Blog - Fund for Teachers

Defeating Nature Deficit Disorder

Laura Wilbanks (Whiteface Elementary – Whiteface, TX) hit the road today in the name of play. With her Fund for Teachers grant, she will interview in Austin, Portland and Vancouver experts leading the movement to redesign school playground landscapes. Along the way, she’ll observe excellent programs in Whitefish, MT; Olympia, WA; and Fresno, CA. Armed with…

Happy Lunar New Year from Fund for Teachers

Happy Lunar New Year from Fund for Teachers Last summer, 146 teachers used FFT grants to pursue new knowledge & skills across Asia. We honor their work and subsequent impact by featuring a few Fellows learning in Cambodia, China, Japan, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand…

Channeling Mrs. Frizzle Across Asia

I teach a class of first through third graders at Garden Oaks Montessori in Houston, TX. Social studies and science are the center of our curriculum, with math and language arts integrated as tools for learning. We take an anthropological approach to history, examining how each culture met universal human needs such as clothing and…

Bomb Cyclone = Climate Change?

Boston Public Schools closed today due to -20 degree wind chills. Sounds like the schools need some geothermal heating that Fellows Kristen Cacciatore and Mandy Dillingham researched in Iceland last summer with their Fund for Teachers grant. These East Boston High teachers spent a week investigating the impact of climate change on Iceland’s society, educational…

Conference Them In

Among the world-class presenters at this year’s Southeastern Geologic Conference will be Leah Keith’s students from Red Bank High School (Chattanooga, TN). Their topic: Using GIS/OSM to prepare communities for natural catastrophes. Considered experts in this field, Leah’s students learned these skills following her example. A geologist by trade, Keith was the first teacher ever…

Continuing Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Legacy Through Religion & Art

For an update on Starr’s student impact, click here. In Limestone County, AL, 82% of the citizens are white. That percentage jumps to 96% when looking at the student body of Ardmore High School where Starr Weems teaches. Fearing her students’ first encounter with racial, cultural and religious diversity would be on the job, in…

Casting a Vote for Relevant Statistics

Hispanics account for more than half of the U.S. population growth between 2000 and 2010, according to the U.S. Census. Yet, Ellie Terry’s Hispanic students at the High School of Telecommunication Arts & Technology in Brooklyn showed no interest in the upcoming presidential election. She designed a Fund for Teachers fellowship to engage them and…

Vampires Help Slay Reading Apathy

Fans of the movie Twilight fall into one of two categories: Team Edward or Team Jacob. Students at Ossie Ware Mitchell Middle School in Birmingham, AL, support a third option: Team TSV (Teachers Seeking Vampires). This team, comprised of a science, a history and an English teacher, will research vampire legends across the British Isles’…

Blogs

Defeating Nature Deficit Disorder

Happy Lunar New Year from Fund for Teachers

Channeling Mrs. Frizzle Across Asia

Bomb Cyclone = Climate Change?

Conference Them In

Continuing Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Legacy Through Religion & Art

Casting a Vote for Relevant Statistics

Vampires Help Slay Reading Apathy