aced thenecessary skills.”

Quintessence is published by astu dent editorial team each spring.Ad viser Mr. Michael Magdalenski,said, “I am so proud of our staff for

their year-long commitment to show case the incredible artisticand written talent of the SHS community.”

At Lawton C. Johnson SummitMiddle School (LCJSMS), studentsalso meet monthly after school todiscuss and share their creativeworks for INSPIRE Magazine, anannual literary and art publication.The magazine’s all digital publi -cation will continue to serve as arepresentation of the LCJSMS com -munity’s art and writing, as well asprovide a creative extra-curricularopportunity for those students inneed of an outlet for self-expression.

Ms. Ashley Gallagher is the advisor of INSPIRE Magazine. She explains, “It has been such an exciting experience estab -lishing the INSPIRE Magazine as an outlet for all of the wonderfullycreative work done by students and faculty here at LCJSMS. Withthe addition of ‘going digital’ this year, INSPIRE Magazine is nowable to accept almost any kind of creative work, extendingbeyond just text and images to include interactive componentssuch as videos and music.”

Seventh grader Stefanie Castillo adds, “I like INSPIRE becauseyou can put anything out there like drawings, poems, and videos. No one will judge you. You just get to show what youhave been working on and then share it with the Summit community.“ To view the LCJSMS INSPIRE Magazine, go tohttp://www.fc.summit.k12.nj.us/~agallagher/FOV2-0011BBEA/.

SEF is pleased to promote creative writing and the arts throughgrants for both Quintessence and INSPIRE.

SEF Continues to Fund Literary Magazines

Davohn Abrams and Kyle Want

Reading & Math —A Vital Combination

Connecting literacy to math is an effective tool to helpstudents understand various math concepts and developproblem solving techniques. Math picture books, pur -

chased through a grant from SEF, are supporting the NJ ModelMath Curriculum, as well as the Common Core Standards.

Ms. Laura Madden, a second grade teacher at WashingtonSchool, is using these new books in her classroom each day.Working in small groups, students read a book and then eithercomplete an activity, have a math discussion, or write a response.

For example, during class students read the book SpunkyMonkeys on Parade, where they practiced counting by twos,threes, and fours as they followed a group of exuberant monkeysparading down the street. After completing the book, studentsexplained how they would line up their parade of monkeys if theyhad 21 monkeys and needed to have an equal number in eachrow. They showed their work using pictures, words and numbers,demonstrating an early understanding of multiplication.

“When we use picture books to support math lessons, studentsare not only excited to learn math in a different way, but they alsocome to associate the feel-good joy of reading with math,”explains Ms. Madden. She adds, “We have come a long way fromgiving students long pages of isolated computation problems. Ourclassroom teaching focuses on word problems and math incontext. The mathematical problems and solutions that childrenencounter in picture books are deeper and more nuanced thanmost of the word problems they encounter.”

Student responses to the books have been enthusiastic. Secondgraders Emma Shiles and Caitlin Ko commented, “We liked 100Hungry Ants because the ants wanted to get to the picnic becausethey were hungry. It taught us how you can group 100 by 5’s,10’s, 20’s. When the ants made an array they were able to get tothe picnic faster.”

Classmate Cami Carino added, “My favorite book is MonsterMusical Chairs. It always took one monster away from the gamelike doing subtraction.“

Students Jack Bronikowski and Mason Vance explained, “Ourfavorite math book has to be Amanda Bean’s Amazing Dream. Weliked it because it gives you easy ways to solve hard mathproblems. For example, if you are multiplying by 2 you just needto count by 2’s. Amanda would picture sheep in her head becausedrawing a picture in math helps you to solve a problem.”

Math problems have never been this much fun!

Winter 2014

SEF Board of Trustees:Laura Schaffer, PresidentJulie Kimmel, Executive VPJane Murphy, SecretaryBeth Sharpe, TreasurerGene Bebout Yon Cho Amy D’Andrea Amy DiSibio Jim Engle Amanda GreenblattLeah Griffith Christine Hayward Julie KeenanBeth LittleIrene MurdockChristine MurrayNicole PlumboPaul RissmanDiana Sajer Loreli Stochaj Corey Walsh Katherine Kalin, Board of Ed. Rep

SEF Liaisons 2013/14Primary Centers:

Leslie GueciDenise OsmulskiSuzanne Shire

Brayton:Jennifer AndersonVictoria CarriganAimee Messer

Franklin:Katie DarcyAmy Wise

Jefferson:Kathy ClarkMeme Harris

Lincoln-Hubbard:Anita BobbaDebbie ChangKristin Lumelleau

Washington:Debbie BronikowskiKelly IacovelliKey Michel

LCJSMS:Irene EspositoSonia TimoneyLori White

SHS:Lori DonohueLori Leiter

Fall Grants Approved

Thanks to the generous support of somany Summit families, SEF was able to approve 43 grants in the fall ’13cycle, totaling over $222,000.

Sample grants include:

• Family Science, Math andTechnology at all 5 ElementarySchools, $15,485

• Extended Day Program at all 5Elementary Schools, $51,047

• Stand Up Desks Pilot Program atBrayton, $7,342

• Lego Robotics Kits at Franklin, $4,544

• After School Club materials atJefferson, $2,449

• Science Content Learning Centers at Lincoln-Hubbard, $497

• Math Stations at Washington, $2,557

• Before and After School WritingCenter at LCJSMS, $5,881

• 21st Century Classroom Verb tables and Node chairs for theLibrary Media Center and a MathClassroom at LCJSMS, $85,718

• Odyssey of the Mind Pilot Program at LCJSMS, $2,568

• Online Graphics and EngineeringDesign Class at SHS, $6,526

• Turned Around Tales from the Top of the Hill, author visit and materials for classes to self-publish books at SHS, $3,105

SEF Grants Funding2012-13 SCHOOL YEAR

For a complete listing of grants, go to

sefnj.org87 grants funded$612,799 funded from annual campaign$117,506 funded from endowment

for a total of $730,305

$298,846

$1,632

$1,966

$6,842

$8,253

$11,881

$32,225

$33,035

$46,092$187,895$101,638

President’s Message

I continue to be amazed by the outstanding community thatcenters around Summit's wonderfully diverse public schools.During the 2012-13 school year, more than 650 families made

contributions to both our Annual and Endowment Funds, en -abling SEF to award 87 grants totaling $730,000 to support allacademic areas at all nine schools. Some SEF grants pay forprograms that impact an entire grade while others affect a singleschool. Some grants provide cutting-edge technology whileothers fund classroom books. Some grants reach our highestacademic achievers while others support our struggling learners.I am so proud that SEF truly is ”Creating Possible.“

This fall, over 150 donors gathered for our annual PartnersNight, an event to thank our supporters and showcase SEFgrants. Guests were wowed by an interpretive duo per -formance by SHS seniors Greg Archer and Allison Scott, part ofthe forensics and debate program that has received numerousSEF grants as well as national recognition. Other grantshighlighted or on display were 21st century classroom workspaces at LCJSMS, Spark student response systems, LEGOmachine sets, literary magazines from SHS and LCJSMS, andthe new College Specialist guidance counselor at SHS.

Because of the generosity of our donors, SEF continues to offertremendous support for outstanding and innovative programs inour schools. So many of Summit's teachers are truly inspirededucators, and I can't think of a better investment than in themand in our children who learn from them.

It is an exciting time to be part of SEF and we welcome yourinvolvement.

Laura Schaffer, President

iPads Arrive at LCJSMS

Thanks to an SEF pilot grant, the

district has pur chased iPads for every

6th grader for use both at school and

at home. As part of an effort to make

classrooms more student-centered, the

devices will be used in class to access

special ized software, collaboration

tools, research resources and learning

manipulatives. Students will also

be able to add apps to create a

personalized toolset that suits their

style of learning. Students received

their personal iPads in January.

Please support public education in Summit by donating online atsefnj.org or sending this coupon, along with your check toSummit Educational FoundationP.O. Box 268, Summit, N.J. 07902-0268

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