Grants Provide New Opportunites for Paramus Educators

A number of grants have presented Paramus teachers with the chance to explore educational opportunities in science, mathematics and physical education.

Superintendent of Schools Ken Rota announced Tuesday the district is the recipient of the Wipro Science Education Fellowship, the Creative University-School Partnerships and the Presidential Youth Fitness Program.

"Although different in scope and content, the grants all share the same primary goal to provide Paramus teachers with a cutting-edge professional development and resources to enable them to continue to educate our students in 21st century skills."

West Brook Middle School is one of the first schools in the nation to receive support  to implement the Presidential Youth Fitness Program, according to Rota.

Launched last September the national program promotes fitness and physical activity for the improved health of America's youth amining to provide physical active and fit lifestyle.

West Brook will receive a 3-year site license for Fitnessgram, a fitness assessment and reporting program for youth, which includes a variet of health-related physical fitness test that assess aerobic capacity; muscular strength, muscular endurance and flexibility and body composition.

Through the Creative University-School Partnerships grant, eight middle school teachers have been selected to participate in one of two math programs sponored by the state Department of Education and Montclair State University.

Teachers can take the Mathematics Summer Institute Pathway, an intensive two-week summer institute foucsed on the contest shifts and pedogogy required by new common core standards which would be followed by support throughout the school year.

Teachers can instead take the Teaching Middle Grades Mathematics Certificate Pathways where they would enroll in a one 3-credit content course each semester for 5 courses and engagein classroom research related to common core standards for mathematics.

The Wipro Science Education Fellowship is for four science teachers, two at the high school and two at the middle school, who will work with other teachers from north Jersey and other states to develop active, hands-on and reflective institutional practices in science. They will also set out to improve teacher quality by developing participants as teacher leaders within their districts.