As 1.8 billion people across the globe are celebrating Ramadan, students at Lincoln Elementary in Norman, OK recently learned about the celebration from their fellow students who also are Muslim. Their teacher, Diane Wood, informed and inspired their presentation using experiences from her Fund for Teachers fellowship last summer.  

“My fellowship to Spain and Morocco helped me to develop an approach to education that recognizes, respects, and uses students’ backgrounds as meaningful sources for learning,” said Diane. “Culturally responsive teaching fosters a sense of belonging, strengthens confidence, and honors different perspectives. I believe it is essential for creating equitable and effective classrooms and ensuring that every student has the opportunity to thrive.” 

Diane serves as the Gifted Resource Coordinator for school with 270 students – six percent of whom are from North African or Middle Eastern countries. Because one of her responsibilities is enhancing the mandated curriculum with multi-disciplinary content, Diane seized the opportunity to design a fellowship that helped students affirm and appreciate their culture of origin while also developing fluency in other cultures. 

“This fellowship has helped me develop a deeper understanding of how art and architecture are not just aesthetic choices, but also powerful expressions of identity, religion, and social values,” Diane said. “Understanding this shared history of cultural synthesis has been transformative, helping me appreciate the importance of cross-cultural collaboration and the ways in which traditions can enrich one another. I’ve learned to think more critically about cultural appropriation and heritage conservation.” 

So have her students. 

Diane is using Islamic patterns she studied in Spain and Morocco to teach symmetry and tessellations to fifth graders during a geometry unit. Students are analyzing Diane’s photographs of the intricate designs of historic sites such as the Alhambra in Granada to identify lines of symmetry, rotational symmetry, and repeating shapes that form tessellations. They are using rulers, compasses, and grid paper to design their own tessellating geometric tiles. By connecting geometry to real-world art rooted in Islamic tradition, she’s striving to make abstract concepts more concrete and visual, while honoring the mathematical contributions of diverse cultures. 

“Ultimately, my experiences in Spain and Morocco transformed cultural responsiveness from an abstract educational concept into a lived commitment, said Diane. “By immersing myself in different cultural contexts, I developed greater empathy, curiosity, and humility. My classroom is stronger because I have seen the world more broadly, and I strive each day to ensure that my students feel seen, valued, and understood.” 

In the Ramadan presentation to their peers, a student explained, “One of the things I love most about being Muslim is that God says in the Quran, I honor all children of Adam. That makes all humans my brothers and sisters who deserve respect, love, and kindness. That makes me want to be the kindest friend to everyone.”  

Three years ago, Ariana Sanders (Cincinnati) used a $5,000 Fund for Teachers grant to participate in the Witness Tree Institute’s immersive educator experience in Ghana, where she explored the impact of colonization, as well as how Africans protect their natural resources. Her goal was to inform the development of learning objectives and course modules for Ethnic Studies to be offered not just at her school, Wyoming High School, but to ALL of Ohio’s high school teachers. 

“I cannot count the ways in which this fellowship was an influential time for me,” said Ariana. “It felt like an inspired experience literally from the second the plane landed — I felt more connected to my roots as a biracial person. The Witness Tree Program really allowed me to go into areas where it is NOT touristy, talk to many professors, participate in cultural activities (food, dancing, games, etc.) It is hard to put into words what that means or how much I see that impacting my soft skills — understanding others, appreciating differences…we all clearly need more of that!” 

_{Caption: Standing in Slave River, where captured men, women and children slaves bathed for the last time before they went to the auction; Ariana’s conference nametag and presentation session.}

That connection and cultural immersion informed learning standards and curriculum for a new official course offering in the Ohio Social Studies program called Religion, Gender, and Ethnic Studies, which Ariana presented at the National Council of Social Studies’ national conference. 

Additionally, Ariana sits on the advisory board for Boston University’s Teaching Africa Teacher (TAT) Certificate Program, which supports pre-service and in-service K-12 teachers and higher education instructors interested in engaging with Africa in their classrooms. As part of this opportunity, Ariana crafted an additional curriculum titled W.E.B. DuBois & Ghana: As told through 3 primary sources – which you can access here. 

“I’ve kept up with colleagues from my fellowship in Ghana, so those relationships, as well as peers through the TAT board, give me a space to advance higher education African studies and be in touch with people who are also working to ensure Africa is represented in more social studies classes. I feel like I am the biggest cheerleader for Fund for Teachers.” 

W.E.B. DuBois said, “It is the trained, living human soul, cultivated and strengthened by long study and thought, that breathes the real breath of life into boys and girls and makes them human, whether they be black or white, Greek, Russian or American.” He would be proud of the impact Ariana is making, as are we.