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Blogs

All Fairy Godmothers, No Big Bad Wolves

“Once upon a time there were two teachers in search of a way to make fairy tales come alive for their urban students.” This is how preK and kindergarten teachers Carmen Kaemingk and Kirsten Carlson began their FFT grant application, proposing a journey along the Fairy Tale Trail in Germany, Italy and France. By researching…

When Learning Goes the Extra (200) Miles

FFT Fellow Ariel Laguilles, chairperson of the Modern and Classical Languages Department at Gonzaga High School in Washington DC, just returned from an extended field trip. Inspired by his fellowship, Ariel and his students navigate the ancient Camino de Santiago from France to Spain as the culmination of an elective that reflects on the history…

Congratulations, 2018 FFT Fellows!

Fund for Teachers fellowships begin with an If/Then equation: “If I could just [do this/learn this/experience this], my students’ [interest/engagement/achievement] would soar.” Public, private and charter school teachers across the country envision experiential learning that will transfer directly to their preK-12 students. Then, these teachers design and submit a proposal to make it happen. Then,…

Making MLK Meaningful for Elementary Students

by, Cecilia Cornejo, Mary Beth Porter, Deidre Ann Hensley | Port Hueneme, CA It isn’t easy to look at our failings as a society/nation. It is worse, however, to ignore them. We want our students to realize that they have to take ownership in the racial struggle. They can’t expect others to do it for…

Kinder-Yogis

Preschool teachers have to be flexible, but Dianna Langdon (Park Early Childhood Center – Ossining, NY) is taking that necessity to a whole new level. She used her FFT grant to obtain certification as a registered children’s yoga teacher and now incorporates the practice daily to unite four-year-olds’ minds, bodies, thoughts and actions while also…

Sharing Stories, Shaping Multicultural Literacy

Wisconsin is home to the third largest population of Hmong immigrants in the country, but students at Pittsville Elementary knew little about their peers from Southeast Asia. Kate Van Haren turned to textbooks, but most social studies information focused on European ancestry. Online research surfaced only immigration statistics and an occasional Hmong recipe. “I realized…

Immigrant Interest = Cultural Compassion

Connecticut is home to the largest population of Albanian immigrants in the United States, and the largest percentage of those immigrants live in Waterbury. While Henry Chase Elementary’s library offered resources on African American, Hispanic and Asian histories, shelves were empty when it came to the Balkan Peninsula. Two teachers largely responsible for assimilating these…

Celebrating the Female Voice on International Women’s Day

Last summer, Amanda Kingston studied Carol Gilligan’s stages of moral development outlined in the book In a Different Voice by journeying through the history of women in Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France and United Kingdom. With the research, interviews and artifacts collected, she created a new, cross-cultural class called “The Female Voice,” which culminates today…

Teaching to Trauma

Before Mitch McCann and Jazmine Salach‘s Fund for Teachers fellowship, teachers at KIPP Endeavor in Kansas City felt ill equipped to serve their students identifying as homeless, experiencing abuse and/or living in foster care. Now, the FFT Fellows serve as a beacon to both students and staff after investigating trauma intervention strategies at the 15th…

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss! | Happy Read Across America Day!

Based on our Fellows’ experiences, the phrase “there’s more than one way to skin a cat” applies to student literacy. We’ll refrain from using that idiom today, however, out of respect for The Cat in the Hat – feline foil of Dr. Seuss, whose March 2 birthday coincides with Read Across America Day. Rachel Rodriguez…

Olympic Curling Team 2026?

America’s men’s curling team won the gold and the hearts of many of us unfamiliar with the sport. However, students at World of Inquiry School in Rochester, NY, are old pros at it after three of their teachers used a Fund for Teachers grant to research curling alongside Olympians and build an outdoor “sheet” to…

Minding the Gap | Black History Month

This February, Fund for Teachers is celebrating Black History Month by highlighting some of our Fellows’ journeys to bring a better understanding of the African American experience to all students. In this four-part blog series, we’ll be diving into everything from the Transatlantic Slave Trade to student advocacy. Our Fellows explored the “past and present”…

Past vs. Present | Black History Month

This February, Fund for Teachers is celebrating Black History Month by highlighting some of our Fellows’ journeys to bring a better understanding of the African American experience to all students. In this four-part blog series, we’ll be diving into everything from the Transatlantic Slave Trade to student advocacy. Our Fellows explored how black history is…

Defining Beauty

From Idaho to Omo — that’s how far Christine Corbin went to help her students redefine beauty and identity. An art teacher at Boise‘s Riverstone International School, Christine was researching ideas for a portrait-painting unit when she found photographs of the Omo River Valley tribe in Ethiopia. She immediately wanted her students to paint these…

Seeing Ourselves in Others | Black History Month

This February, Fund for Teachers is celebrating Black History Month by highlighting some of our Fellows’ journeys to bring a better understanding of the African American experience to all students. In this four-part blog series, we’ll be diving into everything from the Transatlantic Trade to student advocacy. Our Fellows explored how Black history is taught…

Retelling History | Black History Month

This February, Fund for Teachers is celebrating Black History Month by highlighting some of our Fellows’ journeys to bring a better understanding of the African American experience to all students. In this four-part blog series, we’ll be diving into everything from the Transatlantic Trade to student advocacy. This week, we are taking a deeper look…

2018 FFT Grant Deadline

Our team is ready to answer any last minute questions you might have before submitting your application for a 2018 Fund for Teachers grant. Just email info@fundforteachers.org or call 800.681.2667. Don’t forget to proofread and compare your proposal against the scoring rubric by which it will be evaluated. Our Application Tooklit is also an excellent…

All of Us – Immigrants

FFT Fellow Chris Smith and 15 of his students recently hosted the first Chicago Immigrant Refugee Resource Fair at Mather High School. The story behind the event, shared below by Chris, demonstrates the true ripple effect of a Fund for Teachers grant. This high school music teacher designed a fellowship to attend the Blas International…