All of SERF's funds come from the community - individuals, businesses and community organizations contribute principally through three vehicles: Our Direct Appeal in the winter, our ACE Award teacher recognition program, and our Annual Spring College Fair.
We continue to strive to provide valuable community services that also allow us to raise funds. This year we will be holding our second annual Spring College Fair.
We also welcome and receive donations from foundations, estates, gifts, and corporate matching programs.
Held on Saturday, March 27, 2010
Over 1000 students and parents attended this year's Spring College Fair at LSRHS helping to make the event an all-around success!
Representatives from 117 colleges and universities, 4 Gap Year programs and 1 professional organization came away impressed with the caliber and interest of our students! We had over 400 families participate and attend the keynote delivered by Marty O'Connell of “Colleges That Change Lives” and the informational seminars.
SERF is proud to present this Spring College Fair as our premier annual community event. The proceeds of the fair will fund grants for innovative curriculum enhancements, technologies and materials for grades K-12. Teachers and administrators rely on theses grants to keep our schools moving forward.
"This fair was so helpful, I wish the fair was around when my first child was looking at schools."
Please Consider Making A Difference and Donate Now!
Thank you to everyone who has contributed generously thus far!
This year, SERF received a record increase in grant applications from the schools to fund a number of diverse projects ranging from literacy curriculum materials, multi-media history materials and cutting-edge technology to music and arts enhancements. Our past grants span a wide range of students needs - curriculum enhancements targeted at the students that need more challenge and also those that have special learning needs. At a time when the school budget is stretched to the max, our educators continue to look for new ways to move the schools forward, and provide the best education for our children in Sudbury. Even when our kids are young, investing in our middle and high school now will soon benefit the elementary students of today.
SERF has funded nearly $270,000 to the classrooms of Sudbury over the past 3 years. Many materials and programs purchased initially through a SERF grant years ago have become deeply woven into the curricula of many classrooms. Read about the more than 40 grants SERF awarded last year, or browse our gallery of pictures to see grants in action in our classrooms.
Together we have made a difference, so let's do it again this year!
Testimonials
SERF Fostering the Development of Great Ideas
By Karen McCarthy, Curriculum Specialist for Science and Social Studies, K-8
Sudbury teachers are full of great ideas. Some of the most effective curriculum developments and instructional materials and techniques have germinated from an individual teacher or a team's great ideas which become district-wide practices that enrich teaching and learning across the grades. The innovation might start with a class engaged in an exciting lesson, a teacher's trip to a local nature center, or two teachers sharing best practices in a meeting. Then that conversation travels down the path of “what if” and these great ideas percolate into a vision. To implement this vision, teachers and administrators apply for a grant which will positively impact student learning.
In the 2008-2009 school year, SERF funded a variety of exciting science related grants. One such project allowed teachers to investigate the development and implementation of “Science Notebooks” in the elementary classroom as a tool for enhancing scientific inquiry and literacy. One teacher from each of the elementary schools, a literacy specialist, and both the science and language arts curriculum coordinators attended a workshop to learn key understandings about science notebooks and how they maximize student learning. Daniel Garrigan - Byerly, a grade 3 teacher at Haynes, is putting his workshop experience to use in his classroom. He points out that “Scientist's notebooks get to the heart of why students need to learn science in school. The focus of teaching and learning can be the question, communication and connection to the science concept. I need to spend far less time 'teaching science' since the kids are actually being scientists. The notebooks provide a structure for focused questioning, written communication, and authentic academic discourse with peers! The science content and vocabulary are natural byproducts if these things are done well. I can't think of a better learning environment.” Science Notebooks are currently being piloted in six classrooms and the work will be shared through the district through these teacher leaders.
Figure-1
(Journal entries from a grade 3 student during set up of a compost experiment in the classroom.)