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Helping Deaf Students Speak Up

Alexander Graham Bell’s most well-known accomplishment is the invention of the telephone; however, his first job was as a teacher. In fact, he was teaching at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes when he began creating a machine that changed the way we communicate forever. Deborah Tubbs and Dana Smith share a lot in common with…

Fellow Friday | It’s Never Too Late

The Wall Street Journal recently shared an article titled “It’s Never Too Late,” referring to how the “multiple cognitive peaks throughout our lives, and the talents and passions that we have to offer can emerge across a range of personal circumstances.” Such is the case for Larry Shortell, special education teacher at Explorations Charter School…

Fellow Friday | World Refugee Awareness

Monday begins World Refugee Awareness Week, an extension of the United Nation’s annual World Refugee Day on Wednesday, June 20th. In solidarity with those forced to flee as a result of resettlement, poverty, unemployment, stigmatization, and bias, we share one day in the fellowship of two teachers from Naperville, IL. Christine Halblander and Jenn Nekolny are currently exploring…

Fellow Friday | This Learning Is Your Learning

The primary distinction of Fund for Teachers grants is the freedom we give teachers to design fellowships THEY consider most vital to students’ learning. That can be across the world or across the state, which is the case for Nathalie Lee and Janet DeMarco, teachers at Cedar Ridge Elementary School in Tulsa, OK. They are currently embarking…

Teacher Discovers Personal Connection with D-Day

Today marks the 76th anniversary of D-Day, when 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. We share below the remarkable experience of FFT Fellow Dan Lundak. He designed an experience to retrace the steps of the US soldiers (specifically…

Fellow Friday | Speaking Their Language

Each Friday throughout the summer, we are highlighting one of our 2019 Fellows — their inspiration, itinerary, and plan for transforming student learning going forward. Today, we highlight our first team, which named themselves “Spainward Bound.” Erin Strack, Andrew Murphy, Juan Carlos Lara and Pato Cabral will use their $10,000 Fund for Teachers grant to…

Fellow Friday | Helping Students Beat the Odds

Each Friday, we highlight one of our 2019 Fellows — their inspiration, itinerary, and plan for transforming student learning going forward. Today, however, we celebrate the completion of our first fellowship of the year! Kristin Gladish (Newcomer Program – Indianapolis) obtained permission from her administration to embark on her fellowship during the first week of…

Fellow Friday: Ramadan Edition

Back in the ’80s, when Saturday Night Live was funny, Jon Lovitz did a skit called “Get to Know Me!” espousing how people (i.e. Steve Martin) benefited from knowing him. We believe the same is true of our 2019 Fellows and are, therefore, continuing a blog series throughout the summer to introduce you to many of our grant recipients….

Piecing Together Learning

Tammy Friedman believes the link between art and its history can help build bridges among different cultures, including the culture of a school. Cloonan Middle School in Stamford, CT, is experiencing a sharp increase in English Language Learners who speak Spanish at home. Realizing the lack of relationship between herself and students’ parents, Tammy turned…

Hitting the Road

[minti_dropcap style=”normal”]B[/minti_dropcap]ack in the ’80s, when Saturday Night Live was funny, Jon Lovitz did a skit called “Get to Know Me!” espousing how people (i.e. Steve Martin) benefited from knowing him. We believe the same is true of our 2019 Fellows and are, therefore, continuing a blog series throughout the summer to introduce you to many of our grant…

Water, Water Everywhere, but…

…not a drop to drink. That’s what Richard Lebowitz discovered on his Fund for Teachers fellowship last summer in Indonesia. For two weeks, he collaborated with Balinese municipalities, scholars, citizens and tourists to research the country’s inability to overcome its water shortage crisis. Richard’s inspiration came from observing water waste at The SEEALL Academy in…

“Get to Know Me!” Blog Series

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]B[/minti_dropcap]ack in the ’80s, when Saturday Night Live was funny, Jon Lovitz did a skit called “Get to Know Me!” espousing how people (i.e. Steve Martin) benefited from knowing him. We believe the same is true of our 2019 Fellows and are, therefore, continuing a blog series throughout the summer to introduce you to many of our grant…

Happy Earth Day from our Fellows

“From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success” is the chorus from a song in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a film produced months before the catastrophic Santa Barbara Oil Spill in 1969. The lyrics proved prescient. This environmental disaster that spewed three million gallons of oil and killed more than 10,000 seabirds, dolphins, seals, and sea…

New Blog Series: “Get to Know Me!”

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]B[/minti_dropcap]ack in the ’80s, when Saturday Night Live was funny, Jon Lovitz did a skit called “Get to Know Me!” espousing how the lives of people (i.e. Steve Martin) benefited from knowing him. We believe the same is true of our 2019 Fellows and are, therefore, beginning a blog series to introduce many of our…

Congratulations 2019 FFT Fellows!

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]A[/minti_dropcap]fter months of research, writing, collaborating and WAITING, our newest class of grant recipients found out today that their self-designed fellowships were funded. Click here to celebrate the accomplishments of 502 public, private and charter school teachers across the country who will turn $2 million in Fund for Teachers grants into career- and classroom-changing…

A Spectrum of Services

If you see an inordinate amount of people wearing blue or a puzzle piece lapel pin today, here’s why. Today is the 12th annual World Autism Awareness Day (#WWAD), established by Member States of the United Nations to raise awareness about people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) throughout the world. To show our support, Fund for Teachers proudly shares the…

Giving Sight (& Inspiration) to Blind & Visually Impaired Students

A “bump in the road” connotes a temporary set back for most of us, but today’s Google Doodle explains how tactile paving changes the lives of visually impaired and also introduces web surfers to the man behind the advancement. Learning more about Japanese inventor Seiichi Miyake brought to mind the fascinate fellowship of Naima Hall, teacher…

Happy Pi Day!

If one ever needs an excuse to have pie for breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner, it’s today — March 14, 3.14, National Pi Day. (Also, Albert Einstein’s birthday and the day of Stephen Hawking’s death. Coincidence?) The mathematical constant that’s been around since the Babylonians figures prominently in math and physics calculations like the ones taught…