MS | Patenaude & HS | Wilkins

This grant was to sponsor Ms. Patenaude's and Mr. Wilkins' attendance at the National Council of Teachers of English convention in November.

HS | Adams

This grant's goal was to find another means of examining an author's use of literary techniques in a manner that offers options that allows for student choice. Coupled with the standard dystopian novels of the unit, 1984 and Brave New World, this text, V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, will aid students to examine the key components to the creation and administration of these broken societies and allow for reflection on their own civic awareness and research into their own local, state, and federal governments. Additionally, the graphic novel provides an additional means for students to access the curriculum and work towards meeting the Author Craft and Structure component of the Reading Literature Standards.

HS | Wilkins

GDEF provided class sets of the book “Speak” for the piloting of two exciting new classes in 19-20. Open Honors English 9 is an unleveled ELA class that gives every student access to a rich and challenging curriculum while offering those students who wish to challenge themselves further in both depth and breadth the opportunity to take the class for Honors credit. The Literacy Workshop is a course designed to offer support in essential and fundamental areas of reading and writing for those students who need more focused attention in order to meet standards at their grade level. Both of these classes have developed out of district Universal Design for Learning initiatives, oriented toward providing and supporting access to the full curriculum for all students.

“Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson is one of the most taught books in high schools across the U.S.now. With a high school freshman female protagonist, a plot full of relatable and contemporary subject matter, and a high level of accessibility and engagement for young readers,” Speak” is the perfect way to have students explore what voice is and how and why to use it.

All | Leonard

The Groton-Dunstable Special Education Parent Advisory Council is planning a screening of the award-winning film Intelligent Lives by Dan Habib. Dan Habib is a filmmaker at the Institute on Disability at UNH and has won awards for multiple documentary films. The film explores the lives of three young adults with Intellectual Disabilities, following them as they navigate the transitions between high school, college, and the workforce. Each of their stories serves as a powerful reminder that limiting our expectations based on intelligence scores is a big mistake. The film is narrated by Oscar-winning actor Chris Cooper whose son was born with cerebral palsy.

HS | Cook & Black

This grant is to pilot a computer-assisted reading program called Reading Plus.  Ms. Cook and Ms. Black want to see if this program will help improve reading comprehension and reading rate for struggling readers. The program is adaptive, so it learns and changes based on each student's progress. It is also designed to meet the interests of HS students.

FR | Johnson

This grant helped to create a physical space that meets the needs of all of Ms. Johnson's learners!  She wants to promote inclusion, small group instruction, universally-designed instruction, a classroom culture that fosters responsible and independent thinkers, social-emotional learning, community-building, academic and social-emotional successes for the whole child using resources that work for them.  

SU | Wynn

GDEF has approved Sue Wynn’s request for a mini-grant to fund a 24-lecture course offered through Great Courses called “Ancient Civilizations of North America”. This will supplement and support the amazing work she is doing to fully implement the new 2018 History and Social Studies Frameworks.

HS | Reynolds

This grant provided funding for 4 in-school screenings and a copy to keep of the film: Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz. In light of an increasingly contentious political climate, rising anti-Semitic crime rates that continue to break records in Massachusetts for two years running it is important that we equip our future leaders with both inspiring messages and reliable indicators from the past. This film does both, aligning with the district, high school, and GDEF mission statements seamlessly.

FR | Cahill

The goal of this project is to introduce snow-shoeing as a winter activity and alternative to the playground in winter months. 

SU | Jankowski & Wynn

This grant is for a 30-minute program using high-quality video conferencing (Zoom) to bring students from all over the world to the Ashfall Fossil Beds. In the fall of 2019, GDRSD adopted Mystery Science as the primary science curriculum for grade 4. The anchor phenomenon for the Rock Cycle and Earth’s Processes unit is the skeletons
found at the Ashfall Fossil Beds located in Nebraska. Connecting curriculum to real-life examples heightens student engagement. Students loved the mysteries of this unit and were excited to uncover clues that resulted in them understanding what happened to the baby rhinos and other animals uncovered at the Ashfall Fossil Beds. This virtual field trip is the perfect culminating activity to bring the mystery to life.

HS | Butler

This grant supported professional development for ELA and history faculty run by ThinkerAnalytix.  ThinkerAnalytix uses argument maps to examine and discuss controversial ethical questions in fields such as politics, biology and computer science. TA also develops practical strategies to implement materials for classrooms.

HS | Rocheleau

This sponsorship for Robotomies's, Groton-Dunstable's FIRST Robotics team, participation in the FIRST competition. The Robotomies goal is to design and build a robot capable of competing in our
two regularly scheduled competitions well enough to qualify for district championships again

SU | Winn

Magician Chris Herrick virtually taught 56 students magic tricks and the math behind the tricks.   Chris included tricks where students could use math to fool their audience into believing that they can read minds! 

FR | Taylor

This grant paid for Mad Science of North Boston's "Secret Agent Lab" program.  This program and was performed via Zoom across  5 kindergarten classrooms.

FR | Taylor Lanctot

Via Zoom, students we able to experience an up close and virtual learning experience with exotic animals!