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Using Art & Algebra to Heal

One year ago, my community suffered a devastating loss, which called into question the very systems upholding the safety of the neighborhoods my students and I call home. In the wake of this tragedy, street art has been popping up around the community. This art is varied and unique, giving a platform to unheard voices….

Modeling Resistance from Mexico

Reflecting on today’s birthday of Malcolm X, we share the thoughts of an FFT Fellow used her grant to research past and present resistance movements (but in Mexico) to use these as a model for student writing and meaningful resistance to injustice in local communities. Sara Boeck Bautista teaches English at Leaders High School in…

Researching the Cases Behind Brown v. Board of Education

Our high school is co-located in a converted elementary school building that still feels very much like an elementary school building (low sinks, low toilets, tiny lockers, a gym the size of a glorified broom closet). As our school prepared to open for in-person, synchronous learning this fall, COVID-19 reminded us just how small our…

Fund for Teachers Announces 2021 Fellows and Innovation Grant Recipients

On Teacher Appreciation Day (May 6), Fund for Teachers announce with a national release the names of 191 public, private and charter school teachers to receive $325,000 in grants for self-designed summer fellowships and experiential learning opportunities. Now in its 20th year, Fund for Teachers encourages the self-directed professional development of pre-K to 12th-grade educators across…

“Teachers Are ‘Fried’ and Need a Break”

In response to the recent Ed Week article Summer School Is More Important Than Ever, But Teachers Are ‘Fried’ And Need A Break, we invited FFT Fellows to weigh in. Beth Mowry, who is also leading this summer’s Innovation Grant Circle on Social Emotional Learning, weighed on the state of teachers’ well-being: Teachers are Tired…

Arbor Day the FFT Way

When Sterling Morton went west in the 1870s, he found the Nebraska territory’s lack of trees a real issue – agriculturally and aesthetically. The newspaper editor proposed a “tree planting holiday” that we continue to celebrate on the last Friday of April. This Arbor Day we highlight the plans of one our our newest Fellows,…

Taking You To Our Leaders

After our 2020 grant recipients’ plans stalled due to the global pandemic, our organization faced an interesting situation. No Fellows pursing learning beyond the classroom or applying their experiences inside them. And we didn’t know if 2021 grants would even happen. Entering our twentieth year of supporting teachers, what did that look like when teachers…

A Watershed Experience

Four years ago, the land behind Daphne High School lay fallow and Betsy Anderton’s kids lay on the sofa looking at their phones. This combination did not sit well with Betsy, who held a Master’s and Ph.D. in Instructional Design but had not been at the head of a classroom for more than 25 years….

Fellow Voices: What is Teacher Leadership? with Tracey-Ann Lafayette

When thinking about teacher leaders, who comes to mind? Union reps? Data team leaders? Committee chairs? Leadership is about more than labels. There are countless individuals in classrooms around the world who do not fit into any of these categories, but are creating impactful change in their school communities. What does it really mean to…

Notes from Oprah’s Opening SxSWEdu Keynote

This morning, SxSWEdu kicked off virtually with a keynote by Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Bruce Perry on the topic of how childhood experiences change the biology of our bodies and brains. The discussion was based on research comprising a book they co-authored called “What Happened to You?” which will be available April 27th. Because teachers were…

Making Math Matter – Teaching About the Gender Pay Gap

Happy International Women’s Day! This year’s theme is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world” and pay equity is certainly a large part of that equation. After his 2019 fellowship attending Stanford University’s Mindset Mathematics workshop to create a positive math culture that encourages problem solving, Nate Moore (Santa Fe School…

Empowering Women by Educating Students

In celebration of International Women’s Day, we share the teaching of Neha Singhal (Montgomery County Public Schools, MD). In one of our more unique fellowships, Neha conducted mini-ethnographic research on the experiences of doulas and other birth workers in New Delhi, India, to increase IB Anthropology students’ understanding of fieldwork and data analysis, and to…

The Unlikely Path to a Fulfilling Career

As Naima Hall tells it, she had a hard time finding her way in the world of work. For a while she did construction work, then bartended. Only after a few more minutes into our conversation did she mention that this phase of her career came after she worked for the International Trade Division of Tiffany & Co. and…

New Grants for FFT Fellows

For two decades, Fund for Teachers has respected the power of teachers to determine their own learning and, subsequently that of their students. For each of those twenty years, that respect came in the form of grants – more than $30 million – to fuel fellowships in the United States and around the world. As…

The Mandate Behind a Fund for Teachers Fellowship

Nataliya Braginsky is a high school teacher at Metropolitan Business Academy in New Haven, CT, where she teaches African American and Latinx History, Contemporary Law, and Journalism, and co-advises the school’s Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA) and Youth Justice Panel. Nataliya is also a 2020 Fund for Teachers Fellow, member of New Haven Educators’ Collective,…

Q&A with Teachers of D/HH

Fund for Teachers Fellows teach every subject and language, including American Sign Language (ASL). At FFT Fellow Mick Posner‘s school in West Hartford, CT, ASL is one of the world languages offered and he used his grant to learn from deaf Inuits in Nuuk, Greenland, basic conversational skills in that country’s official sign language system…

Let’s Take This Outside

Laura Irace and Lisa Lambert (West Side STEM Magnet Middle School – Groton, CT) used their Fund for Teachers grant to attend the 2019 International Conference on Mathematics Science Teaching Technology & Learning conference in Sydney, Australia, then volunteer with a New Zealand nonprofit that constructs outdoor classrooms, to develop skills and apply math concepts…

Teaching With Equity and Justice

This fall, Fund for Teachers introduced a new Circles program bringing Fellows together around various topics. This effort coincided with teachers’ return to school in the midst of a pandemic, so we were uncertain about interest and participation level. What we discovered, however, is that our grant recipients remain life-long learners despite the circumstances and…