 |
|
|
||
|
Nonprofit group springs surprises By Samiha Khanna, Staff Writer DURHAM - With sweepstakes-style fanfare, three teachers were bombarded Tuesday with balloons and big winnings -- hundreds of dollars to use on classroom projects. The Durham Public Education Network, a nonprofit group, traveled to Lakewood, Eastway and Bethesda elementary schools to surprise teachers with grants ranging from $300 to $1,200. Standing in for Ed McMahon was Wool E. Bull, the fuzzy mascot for the Durham Bulls baseball team. When the plush bull and his entourage entered her classroom at Lakewood, teacher Kyra Raphaelidis stopped talking and stared at all the strangers in her classroom. She quickly caught on and cradled a framed certificate as if it were an Academy Award. She elicited laughs with a short speech: "I'd like to thank my mother," she said. Raphaelidis, who teaches English as a Second Language, and three colleagues were awarded $1,200 so they could buy a laptop computer with digital video editing software. The team will use the computer to create DVDs welcoming new students and families to the school, to educate immigrant families on how schools operate in Durham, and to create historical re-enactments and plays, and other student-run projects. Many of the projects will focus on students learning English at Lakewood -- nearly 50 percent. The software also will be used for the students who produce a news show every morning on Lakewood's internal TV network, WLES. Often, coordinator and teacher Jeni Foote is stealing moments at home, working on her personal computer to put videos together for the show. "Teachers are always spending their own money for the kids," said Deborah Horvitz, director of the Durham Public Education Network. Christina Bohanek, an ESL teacher at Eastway, will use her $434 award to buy LeapFrog-brand reading materials for students learning English. At Bethesda, teacher Ann Winer needed $1,193.89 to start a math competition to be held in May. Winer's principal had to set up a fake meeting to surprise her, Horvitz said. Staff writer Samiha Khanna can be reached at 956-468 or skhanna@newsobserver.com. |
||||
|
|
||||