Strafford News

Seacoast Educational Endowment for Dover (“SEED”), a nonprofit organization dedicated to lifting academic excellence in Dover public schools, recently awarded $26,000 in education initiatives to Dover educators.

Dover Middle School was the biggest winner with three accepted proposals valued at $17,300. This session provided for the largest grant in Dover Middle School history-- a pilot program proposed by Lisa Dillingham and Larissa Ragazzo to allow for flexible seating choices for a portion of the fifth and sixth grades (about 170 students). The initial investment of $15,000 will be used to purchase ball chairs, stools, standing desks, and fidget footrests. Giving students ownership of their learning environment can increase engagement, focus, and learning. If the pilot is successful, it could lead to an additional $50,000 to provide the same seating choices for the entire fifth and sixth grades.

Fellow DMS teacher, Joan Breault, was given $1,300 to have the NH Teen Institute conduct a one-day workshop to train as many as 100 students on the Institute’s Thriving in Middle School program. The curriculum provides dynamic, experiential training on substance abuse prevention and teaches the students how to make their school and community a healthier, safer, and more positive place.

The third grant for DMS was for the Science Faculty Team of Lisa Dillingham, Denise Copley, and Holly Corbin to purchase special eclipse glasses to allow the entire school population to experience the total solar eclipse, a rare phenomenon expected in April of 2024. Further, the goal is for all sixth-grade teachers to create a cross-curricular student reflection that incorporates writing, art, math, geography, and social impacts.

Research affirms the positive correlation between the number of books in the home and an increase in student test scores. At Dover High School, Language Arts Teacher Lesley Hocking was presented with repeat funding for her wildly successful literacy initiative that provides a free book of choice to all incoming freshmen. This effort allows students to select a book that aligns with their reading level and interests during the first semester of their high school career without being tied to grades. An effort to create a love of literacy.

At Woodman Park School, kindergarten teacher Michelle Zitta was approved for $3,200 of funding to purchase high-quality, durable equipment to further guided play instruction in the classroom. These materials will allow all children, especially neurodiverse learners, to access grade-level material in developmentally appropriate ways.

Not all students are capable of sitting and listening throughout the school day. The final accepted proposal for the spring session was given to Woodman Park School’s (“WPS”) Special Education Team of Katie Gorski, Erin Meserve, Brielle Tryggestad, and Stephanie McKenney to complement prior SEED funding, which provided professional development to the WPS staff on the Zones of Regulation (“Zones”) and created a sensory room for students to access sensory tools.

The Zones is a systematic, cognitive-behavioral approach that teaches students how to regulate feelings, energy, and sensory needs. Using the Zones approach and accessing tools, students acquire strategies to be better listeners, learners, and active participants in the learning environment. With more teachers implementing the Zones, more students are accessing the tools. SEED approved $2,500 to purchase additional self-regulation tools to equip all classrooms with sensory tools such as bean bags, water beads, noise-canceling headphones, cube space, kinetic sand, fidget tools, wiggle seats, exercise balls, and therabands for chairs.

SEED funds all learning proposals through community giving and its annual fundraiser, held this past April, which raised $20,000. The hard-working board of directors and committee volunteers continues to deliver on SEED’s mission to promote 21st-century skills by providing Dover educators access to tools, training, and curriculum not otherwise available through traditional school budgets. To learn more about SEED, please visit http://www.DoverSEED.org.

Original source can be found here.