December 19, 2007 > CCMS teacher receives $1,000 grant CCMS teacher receives $1,000 grant Submitted By Rick LaPlante Cesar Chavez Middle School teacher Joanne Zachariades has been awarded a $1,000 grant to help fund a "Canoes in Sloughs" project designed to provide students with an awareness of the importance of San Francisco Bay and the need for wetlands restoration. The highlight of the project will be a canoe trip to Bair Island, part of the South Bay wetlands near Redwood City, where students will work with naturalists on a restoration project. The grant is from the Melinda Gray Ardia Environmental Foundation, a New York non-profit founded in memory of a middle school science teacher to support educators in developing environmental curricula that integrate field activities and classroom teaching and that incorporate basic ecological principles and problem solving.