More than 50 teachers and principals gathered on Dec. 2 at the Altadena Town & Country Club to receive grants for a variety of school and classroom uses from books to climbing walls. Awards range from $300 to $5,000 and will benefit thousands of children in the Pasadena Unified School District.

PEF's Teacher and All School Grants program, its flagship program now in its 28 year, is a vital resource for teachers and principals to fund equipment and instructional materials.

"The Dance Program at Pasadena High School would not be possible without the support of the Pasadena Educational Foundation," said Jessica Cameron, a PHS teacher who started the dance program there three years ago.

Funds are provided with major support from Girardi & Keese, the Parsons Foundation, and the Helen & Will Webster Foundation, as well as gifts from individuals and businesses.

Photos: (top) Blair IB Magnet teachers; (middle) Blair teacher Chris Akel and PEF Board President George Brumder; (bottom) teachers Laureen Nadhira-Nayo and Marlene Harris. 

Before Issaic Gates attended the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy last summer, he had no experience with robotics. Now the McKinley School teacher is a champion of the teaching tool that engages his students in math, programming, science, project management, teamwork, and problem solving.
 
Gates spent a week in Pittsburgh with educators from around the country learning the ins and outs of robotics. "It was the best professional development that I've ever attended," say Gates, who now teaches the first-year robotics class as a special elective to 28 McKinley sixth and seventh graders.

Gates is most amazed by the way his students want to learn math so that they can program basic robot behaviors using motors and rotation, sound, light, touch and ultrasonic sensors. Although robotics can involve complicated algorithms, students are now learning simple code and programming, which is the foundation of the course. The students were also thrilled to actually build the robot using LEGOS MINDSTORMS.

Robotics is also being taught to 39 eighth-graders at Eliot Middle School. The class curriculum, teacher training, robots and materials were made possible through a donation from the Pasadena Educational Foundation.


Photos: (top) Teacher Issaic Gates guides student; (bottom) Robotics team members Tyra Carter and Richard Runkle-Edens.

A group of parents have banded with the goal to have every family in the PUSD be part of the new PEF group FANSS -- Families and Neighbors Supporting Schools.

Become a member of PEF FANSS with a single donation of any size. All donations are tax deductible.

Join now!

TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGE MATCHING DONATION
FANSS has launched a new Technology Challenge initiative to raise much-needed technology funds for PUSD schools. A local family has provided $100,000 in matching funds. Each dollar donated to PEF as a FANSS member will be matched by a gift to our schools for technology. Feel free to designate your child's school. We have until Feb. 1, 2010, to reach our goal to receive the matching funds.

Please help us reach our goal by donating today! Click here to donate!

Visit  www.pasedfoundation.org to find more details on all of PEF's events and programs. Donate today to support our public schools. Please forward this email to friends and family!

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