1. Award of Excellence 

Pam Raeder, Language Arts teacher at Watertown Middle School, received an Educational Excellence grant from SDAMLE to help develop the “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” theme during advisory in the 08-09 school year. The main objective for the grant is to help teach the whole child. In Pam’s grant she said, “Students need to know that being kind to each other and treating everyone with dignity and respect is the most important lesson to learn in the middle school. Through our theme, students will realize that what they often think is being funny, is really hurting other students.” The grant money will be used to purchase materials for Tuesday and Wednesday advisory projects promoting this theme.

 2. Award of Excellence

 Brandon Valley’s 7^th grade English and reading teacher, Cindy Feyereisen, received SDAMLE’s Award of Excellence grant for a proposed year long “Survivor” program for the 7^th grade students at Brandon Valley. This spin-off of the competitive television show will include the following:

1. Large group teambuilding activities quarterly and small group teambuilding activities monthly and weekly.
2. Developing a point system for involvement/performance in “challenges”, and “deductions” for disrespectful behavior.
3. Creating an immunity idol to be awarded monthly by the “tribal council”.
4. Mini lessons and activities to aid in implementing the Character Counts traits.

 Cindy stated in her application that a program that addresses and works with students to develop the essential skills of responsibility, respect, time management, organization, teamwork, etc., but can still be viewed as something enjoyable, could make a huge impact on many students.