Updates

 On a cold Saturday morning in January, the AHS cafeteria was full of warmth as teachers, students, and families gathered for the Arlington Education Foundation’s annual Innovation Showcase. Through interactive presentations, conversations with teachers, performances and games, the Arlington community learned about the many exciting initiatives and experiences AEF supports through its grant process.

Whether demonstrating the new fine motor tools for preschool students or discussing professional learning experiences in Antarctica and Montana, the excitement of participants was clear.

“When we can expand our own horizons, and attend workshops or seminars, we bring that back in our classrooms, and it’s so valuable,” said Heather Mahoney, a Gibbs Language Arts teacher who attended a Montana Writing retreat in 2025 with support from AEF and presented at the showcase.

The showcase highlighted the five types of grants the foundation offers: District Investment and Development & Expansion (for schools and the district); Innovation Grants (for educators); Continuing Scholars (for educators); and Clubs (for students).

The Club Grants, which provide up to $350 for established student groups at Arlington High School, are a new AEF initiative. Leaders of the Anime, Ping Pong, Zoo Crew, and Reading Buddies clubs were all on hand to discuss their activities and the impact of their grant; Ping Pong Club also had a table set up to teach the game to anyone interested.

AHS senior Manish Kumar, a Ping Pong Club leader, said the grant ensures students can attend local ping-pong tournaments without regard to financial means.

“If you want to try the sport and be interested in it, you can,” said Kumar. “You can also take it more seriously and go to tournaments and join the team.”
When not visiting booths, showcase guests enjoyed a scavenger hunt and performances by AHS musical groups. Local businesses including Del’s Lemonade, Book Rack, Andrina’s Pizzeria, Wegmans, Quebrada Baking Co., Cookie Time, Butternut Bakehouse, Above and Beyond Pet Services, Henry Bear’s Park, and Happy Camper enhanced the morning with generous raffle-prize donations.
“It was exciting to meet so many of our grant recipients and hear from them directly about the impact they’re having in our schools,” said Lauren Hague, AEF’s co-president. “We’re already looking forward to next year.”

When Anoushka Shesh was in kindergarten, she struggled to learn how to read. She had fallen behind, and to help, her mother brought her to their local library in Illinois, where Illinois State University students volunteered each week to read with younger kids and work on early literacy skills.

Ten years later, as a freshman at Arlington High School, Shesh recalled just how meaningful that experience was. She shared it with friend and fellow classmate Maya Alajaji, and the pair decided to try launching a similar program in Arlington. “We knew that with Covid, a lot of kids were feeling less comfortable with reading,” Shesh said. They also saw the initiative as a way to build a bridge between two different groups of students who might not otherwise have a reason to connect with each other. She and Alajaji approached Robbins Library with their idea, and Reading Buddies was born in the winter of 2024.

Now in their junior year at AHS, Shesh and Alajaji continue to grow and expand the program. Each week, an active network of roughly 40 AHS students volunteer to meet with elementary age students during drop-in sessions on multiple days at Robbins Library to practice reading skills. And last spring, with support from a $300 Arlington Education Foundation Club Grant, Reading Buddies held its first Spring into Reading event at the high school, hosting 40-50 preschool and elementary students and their families for an afternoon of read-alouds, face painting, book-themed raffles and other fun activities to encourage literacy.

“We wanted it to be something that people in Arlington could come together for,” Alajaji said. The event was so successful that Reading Buddies has held two more similar events this school year — a Fall into Reading event and a second annual Spring into Reading this spring. This year, they incorporated a book drive/sale to help raise funds to donate to Cradle to Crayons.

“We created little hand puppets that the kids could decorate, and we bought puzzle pieces that the kids could draw on that we want to assemble into a big mural,” Alajaji said. “All of the interactive stations and craft ideas really worked out, and kids seemed to enjoy them,” Shesh added.

The program has been a win for AHS students, who receive volunteer hours to satisfy both school and National Honor Society requirements. But seeing the lasting impact on the younger students they work with has been the most rewarding, Shesh and Alajaji said. “It builds that meaningful connection between a high schooler and a kid, seeing them every week,” Shesh said. “On Wednesdays, we now have a preschool that comes in because they know specifically that Reading Buddies is there on Wednesdays. The volunteers split off to read to groups of them. They are very cute.”

They are grateful to AEF for its support. The AEF Club Grant provided a springboard to expand their program in a way they might not otherwise have been able to, Shesh and Alajaji said. The process of applying for the grant helped them to refine and organize their plans because they had to lay out exactly how they would spend the money, Shesh said. Later, as they were launching the event, they would refer back to their grant application to remind themselves of those specific plans.

“It really empowers clubs to think outside of the box, and allows them to host events like Spring into Reading that might require more funds that students don’t usually have access to,” Alajaji said, adding that the grant “allows students to be creative and help their ideas come to life, without the help of adults, which teaches a lot of independence.”

Next year, Alajaji and Shesh will be seniors and they are already making plans to ensure that Reading Buddies continues past their tenure at the high school. They’ve identified two younger AHS students who have been consistent participants and who are committed to shadowing Shesh and Alajaji over the next year, with the hopes of becoming the new leaders once Shesh and Alajaji graduate.

Winter coat too small? Boots don’t fit? Or maybe the backpack your child started school with in September has been through the ringer this year, and needs to be replaced? A visit to the Spy Ponders Threads closet may be in order.

Created around the idea that students can better focus on learning if they have the supplies they need, Spy Ponders Threads provides Arlington families with access to free clothing, outerwear, shoes, backpacks, water bottles, toiletries and other essentials. This year, thanks to a $20,000 Development & Expansion grant from Arlington Education Foundation, Spy Ponders Threads has expanded districtwide to include a centralized closet at the APS Welcome & Resource Center at Arlington High School, along with three additional satellite closets at Ottoson Middle School, Gibbs and Thompson Elementary School.

Families, students and APS staff are all eligible to shop the Spy Ponders Threads closets. Available items include black pants for school concert performances, athletic wear for gym classes, menstrual supplies and dress shirts and slacks for job interviews. Last fall alone, Spy Ponders Threads distributed more than 350 bags of clothing, 750 coats, 92 pairs of shoes, 46 bags of school supplies and over 175 bags of toiletries to more than 700 visitors.

“This is an initiative that is supporting our community,” says Rachel Oliveri, Sustainability Project Manager for APS. “We’re so grateful to the Arlington Education Foundation for supporting us.”

Spy Ponders Threads also provides families with a way to help each other and give back to their community. Families are encouraged to donate gently used and new clothing, coats, shoes and other items in good condition. APS maintains an active donation list on its website. A team of volunteers sorts the donations and readies them for distribution. The Spy Ponds Threads closet at the APS Welcome & Resource Center is open Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for visitors to stop by.

As a sixth grade ELA teacher at the Gibbs School, Heather Mahoney knows it can be challenging for students to share their writing with others. “It’s a really vulnerable position to be in,” she said. 

To better understand her students’ experience, Mahoney chose to put herself in their shoes during summer 2025. With support from the Arlington Education Foundation, she attended an intensive writing workshop in Sweet Grass County, Mont., which offered both an immersive learning experience for her and new ideas for her classroom. 

“It was so valuable to be on the other side of the experience,” said Mahoney, who has taught in Arlington since 2013. “It’s really hard to be a middle-schooler, especially if someone is trying to make you participate in a certain way, and find your voice in a public way, and so I wanted to have that experience myself.”

The weeklong workshop focused on the adult participants’ own writing as well as the poetry of Mary Oliver, and emphasized the need for both rigor and community among writers. Mahoney said she has brought those paired concepts —  rigor and community — back to her own classroom. Because the relationship students have with each other, and with her, affects their willingness to share their work and their ability to hear criticism of it, a rigorous approach to reading and writing requires a strong community culture. 

“We have very short classes of 46 minutes, so we have to be very careful at Gibbs about what we’re putting time toward,” she said, adding that “Having the framework of community and rigor gives me a good framework.” 

 The summer experience also left Mahoney feeling renewed and excited for the school year to come. “So much of teaching is personal, and for teachers, our ability to teach well is limited by our own horizons,” she said. “When we can expand our own horizons, and attend workshops or seminars, we bring that back in our classrooms, and it’s so valuable to have a more expansive understanding.”

Mahoney is among dozens of teachers from across Arlington Public Schools who have received Continuing Scholar Awards grants from AEF. These grants allow teachers and staff members to receive up to $2,500 for personal and professional enrichment experiences that, in turn, benefit Arlington students.

After Arlington High School students make the climb to Michael Sandler’s 5th floor classroom after lunch, they are confronted by a chart comparing Facebook users’ engagement with fake news to their engagement with real news. 

“Which one is winning?” Sandler asks, gesturing at the smart board. “Which kind of news gets the most likes and shares?” 

“The fake,” says a student in the Psychology and Human Behavior class. Others, reading the graph, nod in agreement. 

“Thanks to AEF, I was able to spend time in an environment where everybody is interested in psychology and learn from people whose work I’d only read about,” Sandler says. “The breadth of expertise at the event was amazing. It was a real gift to attend.” 

“OK,” Sandler says. “Now which of the types of cognitive bias we’ve studied might explain that? Why would people be more attracted to something that’s fake but supports their world view, versus something real that might challenge it?”

“Confirmation bias,” another student offers. “We believe what we already think is true.”

Using a mix of texts, videos and cartoons, Sandler goes on to introduce a range of other cognitive biases as well as real-world contemporary examples. “Psychology is always changing,” he says. “I want to keep it fresh and current and focused on science.”

The desire to keep his course up to date and relevant to his teenage students led him to apply for an Arlington Education Foundation grant to attend the American Psychological Association’s annual convention in Denver, Colo. this past August. Sandler received roughly $2,200 from an AEF Continuing Scholars Award to help cover travel and registration costs. 

“Thanks to AEF, I was able to spend time in an environment where everybody is interested in psychology and learn from people whose work I’d only read about,” Sandler says. “The breadth of expertise at the event was amazing. It was a real gift to attend.” 

At the conference, he discovered two APA initiatives that have been informing his teaching this fall. The first is an effort to add more student collaboration to the teaching of psychology. In his Psychology and Human Behavior class, for example, he assigns each student a cognitive bias to research and then sets up a “speed-dating” exercise to compare the types of biases. 

The second initiative aims to introduce students to the range of careers within the psychology field by bringing practitioners into the classroom. “While we often think first of therapists or clinical social workers, there are psychologists in the Armed Forces, in Fortune 500 companies and in research, too,” says Sandler, who also teaches AP Psychology at the high school. 

He says he is eager to connect with Arlington residents in the psychology field who might enjoy visiting his classes and discussing their work with students. 

As Sandler reminisces about the APA convention and its effect on his teaching, he exudes an enthusiasm for his subject that he says has held constant in his 18 years at the high school. “I feel very lucky that I get to talk about psychology all day long,” he says.

Both his students and his peers have noticed: Sandler was the AEF’s STARs Teacher of the Year in 2011, and most recently, a 2025 recipient of an Excellence in Teaching award from the APA’s Committee of Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools.