Thanks to Suzanne Almon for this account of how her fellowship in the Florida Keys and Hurricane Irma are engaging students at Asian Studies Academy in Hartford, CT. Suzanne used her FFT grant to research the life cycle, habitat and rehabilitation of sea turtles in Florida and the Galapagos Islands to design a first grade, project based learning science unit on animal habitats.

As a first grade teacher in an urban school, I strive to bring learning to life by bringing into the classroom artifacts, books, posters, magazines, pictures and videos. I was so excited to apply for the Fund for Teachers grant, because I knew it would be a great opportunity to bring in another element to enhance my teaching – making me the primary source! Deciding on what to pursue was simple; I knew instantly I wanted to study sea turtles. I designed my fellowship with a new Sea Turtle unit in mind, a component of our science curriculum that would cover anatomy, natural environment, natural and unnatural issues facing sea turtle survival and rehabilitation. My inspiration during the proposal phase was Gail Gibbons’ book Sea Turtles, a non-fiction book about sea turtles, that includes ways to help keep sea turtles safe.

All around the Keys, there is an awareness to conserve native animals; Key Deer crossing signs, alligator crossing signs, clean up your garbage and no balloons at the beach signs, etc. I was fortunate to witness first hand how sea turtles are nursed back to health through a visit to the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Florida. The Turtle Hospital is a safe haven for injured and sick sea turtles and also has a museum in their front lobby full of information. The guide introduced me to the different sea turtles that make Florida their home and to the hospital’s marine residents. The hospital has cared for and released more than 1500 sea turtles since its beginning in 1986.

I was also able to do research on Juno Beach, one of the most active sea turtle nesting beaches in the world. I witnessed loggerhead sea turtles coming to shore and laying eggs.  It was an amazing experience! These sea turtles are massive and lay about hundred ping-pong sized eggs while in a trance. The Loggerhead Marine Center’s volunteers invited me to observe this life experience and provided an immense amount of information about their Marine Center, Loggerheads, and the beach.

I returned home from my fellowship on August 22 and ten days prior to Hurricane Irma. In preparation for the storm, The Turtle Hospital moved all “patients” to special hurricane tanks to protect from winds and storm surge. All of the Loggerhead Marine Center’s sea turtles were transported to the Georgia Aquarium. Unfortunately, the nests were not so fortunate. It is reported that due to the heavy storms and increased wave action, the sea turtle nests were wiped out, exposing eggs. The Center informed supporters that they would continue to take in injured sea turtles and hatchlings. Since Hurricane Irma, they have re-opened and have received about 200 hatchlings!

Hurricane Irma hit Florida shortly after school started. My heart was full of dread and anticipation; hoping the hurricane would turn east. Entire oceanside roads were wiped out, trailers and boats were flipped, severe flooding and high winds knocked down palm trees and hurled debris everywhere.  Eight people died from natural causes and the storm and another 40 have been injured (30 are from Key West) at the time of this writing. Businesses and homes have been destroyed, as well as the beaches.  I love the Florida Keys and I know with time, hard work, and love, the Keys will be rejuvenated and better than ever.

When school started, shortly after Irma’s devastating arrival, students from last year streamed into my class, excited to see me and my photos and hear about my sea turtle learning! They and my new students could not believe that I saw sea turtles and even swam with them! They were so excited to see my videos and especially enjoyed seeing me feeding the sea turtles at the Turtle Hospital and watching them snort water out their noses.

As of today, the building remains closed due to substantial amount of damage in Marathon and the Florida Keys; however, our sea turtle unit is in full swing. Students are watching my interviews with marine biology professionals, as well as my snorkeling in the marine reserves. They are developing writing skills and integrating art into their own non-fiction texts about sea turtles, similar to Gail Gibbons’ exemplar; eventually, they will turn the texts into presentations for their peers at a school assembly.

Lastly, we are scheduling a field trip to our own beach habitat. In conjunction with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP), students will replicate the experiential learning on my fellowship to learn how they can help sea turtles in Connecticut.

[minti_divider style=”1″ icon=”” margin=”30px 0px 30px 0px”]

In addition to the Florida Keys, Suzanne also researched sea turtles in Myrtle Beach, GA, and the Galapagos Islands on her fellowship. Suzanne started teaching preschool 2001 and has taught in Hartford for 11 years and was recognized as Teacher of the Year in 2011. Shestrives to build competent and confident learners to be successful and have positive influences in the world.

Fund for Teachers grant recipients regularly head to the Florida Keys to research marine biology and conservation; therefore, we wanted to get their insight into Hurricane Irma’s devastation. We are grateful to Lucila Telesco (Newfield Elementary School – Stamford, CT) who, in the midst of Open House – for which she was organizing translators and buses – shared her story…

[minti_divider style=”1″ icon=”” margin=”30px 0px 30px 0px”]

I embarked on my fellowship to Florida’s Everglades and the Key’s Coral Reef during the peak of summer vacation, which happened to coincide with Florida’s wet season. Though I, a fair-skinned northeasterner, had mentally prepared myself to contend with the Florida’s notorious heat and humidity, I didn’t fully understand how unpredictable the wet season could be.

The first stop on my journey was the Everglades, a place I had always pictured as an expansive swampy grassland teeming with scaly alligators. While partly true, I came to see that the Everglades are so much more than that. On my first Everglade adventure, a boat assisted kayak eco-tour of Ten Thousand Islands, the Everglades revealed itself to be a proliferation of magical salt dwelling mangrove trees extending endlessly into the Gulf. My savvy naturalist guide navigated our small boat through the labyrinth of mangroves in Chokoloskee Bay, while explaining the area’s wonders. I learned that the Everglades are home to the one of the largest mangrove ecosystems in the world and the Ten Thousand Islands are comprised of three types of mangroves: red, white, and black; red being most prevalent. As our boat inched closer to a cluster of densely packed mangroves, I got my first glimpse of the red mangroves’ prop root system. The network of overlapping roots seemed to jut out of the water like clumsy acrobats on stilts. As we glided along, my eyes were drawn to the hundreds of seedpods, called propagules, dangling from the branches. I learned that propagules are buoyant and can stay afloat for over a year before they taking root, how incredible it that? Those hardy mangroves were captivating. They had found a way to thrive in the most inhospitable of places.

During my excursion, we anchored in an inlet to explore a sandbar connecting Lumbar and Rabbit Key by kayak. But, no less than 50 yards out the weather turned. Pavilion Key in the distance, which had been visible just minutes before, was enveloped by a dark grey fog. Before I knew it, we were caught in a deluge. My guide, fearful that lighting and thunder might follow the rainstorm, quickly led the way back to the boat. As if on cue, the moment we ambled into boat the sky dried up and returned to its stately shade of blue. It was baffling to see a storm build and subside that quickly. My guide pointed out some large fluffy clouds on opposite ends of the sky and began explaining that though they looked harmless, they had the potential to merge into a serious thunderstorm. Luckily the skies remained clear for the rest of the afternoon, allowing me to explore the sandbar thoroughly. I examined conch and lightning shells up close, and I even learned how to identify sea turtles tracks in the sand to locate their nest. By the end of my time in the Everglades, I had caught glimpses of blue herons, snowy egrets, white ibis’, ospreys, a hungry pair of dolphins, and the fleeting muzzle of a shy manatee, all of which was quite remarkable.

The next stop on my journey was Marathon Key to learn about dolphin and sea turtle conservation. I was set to drive down to Marathon when Tropical Storm Emily made landfall. But, I had places to go and dolphins and sea turtles to see, so I cautiously made my way to Marathon that day. The drive was slow and the rain was relentless, but I arrived safely and in time to see the amazing work being done at Dolphin Connection. As part of the dolphin smart wild dolphin conservation program, they rescue dolphins that have been kept in captivity and can no longer hunt, providing them with food, shelter, and training.Similarly, the Sea Turtle Hospital works to rescue, rehab, and whenever possible release sea turtles back into the wild. They have helped hundreds of sea turtles return to the wild, but the ones whose injuries are too severe to successfully survive in the wild become permanent residents of the hospital. I learned of one such injury that has been endearingly termed bubble butt syndrome. In these cases, the turtles’ shells are damaged by boat impacts, causing them to develop air pockets that render them permanently buoyant, which is a problematic state for a sea turtle that must dive for food. Researchers have attempted weighing down the shells, but since sea turtles shed the scales on their shells periodically, weights are not a permanent solution. Until we can learn to co-exist safely together, I am thankful for organizations like this that are working to protect these animals and their unique habitats.

The final stop on my journey was the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, home to the third largest barrier reef in the world. The chance to snorkel in the blue waters off the coast of Key West [pictured above] and see the vibrant array of coral and fish dancing beneath the surface of the water was unforgettable. It was like a whole little universe onto itself, unawares of the goings on in the terrestrial world. The coral ebbed and flowed as if it has never been rushed a day in its life and a school of vibrant blue fish assembled and dispersed with the agility of Olympians. I learned that the corals iridescent quality is a result of bioluminescence, a chemical reaction that releases light, which many fish also possess. Bioluminescence, much like a school of fish, is employed to appear more threatening and ward off predators. Some corals can even release luminescent particles with toxins when touched. Luckily, my guide thoroughly warned me not to touch anything before the snorkel, so I didn’t get to experience the luminescent toxin. But, the sights I did get to experience were incredible.

Another highlight of Key West was the Butterfly and Nature Conservatory. While there I overheard a little boy’s reaction, which I feel sums up the experience best. He said, “Mommy, I feel like I’m in a Disney movie and I don’t want to leave,” which is how I felt too at the end of my visit. Blue monarch butterflies fluttered about in groups and stopped momentarily to feed on honey and fruits, while bright pink flamingos bobbed in a shallow stream. A turaco, with a bright green crest on the top of it head that resembled a mohawk, was perched in a tree making a ruckus. Even though I was in a glass enclosed climate controlled conservatory, it felt like the middle of a magical forest, capable of producing Snow White and the seven dwarfs around the next bend. Key West is one of the most vibrant and colorful places I have ever visited, and turned out to be the perfect culmination to an extraordinary fellowship.

So, it is with a heavy heart that I learned the Keys and South West Florida were among the most devastated by Hurricane Irma. I want to remember it as it was, thriving, chock full of passionate people dedicating their lives to protecting and restoring it. In aftermath of the hurricane, I was relieved to hear stories of hope from the many remarkable people and places I visited. I learned my Everglades guide is safe and unfazed by the blackout. The staff and dolphins of Dolphin Connection in Marathon Key were safely evacuated to facility in Orlando prior to Irma and are glad to report their dolphin lagoon survived the worst of the hurricane. The Sea Turtle Hospital is operational. Its staff and recuperating turtles also weathered the storm successfully, and they are already admitting new patients. As if by miracle, the glass enclosed Butterfly and Nature Conservatory in Key West was untouched by Irma. If I learned anything on my fellowship it is this: plants and animals possess an incredible ability to adapt to their environments. Hurricane Irma showed me that people do, too. They were all tested, but remain, and like the resolute mangroves are determined to thrive in the most inhospitable of places.

[minti_divider style=”1″ icon=”” margin=”30px 0px 30px 0px”]

Lucila is an ESL teacher with a passion for conservation. In addition to Masters degrees in TESOL and Reading Instruction, her accomplishments include: Presidential Arts Scholar and member of the Arts and Cultural Cohort of the Women’s Leadership Program at George Washington University. In the future, she hopes to combine her love of nature, storytelling and languages to pen a multicultural children’s book.

Saturday, September 16, is International Coastal Clean Up Day, the world’s biggest volunteer effort to protect our oceans. Fund for Teachers Fellow Gina Anderson(Concord Elementary – Bessemer, AL) got a jump on us this summer when she researched the relationship between the Gulf Oil Spill and the economic and environmental effects in the region to establish a STEM unit to design, test and revise solutions for cleaning a polluted environment…

[minti_divider style=”1″ icon=”” margin=”30px 0px 30px 0px”]

April 2016 marked six years since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded sending billions of barrels of crude oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico off of the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. My 5th grade students and I watched live coverage of oil gushing out of the well into the ocean. We saw video of birds, dolphins,fish, sea turtles and other wildlife coated in oil because of the spill. I was on the beach when the first tar ball washed ashore. The experience was very sobering, but gave me a first-hand account of what was about to happen. In the days and months following, the size and number of tar balls that were washed ashore multiplied exponentially. I am able to share my personal experience with students and describe what the tar-balls looked like, felt like and smelled like and bring into my classroom different oils and lubricants to recreate the smell of the air that I experienced, even over a mile inland.

This year I taught a fifth grade Project Based Learning class in all subject areas, and we conducted research to determine the economic and ecological impacts still being felt in the coastal region after six years. During the research, students began to realize that even though this was the largest oil spill into the ocean in history, they could not find answers to a lot of their questions. As they continued searching for answers, they learned that scientists who conducted the research on the ecological effects were not allowed to publish their findings because of continued litigation which made our research difficult. The students still wanted to know:

• if the estuaries have rebounded and are now suitable for young;
• if the trees that were lost have had an effect on the number of nesting birds such as pelicans and cranes; and,
• if the numbers of nesting sea turtles has started to increase in the Mobile Bay and Fort Morgan area.

With my Fund for Teachers grant, I researched these environmental effects as I explored the areas of Bon Secour, Fort Morgan, Mobile Bay and Gulf Shores. I biked the Hugh Branyon Back Country trails, where countless rabbits and alligators could be seen daily prior to the spill. An interview with the owner of Bon Secour Fisheries shed light on the economic and ecological impact of the oyster industry in Alabama and Louisiana. A meeting with Bon Secour National Wildlife Early Restoration Project equipped me with ideas that will help guide students when working on a disaster recovery and restoration project of their own.

The biggest area of professional growth for me resulting from my fellowship is classroom innovation. I discovered that learning is most effective when it is authentic. I was interested in this project because I was there seven years ago when the oil came ashore.This made me take ownership of my learning and, consequently, I did not have to rely on what others thought I should learn. I knew what questions needed asking in order to see the big picture.This removed a ceiling to my learning!

Similarly, I am now going to give students opportunities to complete projects based on their personal interests, also not bound to traditional research avenues such as books or online searches. They will have access to professionals and experts invited into the classroom or via live-stream conferences and interviews in order to make the learning authentic and make those important real-world connections. Three years ago, I began an annual Math and Science night at our school. This is a school-wide event in which we invite stakeholders from the community to set up interactive science and engineering booths where they engage with the students and adults. Each grade level also creates a booth for the students and parents to work on a hands-on activity together. This year, I will have my students oil spill projects on display and they will be able to conduct mock oil spills with their adults.

Around our school community, we have to pay to have trash pickup and pay if we want to use the county landfill. This has resulted in a large problem of illegal dumping of trash on the side of the road. Currently, there have been two volunteer clean-up days. Because of the lack of volunteers attending the events, my students and I will help to promote as well as participate in the event this year, another great opportunity make environmental connections to their oil spill projects.

This fellowship has helped me become more reflective when planning projects. I didn’t realize that while I was giving the students an opportunity to conduct research and learn collaboratively I was also putting a cap on their learning by providing too much guidance as far as questioning. I now see the tremendous value of allowing students more autonomy and independence in their research and project designs. My new motto is to let them go where they want to go without restrictions!

[minti_divider style=”1″ icon=”” margin=”30px 0px 30px 0px”]

Gina is a National Board Certified fifth-grade teacher and was recognized as Teacher of the Year at her previous school. On only seven years of teaching, she is a two-time recipient of the local ABC affiliate’s “Once Class at a Time” grant, as well as a Jefferson County Foundation grant recipient. Gina enjoys being a life-long learner and works diligently to instill this into her students through Project Based Learning.

In support of the recent International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, we share the learning of Jodie Harnden (Sunridge Middle School – Pendleton, OR) who joined an atmospheric aerosol research project with scientists at NASA Langley to develop a similar student project modeling how authentic science is conducted to collect and analyze data useful to the community.

In emergency medical practices the airway, or being able to breathe, is the first priority, making air pollution a major threat to those who breathe…which is everyone! In my seventh grade science classes we study the structure of the atmosphere and air pollution problems and students learn about different pollutants and how they affect our location. While students do develop an understanding of air quality conditions, they do not have the opportunity to collect their own data and analyze that data in order to answer questions, as scientists would do.

And neither did I – until my Fund for Teachers grant.

One of the challenges of being a science teacher is that I had never been an actual scientist. While I have spent my career learning to be the best teacher I can be, I lacked in experience that relates to the actual processes of scientific research and data analysis. For me to lead students to think and work as scientists, I needed the experience myself. The two-week fellowship collecting air quality data with NASA Langley provided an intensive and exciting opportunity to interact and work alongside actual scientists, followed by developing related classroom applications for students.

I had the opportunity to participate in the data campaign as a volunteer intern under the direction of NASA scientist Dr. Margaret Pippin. My air quality data research took me to sites around Hampton, VA, monitoring aerosols, or tiny solids that are considered pollutants. I became proficient in using the Calitoo, a device that measures aerosol optical thickness, and indicator of particulate matter. I learned what the impact of clouds can be on the accuracy of measurements and established my GLOBE account for submitting my own data.

Previously I had only demonstrated the Calitoo with borrowed units. Now I will be having students collect and submit data on a regular basis to the GLOBE Project. Collecting data for a long-term project is a change from just occasional measurements. Students will now be the scientists,
collecting and submitting the data for use, and have access to the data for future use, as well.

The greatest accomplishment of my fellowship was developing a true understanding of the different stages of scientific research. Data campaigns have a planning and funding period, then, if approved, all participants coordinate for the campaign period (in this case, two weeks), then hope for good weather. Collection days can be very long! After rest and recovery, analysis of the data begins and will be the focus for the next year, prompting future research.

School has started and smoke from regional wildfires has created a difficult situation for many. Outdoor activities have been cancelled as we come to grips with the loss of beautiful forests. We can’t even make aerosol measurements because the smoke blocks the sun. Students are getting an early introduction to the air quality unit. We have begun to enter data into GLOBE, but the smoke prevents the collection of quality data (a good lesson for students!). Normally our rough time is January and February when cold, high pressure settles in to create an inversion, trapping the smoke from wood stoves; however, this year may mark different conclusions. I have taken note of an unusual ozone
concentration near one city west of the Cascade Mountains, a problem we don’t have, but can study from afar.

While there are numerous environmental issues that are worth studying, air quality continues to be a challenge in our area. While the causes may sometimes be out of our control (such as weather and wild fires) awareness and understanding is not. Mitigation of contributing factors that are human-caused are something we will continue to study, learn, and take appropriate action when possible. This August we have experienced a severe air quality issue, something to study further in the fall.

Along with my personal experiences at NASA Langley, I was able to witness the inclusion of student interns in the research process. I came away more convinced that ever that science is a process and something to be understood, not just a set of facts to be learned. The future of science depends on doing science, and I must give my students opportunities to contribute to the field of science. School, in many ways, is an artificial microcosm of life and I will be able to expose students to so much more now that I was exposed to more myself.

---

A National Board Certified teacher, Jodie is in her 33rd year of teaching science at the middle
level, most of it in Pendleton, Oregon. She thrives on the opportunity to learn, bringing experiences back to the classroom and sharing with others professionally. While it won’t be a problem until retirement, rock collecting is a favorite activity.

Honoring Maria Montessori’s Birthday by Carrying on Her Vision

Happy (belated) birthday to Maria Montessori, born on August 31,1870, and founder of the eponymous learning style characterized by independence and freedom within limits. Two teams of teachers used liberty afforded by Fund for Teachers to design fellowships that further enhanced early childhood education informed by Montessori.

A team from Alighieri Montessori School in East Boston attended the International Montessori Congress in Prague, focusing on Montessori techniques as a path to social change and a higher-quality education that cultivates life-long learners and responsible citizens. Achala Godino, Lisa Schad and Maureen Magee-Quinn networked with more than one thousand “Montessorians” who embraced their founder’s message: “It is the role of education to create peace in this world.”

“Maria firmly believed that children did not need to be taught ‘peacefulness’ – rather, it was the role of education and educators to help remove the obstacles that stand in the way from children revealing their true nature, which is peace, joy, and kind regard toward others,” said Achala. “It was jolting to reflect on her socio-political writing of the early 20^th
century. She was looking upon a world embroiled in two World Wars and looking upon the child as the answer to the militarism, xenophobia and authoritarianism of the day. Sadly, her writings on the topic are as relevant to the 21^st century as they were 100 years ago.”

A three person team, also from East Boston, crafted a slightly different fellowship, but one that also increased competency in the Montessori system. Deborah Arlauskas (Tynana Elementary), John Arlauskas (Murphy K-8) and Margaret Arlauskas (Alighieri Montessori) studied in the Netherlands Dutch culture’s intersection with Montessori and early childhood learning to better teach/reach their English Language Learners and their families.

After a guided visit of Amsterdam’s Association Montessori Internationale (where Maria’s study was preserved as a museum), John, Deborah and Margaret spent the next five days volunteering and observing at the 2 Voices Montessori School. The fellowship concluded with second school visit at Casa Bilingual Montessori School in Pijnacker. Following AMI’s recommendation, the team visited this particular school due to the bilingual instruction (English and Dutch) and the 50 weeks-a-year schedule.

“My content knowledge of Montessori instruction has deepened to a more advanced level of understanding,” said Margaret. “Specifically, I learned how teachers and instructional leaders in the Netherlands adapt the Montessori curriculum and manipulatives to meet student needs. For example, the Montessori approach to education should be the vehicle to help students meet state standards and content/language objectives for lessons and units.”

Maria Montessori’s legacy lives on on the work of these teaching teams, dedicated to developing children as well-rounded individuals. Throughout the first two of four developmental phases outlined by Maria (self construction from 0-6 years and peace/happiness 6-12 years), students at three East Boston school will now benefit from heightened instruction in this discipline.

“As public Montessori teachers in East Boston, serving a mainly immigrant community living under the strain of poverty, we are committed to delivering the highest quality Montessori education that will usher forth the next generation of global citizens and peacemakers,” said Achala. “We were grateful to have had the opportunity to engage in these conversations and be again re-inspired to manifest Dr. Montessori’s vision.”

Yesterday was National Wildlife Day, created in 2005 and carried forward in the memory of animal lover and conservationist Steve Irwin. Irwin sought to educate the public, especially children, about conservation and endangered animals. FFT Fellow Leanne Mortell and her fellowship in South Africa perpetuates his dream. A kindergarten teacher at Bluff Elementary School in Claremont, NH, she shares below “A Day in the Life” of her Fund for Teachers fellowship volunteering with Wildlife ACT in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park in Zululand, South Africa, where she learned data gathering techniques used to monitor endangered animal populations to create a science unit teaching young students the scientific method.

My fellowship to Africa in winter was more than I could ever imagine. I arose before sunrise, gulped down breakfast with a half cup of instant coffee and headed for the truck while loaded down with my camera equipment. Our troop of five volunteers climbed in, wearing multiple warm layers and wrapped in blankets. We headed off with our researcher to be in position before the sun rose to find some of the most endangered species of the animal world.

After six or seven hours of searching for and observing African wild dogs, lions, and cheetahs, we returned to camp for a few hours of food, rest and a review of photos taken from the morning jaunt only to return to the truck for our evening rounds. After dark enveloped us leaving us with no ability to spot any more animals, our troop returned to camp to cook dinner, do dishes and crash into our beds for much needed rest so we could be revived enough to do it all over again the next day. I did this routine for 2 weeks. I loved every minute.

The mammals I saw during our drives left me in awe.  We tracked a pack of African wild painted dogs along dirt roads as they ran through the terrain on a hunt. We found lions resting near the road and observed them for hours as they slept. Elephant herds blocked the road in front of us as we traveled, allowing us to observe them closely as they fed.  We watched rhinos feed with their babies beside them. A cheetah emerged from the grass and jumped on a tree beside our truck. We observed him for thirty minutes before he left to watch impala in the distance. Giraffes fed from the tops of trees, then silently,
with the grace of the finest ballerinas, slipped away.

Amazing; experience of a lifetime; a childhood dream come true. These words only scratch the surface of the emotions I felt during this fellowship to Africa. Populations of many African mammals are dangerously low. Through our morning and evening drives, I witnessed many of these species roaming freely in their natural environment while collaborating with researchers working to protect them from their greatest threat – humans. This work wasn’t glamorous, nor did it seem heroic; it was hard work under difficult conditions. Yet, these people were working at it every day, living on the reserve to gather needed scientific data. And their work is making a difference. Numbers of African wild dogs and white rhinoceros are slowly on the rise. Although cheetah numbers are down, our data collection will allow more to be brought into the reserve to aid in genetically diversifying the population there to continue to promote the species. The beauty of these creatures is beyond words and now, after my fellowship, thought of loosing them brings a rising panic from deep inside. However, the knowledge that there are teams of people working these long hours under tough conditions to prevent their extinction brings admiration.

I am inspired students to help students realize that we have a gift freely given to us and we need to learn all we can to protect it. To let them see the images of these animals through my photographs and bring them outside to their own piece of the world to see it’s beauty and teach them ways to learn about it, protect it, and love it as I do is a privilege.

I now plan to educate my students on authentic methods of scientific research. Bringing the classroom outdoors will expose them to learn about their own neighborhood in a new way and help them connect to nature.  By providing them the instruction, modeling and practice they need to feel proficient at these skills will give them the confidence and desire to continue to learn and expand their knowledge.

Thank you, Fund For Teachers, for this rare opportunity.  I will share with my students how to observe animals, record their numbers and learn ways to identify each one. I hope to instill in my students the desire to learn how to care for the land for the benefit of all and I look forward to sharing with my
colleagues about this amazing opportunity through your organization to learn in hopes that they will be inspired to apply for their own chance at an adventure.

---

Leanne has worked as an educator, occupational therapist and principal. She uses these experiences to reach out to all her students to inspire in them the quest of knowledge of the world around
them and to use their unique talents for the benefit of all.

Kate Moore (Citizens of the World Charter Schools – Kansas City. MO) used her Fund for Teachers grant to explore at a Creativity Workshop in Reykjavik, Iceland, the concept of creativity. Her goal in attending was to support diverse thinkers and learners and implement strategies to help students, staff and the community hone creativity despite fear and discomfort. Along the way, she faced her own fear and discomfort, as well.

---

Iceland totally amazed me. I attended the Creativity Workshop in Reykjavik and had the opportunity to work with some of the greatest minds in education. We discussed obstacles and hurdles that keep us from stretching our students’ comfort zones in the classroom and how to pull beauty from chaos – which is a pretty good description of most classrooms now and then – chaos.

Like a lot of teachers, I have a side-hustle that keeps me busy after school. I have a small photography business that grew from taking family portraits of my low-income students who otherwise wouldn’t have such memories captured. It just grew from there. Part of my own personal journey with this fellowship was to challenge my own notions of perfection and creativity in photography. It is the medium in which I feel I am the strongest, but also that which I am the most critical of myself. I had a tougher time with this than I thought. Iceland is full of ridiculously picture-esque vistas, and my inner critic was screaming much of the time: “Kate, you are not giving this justice. Way too over exposed. Crappy composition. You didn’t bring a filter for long exposures at the waterfalls, are you kidding?”

I gave myself a pre-test of sorts when I arrived and again at the conclusion of my trip after attending the Creativity Conference. The biggest change I saw: I was noticing my critic and allowing that quiet voice to fade out to another ear. As an art teacher, I do not expect or want perfection from my students.  A fantastic book called “Beautiful Oops” helps prove this point in my classroom: mistakes can create something amazing, something new, something we never knew was possible.

I realized I have to practice this same philosophy in my own artwork, despite carrying the “I’m an art teacher, therefore my artwork should be pristine” mindset. I am still working on this, as any habit takes time, but taking what I learned from the workshop to apply to my OWN work really set the concept and its significance into stone for me and jazzed me up for the new school year. And let’s be honest, that is tough for everyone after two months of eating slow-cooked omelettes, going to the pool and watching Ellen 🙂

Check out Kate’s photography here.

I also learned a lot of small things by simply talking to locals and having the awesome opportunity to visit a family’s home and dine with them and their children for a night. Here are a few big categories that resonated with me and make me want to return to this amazing country:

Iceland & Animals:

• Bugs: Almost none. No mosquitoes. No ticks when hiking. No screens on windows. It’s
  glorious.
• Horses: Everywhere. And their hair is always photogenic and luscious in the crazy
  Iceland winds. They are used for farming, hobby, transportation and touring.
• Sheep: This is a big industry here, both for wool and for meat. Farmers let them roam
  free all summer – truly all over. You see them in little families climbing
  mountains, drinking from glacier streams and hanging out by waterfalls. In the Fall, at least one farmer from each farm is required to help wrangle up all of the sheep to return them to their homes for the winter months. They are tagged, so after they are all herded, they are then sorted by farm. Horses are used most often, but some farmers now use drones so they can have more of an idea of where to put their herding efforts.
• Puffins: Puffins are both beautiful and edible here. However, the country monitors these populations really closely with strict regulations. If there is ever a dip, hunting puffins becomes illegal nationwide until they return to a healthy population. Puffin is usually described as a gamey taste.

Miscellaneous Info I Learned and LOVED:

• Mr. and Mrs. are just not used here. People refer to you by your first name if you are a friend, neighbor​, teacher or even the Prime Minister.
• Speaking of, the Prime Minister’s address is well-known to the public, and it isn’t uncommon to run into him at the grocery store, walking his dog or to just visit at his home.
• When you have a baby here, mothers get 3 months guaranteed paid leave, fathers get 3 months, and the couple gets an additional 3 months to divide up to whoever needs it. We just had dinner with a local who has 7 weeks of vacation to burn in addition to his baby leave.
• There is also a dating app to check if you are related to people in Iceland! Since the country’s population is so small, if you meet someone at a party or a bar that you’re interested in, you want to double check if you are related in any way before pursing them.

I would highly recommend the Creativity Conference to any teacher who feels stagnant or that they want to reach students who strive a little too hard for perfection or to the student who feels lost in numbers and reading does not come easily. This conference can be a benefit to all types of classrooms. And Iceland, of course. Definitely go, but go to Costco ahead of time to bring snacks because a cup of soup is $25.

---

Kate works in urban education in Kansas City, MO, where she teaches elementary art. Prior to teaching art, she taught English as a second language, writing and social studies at a dual language school. While born and raised in Wisconsin, Kate attended Iowa State University where she received a Bachelors of the Arts in Art and Deign with a minor in Spanish and Psychology. She received her Master’s in Education from the University of Missouri St. Louis in 2015. She has 3 pet free frogs who are regulars in her classroom named Sam, Brown Sugar, and Reina.

On the final day of their fellowship, Alice Laramore and Kat Atkins-Pattenson shared with us their reflection on a four-week, 9,000 mile road trip along the United States/Mexico border exploring language arts, visual arts, immigration and identity. Thank you, Team Paredes Que Hablan (or Walls That Speak) for sharing your experiences and hope for future students.

---

Our students cross borders every day. They switch from home language to school language and back again.Their warm presence, giggles, and questions invite new families inside our school buildings. And, everywhere they go, our students carry the imprint of their family members who came to Boston for refuge, for freedom, for opportunity. Every time these young people change spaces, they reconcile their identities and pasts with their presents and futures.

We know that for students to truly succeed academically, they must see mirrors of themselves in our curricula – art, media, and text – and validation of their identities in our classroom spaces. While we can empathize with our students, as white female teachers, we do not truly understand the depth of our students’ experiences. To effectively understand our students’ experiences, we need to cross borders ourselves and experience the displacement our students have experienced traversing these borders.

Today, the last day of our trip, we are energized by the Borders and Identity Unit that we have built and will use to launch the year with our students. We are flooded with all that we’ve seen in our seven cities. We are entrenched in the creative part of teaching, the part that involves being an interesting, engaged individual to better support the interesting, engaged individuals in our classrooms. The part that means we learn something new in order to teach something new. The experience of being a learner better prepares a teacher to teach, and this summer was an opportunity for us to authentically learn about murals on different borders, to confront not knowing and to investigate, to use art as a lens into community.

Watch in this video the artistic expression Kat and Alice captured in three countries and seven cities to help students answer the question: “How do we show other people the depth of our past and the strength of our future?”

This month, we immersed ourselves in adult project-based learning. We’ve tried lots of new things, from food to cloud-mountain hiking to driving to places we’d never been (while blogging) to talking about art from sunrise to sunset. And we’ve done the whole thing together. Often, in our classrooms, we create groups that we believe will benefit from the individuality of each member. We build in scaffolds meant to allow the group to discover each individual’s strengths and to make empathy a non-negotiable. Though we embarked with empathy and respect already in place, our twenty-six days together have illuminated the strengths and areas of growth (thanks, BPS, for the language) of our partnership. We both value efficiency, and, in the face of less-than-such (e.g., when the internet goes as turtle-pace, when people get motion sick, when you walk up the wrong side of the mountain, etc.), we have learned much about each other. That knowledge has made us better collaborators and better friends.

In San Francisco, where we started our trip, we were oriented to the idea of looking. This was not just because there was so much to look at in The Mission, but also because we did our first day with a guide, who was able to re-frame what we had seen and interpreted in the context of history and community. Carla made us cognizant of how much we needed other people’s knowledge and understanding to build our own. The Pacoima (L.A.) murals added a layer of “looking around corners” to that concept. On the hottest day of our trip, we spent the majority of it seeking out art on the walls of automotive dealerships and in the parking lots of community centers. It wasn’t always going to be all in one alley. In San Diego, a park once occupied by people and now occupied by art, had us looking for four hours and not seeing enough. We returned home those nights googling Aztec symbols and stories, trying to learn enough to know something.

Tucson and Dr. Acosta gave us yet another frame through which to experience our learning. Freedom of education does not mean freedom to learn about the American Revolution and the Civil War through a lens of whiteness. Precious Knowledge, to our generation of “urban baby teachers,” is a reflection of our intentions. Though we (the generation of “urban baby teachers”) are in no way united in our vision or our understanding of social justice, the power of conviction in ideas, history, and lifting stories and voices drove us into the work of education. We wonder if Dr. Acosta knows how many teachers who are only five or six years in are tracking his legal battle and celebrating his victories, most recently the repeal of Arizona’s ban on ethic studies which a district court deemed racist and targeting of Mexican Americans.

In Santa Fe, we absorbed the International Folk Art Market, how artists envision and reimagine, how tradition can morph modern and can accommodate the present day without reneging its roots. This mirrors the murals we’ve seen and the art of Frida Kahlo, taking symbols from the past and bringing them to life in the now. In Mexico City, we saw so much. Teotihuacan, Frida, Diego, the Anthropology Museum, street art, the culinary art of Pujol, the stained glass and craters of Toluca. With American eyes and feet, we navigated the city, and learned all that we still had to learn.

It is hard to classify this experience, and even harder to know all that it will bring to our classrooms. It falls somewhere in the vicinity of sabbatical – an intentional, purposeful break that brings new insight – but also touches the realm of professional development, continuing education, and a creative project. We envision a unit with three parts. First, with our students, we will read several memoirs that broadly address the topic of borders and walls, thinking with our students about potential barriers and how to scale them. Second, we will all generate and share memoirs from our own lives on the same topic. The author of each memoir will formulate his or her own theme about the topic, communicating a piece of knowledge gained from navigating–either adeptly or crudely–a border. Finally, after examining many primary sources collected on our trip and within Boston, students will co-construct a mural combining the themes of their memoirs to create a community creation.

The idea of “insider and outsider” has been, in many ways, the crux of our travels. We asked questions and navigated our identity as visitor, as white visitor, as American, as woman. In our classrooms we are often the the outsiders to the communities in which we teach. However our ethnicities and upbringing reflect the dominant histories and tools that are demanded from dominant culture. In this unit, we hope to illuminate these walls, supporting students to name them, scale them, and ultimately paint them. As humanities teachers, we believe that providing students vocabulary and time to think and discuss the world and its issues leads to a brighter, more creative, and smarter future than the two of us can imagine. Solutions lie in the writing, in the art, in the conversations, and in the relationships that students create. Just as we wrote in our FFT proposal, students must see themselves reflected in curriculum, in physical space, and in pedagogy in order to be successful. Because we do not physically reflect our students’ identities, we think constantly about how to make all other facets of our teaching affirming. This unit and this project will be a launching point for discussions about personal identity, community, and what comes next.

In Mexico City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tucson and Santa Fe, this fellowship made space for us to be learners. After the twelfth grade, those opportunities almost always come with one (or many) literal costs. And Fund for Teachers (along with the school year calendar) gave us the time, space and finances to learn more in a way that will support our students, but also in a way that sustains us as teachers, professionals, and individuals. It made it possible for us to end the trip feeling rejuvenated rather than depleted. There is a constant push for teachers to continue professional development; it is indeed essential. But driving this profession development experience (and literally driving more than 900 miles) meant that we could pace our learning and reflection, and that we could intentionally choose meaningful experiences that hit our “zone of proximal development.”

If you’d like to know more about our trip, we’ve been writing the whole time. Read our blog at www.writingisthinking.org

In Solidarity,
Kat + Alice

---

Alice is a 7th grade Humanities/Special Education teacher at the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School in Dorchester, MA. She infuses arts into her Humanities classes, most recently taking students to do pop-up Shakespearean theater in several Boston Public libraries. She works on a cross curricular team of teachers who study the intersection of English Language Learning and Special Education to build inclusive writing experiences in all contents.        

Kat is a 7th grade Humanities teacher at Gardner Pilot Academy K-8 School, a Pilot School in the Boston Public Schools. Katharine was a 2012-13 Donovan Urban Teaching Scholar at Boston College where she earned her Master’s in Secondary Education. Prior to becoming a teacher, Katharine built a college access program in rural Pennsylvania that continues to help first generation and undocumented students find the appropriate post-secondary fit while developing college and financial literacy
within the community.

While many schools are forced to eliminate access to the arts,  Franklin Elementary Fine Arts Center in Chicago was established to integrate artistic talent with academic success. Dance teacher M.K. Victorson designed her Fund for Teachers fellowship around intensive teacher workshops that would help her rewrite her existing curriculum, focusing on creative dance, multicultural dance, and genre studies to engage her K-8 learners.

“Ms. V” enrolled in three opportunities – Dance Education Lab (DEL), Broadway Teachers Workshop, and Finis Jhung Ballet in New York City – to rethink how her curriculum can engage all of her dance students whether they are ballet dancers or breakdancers or just not sure about dance at all. Her excellent blog documents her learning, and we share a post written to her students
below…

Dear Students:

I’m sharing some photos here of my incredible workshop last week at DEL: Planet Dance: Multicultural Dance Education. I attended this workshop with all of you in mind as you are always telling me you want to learn different forms of dance. Words can hardly describe the overall experience of this workshop, which had many interesting strands to it. But I’ll say a few:

We began our week by talking about what culture is and what it embodies. (how would you answer ‘What is Culture’? Think about it). Seeking an answer, we:

 

• looked at our own cultural makeup and created dances about it
• viewed several dances from around the world and analyzed the movement in each
• discussed the reasons why people dance and create dance: recreation, work, communication (to name just a few)
• learned a welcome dance and song from Ghana
• practiced and explored flamenco steps and rhythms from Spain
• viewed a Japanese dance where the dancers used umbrellas
• created new dances inspired by all of these sources, and more!

We danced, created, and we discussed dance in great detail. The question we kept coming back to was:

 

How do you teach a cultural dance if the culture is not your own?

 

What do you think, readers? We talked about this at length. We talked about problems, concerns, sensitivity in exploring dance of other cultures. We did not come up with a final answer, but I know that I came  away from the experience with much to think about and share with you. This year I will be able to bring in even more residencies that I am hoping will expand our cultural dance knowledge and literacy. Do you have something you can teach me?

 

Included in the photos are pictures of my collaborative group. At DEL, we finish each intensive week by collaborating in a group and engaging in practice teaching for our fellow teachers. I am very excited about the work my group did because my collaborators and I really worked well together and listened to each other. Crystal, Eva, Monica, and Halley are smart, inquisitive and sensitive beings and I learned so much from them. Oh, they are great dancers, too!

 

Together we created a lesson around examining bias in dance criticism. It was written for high school, but I think it has relevance to you, my K-8 students. We looked at images and text from a review and created short dances based on it. Then we gave each other feedback on the dance. Finally, we looked at the whole review and discussed the issue of bias and who gets to critique dance. We talked about how to respond to dance by naming what you see before placing judgement. It was fascinating and I am excited to do some of this with you!

 

I also have some flamenco inspired movement to share with you, courtesy of my teacher, Puela. And there is so much more!

 

Dancing at you from New York,
Ms. V

---

M.K. is an eight-year veteran of the Chicago Public Schools and has been teaching and creating in Chicago since 1996. She  is passionate about curriculum development, advocacy and inclusion in arts education.  A dedicated and energetic teacher, M.K. has been awarded grants from numerous institutions including Chicago Foundation for Education, the Target Corporation, and the Oppenheimer Family Foundation.

 

Charlotte Brontë, who sent her Jane Eyre manuscript to a London publisher on this date in 1847, wrote, “Your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.” This summer, Amanda Kingston (Odyssey Leadership Academy – Oklahoma City) used her time (and a Fund for Teachers grant) to research the Brontë sisters, especially Charlotte – regarded as “the first historian of the private consciousness.”

---

On my Fund for Teachers fellowship, I navigated through five European countries in the hopes of learning more about Carol Gilligan’s work on the ethic of care in connection to the lives and histories of women. Among the women I journeyed to “meet” were Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë, authors and sisters.

Haworth, England, is a small town that has capitalized on the mythology of the Brontë family. It’s hard to know if the Brontës modeled their stories after the environment of Haworth, or if Haworth has wrapped itself up in the Brontës. Whether it’s chicken or egg, at the heart, they’re inseparable. And, if you can’t get enough of the gothic atmosphere, you can hike out to the Brontë Waterfall across the moors and even farther to Top Withens, a possible location for the Wuthering Heights of Emily’s imagination. In the mist and among the heather you can almost hear Cathy still calling for Heathcliff.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum itself is in the midst of celebrating the 200th anniversaries of the Brontë children: for 2017, this is Branwell. The small parsonage is preserved beautifully, with portraits of the family hung in each room; the table where the women bent over needlework, writing, and dinners; and the study of the family patriarch, Patrick Brontë, complete with his spectacles and magnifying glass. The staff were enthusiastic and kind, offering up knowledge about the family not with an air of pretension, but rather as though talking warmly about old friends. The Brontës are very much real people to this crowd. Prior to this fellowship, I did not know much about the Brontës. I did a quick reread of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre earlier this year, and watched the BBC television special To Walk Invisible. The production worked closely with the Brontë Society and the museum also includes stills and costumes from the series.

For more on Jane Eyre’s iconic line “Reader, I married him,” click here.

In researching before the trip, I learned that in the original publications, the sisters chose not to use their given names. Instead, they used pseudonyms: Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Charlotte explained after the deaths of Emily and Anne in 1848 and 1849 respectively, they wanted their work taken seriously, not frowned upon as womenly nonsense nor praised patronizingly as female folly. The Brontës were real writers with real things to say about the real world around them. And really, in 1847 when Jane Eyre was published, only male authors were taken seriously. The museum even includes a letter from a poet Charlotte admired advising her that writing was not for women.

I realized, a few days before in Chawton, that there is a reason we don’t say that Jane Austen’s books are about the human experience, though they certainly include suffering, trials, family, love, and loss. (The Jane Austen Society, coincidentally, is celebrating her life with the bicentennial of her death this year, as well.) The Brontës recognized this also, and when Charlotte sent Jane Eyre to be published she wanted the story of a young governess, a deeply misguided Mr. Rochester, and a “madwoman” in the attic to be a story received with the utmost sincerity and gravity, a story of human experience- not just male or female. And it was: Jane Eyre became the talk of London and new editions came out almost immediately. It’s a story of human experience and human emotions that belong to all of us, and I believe people recognized this, despite knowing the true identity of the author.

I’ll be honest, I was not a Brontë fan before visiting the parsonage. I enjoyed their books, yes, and they were interesting figures to me. But I wasn’t a “fan.” However, there is something about walking in the home of a person, seeing their correspondence and their village, walking across the moors of their lives for even just a day that spins stories to a different light. It makes you not just a fan, but a friend. I learned more about their heart and the courage they had to put their stories out to the world, and to put themselves in their stories.

I don’t think that it’s any accident that the original title of Charlotte’s first novel was Jane Eyre: An Autobiography.

---

Amanda serves as both a mentor and humanities teacher at Odyssey Leadership Academy in Oklahoma City and previously worked as a teacher in Louisiana’s public education sector. She is passionate about creating courses that focus on justice and empowering students to enrich and transform the community around them.

Frank Mangan and Brandon Hubbard-Heitz (The Howard School – Chattanooga, TN) are assessing the past and present effects of people’s interaction with the Alaskan wilderness to empower students to embark upon future conservation work in their contexts.

You can follow their learning on Twitter and read more about their adventure below…

---

“Late in life, noted naturalist John Muir traveled to Alaska. As he sailed along Alexander Archipelago, he wrote,“To the lover of pure wildness Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world. No excursion that I know of may be made into any other American wilderness where so marvelous an abundance of noble,newborn scenery is so charmingly brought to view…”

Today especially, Alaska stands out for its 54 million acres that have been set aside as national parks, a vast expanse of wilderness that can only be appreciated by the naked eye. Even so, Alaska’s history is also a decidedly human tale of exploitation as much as conservation, abuse as much as preservation. From the migration of humans across the Bering Strait to the gold rush to the ExxonValdez, Alaska is a microcosm of the human-nature relationship within American history. Thus, it offers itself as an excellent starting point for an exploration of this dialectic that has defined the American people’s relationship with their land.

Unfortunately, this relationship often goes unexplored by students at the urban high school in which we teach. The school primarily serves children of color, many of whom lack the resources to explore the local,state, and national parks near their neighborhoods. According to the Outdoor Foundation, only 8% of black adolescents and 12% of Hispanic adolescents participated in outdoor activities in 2015, miniscule numbers compared to 71% of their white peers.As America grows increasingly diverse, this gap portends significant consequences not only for communities of color, but for the earth itself. The damaging effects of human-caused climate change are increasingly manifest and necessitate an “all hands on deck” response – one that is only possible if all people, including our students, become advocates for conservation.

Our self-guided fellowship into Alaska’s wilderness will enable us to report back to our students not only its beauty, but also the imperative to preserve that beauty. As a U.S. history teacher and an English teacher who teach juniors, we will equip our students to step into the wilderness – Alaskan and local, past and present – in order to experience the wonder of the earth and the need to preserve it for future generations. Like Muir, we are documenting our adventure, in writing and digitally, in order to create a meaningful experiential unit that transports students to the Alaskan wilds with the aim of inspiring students to seek out such experiences for themselves while also advocating for the preservation and protection of the natural world.”

---

Armed with a 360 degree camera, Frank and Brandon are capturing experiences for their students, including:

• Observing the impact of the ExxonValdez oil slick and climate change on Kenai Fjords National Park;
• Witnessing the human-nature relationship on Reeve’s Field, the airstrip used to support the Pacific Theater during World War II;
• Exploring in Denali National Park and Preserve the Kantishna Mining District;
• Flying above the Arctic Circle to tour Simon Paneak Memorial Museum,
  which documents the natural, geological and cultural history of the Nunamiut people;
• Backpacking in lands preserved by the
  Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act

In addition to incorporating images and experiences into U.S. History and English III classes, the teaching team plans to collaborate with colleagues to create an experiential interdisciplinary unit that promotes outdoor engagement and conservation. They also believe their experiences will help grow the school’s Outdoor Leadership Club, which Brandon founded last year. Lastly, students will visit a local tract of land managed by the National Park Service, interviewing rangers about local issues that interact with what their teachers learned in Alaska. Students’ research will culminate in a joint English – U.S. History research and advocacy project they’ll present to peers, teachers, parents, community members and park rangers.

---

Brandon is dedicated to preparing his students for active citizenship in the world by infusing his classes with authentic reading and writing. In 2016, he co-founded the school’s Outdoor Leadership Club in an effort to diversify the outdoors and expose students to the beauty of nature. In addition to being a Fund for Teachers Fellow, Frank has received a Teaching American History grant and studied the Civil Rights Movement at Cambridge University through the Gilder-Lehrman Institute.

Think The Magic School Bus meets a bookmobile and you have the classroom on wheels changing students’ lives in Chattanooga, TN.

Brittany Harris (2013 FFT Fellow) and her colleague Colleen Ryan re-purposed and “tricked out” a short school bus they now take to students’ homes on the weekends to extend lessons and connect with working parents. Brittany, a teacher at Hardy Elementary, bought the bus with her own money, so committed was she to students’ success. Ultimately, the red bus, affectionately called “The Passage,” has been underwritten by local businesses and philanthropies, as well as a T-shirt fundraiser.

Watch local news coverage of The Passage here.

“Enabling our students to succeed, despite where they come from, was oneof the major reasons I used a Fund for Teachers grant to attend the “Teaching with Poverty in Mind” and “Tools for Maximum Engagement seminars” said Brittany after completing her fellowship.“Our students come from a background of poverty and we want them to have maximum engagement in their academics.”

The vehicle for engagement is now actually a vehicle. Since last November, Brittany and Colleen spend every weekend rolling into neighborhoods and swinging open the doors for their students, who eagerly enter for math and reading tutorials.

“Fund for Teachers granted me the opportunity to learn, serve and infuse strategies that have built a better and stronger community,” said Brittany. “I learned how to teach with students in poverty, and make a positive impact on student growth. I also gained knowledge on how to engage every child daily. What truly opened my eyes during that innovative week was that the teacher holds the greatest percentage of student achievement. With that information, I created plans and goals to strive for my students to reach their greatest potential.  Fund for Teachers allowed me to build on previous knowledge and make a  powerful impact. I appreciate that amazing ability to create a strong influence for teachers to persevere and seek more.”

---

UPDATE: Watch Brittany win $10,000 on The Ellen Show as part of 2018 Teacher Appreciation Week!

As I think about my teaching practice, I believe it is important to provide my bilingual second grade students with a well-developed and engaging science curriculum. I recently read a study that showed only 10% of workers in science and engineering fields were African-American or Latino. As a teacher of students who are 98% Latinos, I want my students to see opportunities in these fields and I believe it is my responsibility to provide them with a strong base in early childhood to empower them to pursue scientific careers.

To that end, I decided to model for them scientific inquiry by designing a Fund for Teachers fellowship to explore the unique geography and biological diversity of the American Southwest. For two weeks last summer, I investigated geological formations and desert habitats to develop an integrated unit that references Southwestern literature and folk tales.

Before my fellowship, I was struggling to find meaningful ways for my students to connect to our science unit about rocks and pebbles. The curriculum felt stale and boring to me, so it was understandably difficult to get kids enthusiastic about something that I was finding dull. By exploring the parks and learning about the formation of canyons and rock formations, my excitement flourished and in turn reinvigorated the unit with some fresh lessons and demonstrations. I learned that, like my students, real authentic experiences deepen my knowledge.

During my fellowship, I was able to learn extensively about our national parks. I visited 8 national parks, 2 state parks and 2 parts of the Navajo Nation.  I collected information from both Park Rangers and locals about the region and its treasures. Since I couldn’t take my students with me it was important for me to bring my learning back to them. Through photos, artifacts and stories I was able to find ways to incorporate my leaning and experiences back to our work in the classroom.

I attended a number of presentations given by park rangers. It was truly inspiring to see the wide variety of topics that individual rangers and researchers are currently studying. I attended programs that varied from evidence of dinosaurs found in the Grand Canyon to the formation of the Rocky Mountains. One of the biggest lessons for me was how the rangers were definitely looking for more questions than answers. When I questioned different rangers for ideas for my own classroom, they often returned to the idea of encouraging student questioning. This pushed me to incorporate more inquiry into my lessons.

---

Back in the classroom as a result of my fellowship, students are now:

• Conducting investigations on how rocks can be classified in different ways.
• Simulating erosion, weathering, and glacier’s effects on lands.
• Reading folktales from the region.
• Writing creative legends to describe natural phenomenon in my photographs.
• Studying the unique characteristics of the desert habitat and what adaptations are needed to survive there.
• Creating maps and travel logs that recreate my fellowship practicing map skills and elapsed time.

Participating in my own self-directed learning experience revitalized my teaching with fresh perspectives. As I enter my sixteenth year in the classroom, this fellowship provided me with time and space to reflect upon my teaching practice, as well as how it has changed over the years. By designing my own learning plan, I was able to focus on some of the elements that brought me to teaching in the first place. I am excited to recommit myself as an educator to curiosity and questioning.

I did not anticipate how much the level of autonomy would effect my learning in this fellowship. I knew that I would learn more about land forms and geography; I didn’t realize how much I would be influenced by how we learn. The education system has been moving to a more test based, data based, linear view of education. This fellowship reminded me to push back on this and allow space for questioning and curiosity. By exploring my own topics, I was able to connect to ways my students can explore in our classroom. By seeing various researchers explore their own topics and connect with
others in novel ways, I was able to see how intellectual sharing is able to deepen one’s own understanding.

This fellowship helped bring me back to center in my educational philosophy which has in its own way eroded over time. When I have spoken with other FFT Fellows, I think that this is one of the key components that makes this fellowship successful. I was able to create a fellowship that met my needs and as a result I was able to reflect on what the fellowship meant to my professional practice. This
time that I was able to study something of interest helped me connect to myself as a learner. This experience is personal for each grant recipient as we pursue topics of interest, but also immensely professional as we develop as educators.

To me, it is very powerful that as a veteran teacher I can speak about how my fellowship helped me to
develop as an educator. There are few learning experiences that I have that focus on my professional development; instead they are more frequently about analyzing data sets and adopting new methods. My Fund for Teachers fellowship let me step back and take a big picture view of what I want to do as an
educator. I went to study sand, rocks and land forms and left recommitted to fostering intellectual curiosity.

Mary Beth Werner (Telpochcalli Elementary School – Chicago, IL) is a second grade teacher who is passionate about bringing hands-on experiences to her classroom. She is a Drive Award winner, as well as a two-time FFT Fellow.

I teach high school Spanish, serve as chairman of the National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY) and am an FFT Fellow. All three of these roles converged in December when I co-led a group of 50 Connecticut FFT Fellows in a one-day workshop asking the post-fellowship question, “What’s Next?”

NNSTOY is a professional association of teachers leading in policy, practice and advocacy. Our national organization’s primary membership consists of State and National Teachers of the Year, as well as finalists. NNSTOY’s mission is to engage ALL educators in leadership opportunities that promote relevant policies and best practices. One way we accomplish this goal is by providing workshops designed to train and grow teacher leaders. The sessions are rooted in the Seven Domains of the Teacher Leader Model Standards. It was my privilege to host this opportunity for my FFT peers and guide them in developing  the skills and dispositions that will allow us to extend our impact beyond the classroom.

As FFT Fellows, we are committed to integrating into our classroom practice the learning that results from our fellowships. We learn, return and can’t help to reflect on the question: “What’s next?” It is easy to create lessons as a result of our fellowship experiences. NNSTOY’s Teachers Leading workshop is special because it allows Fellows to explore how to scale the impact of those lessons beyond individual classrooms. During the session, we spent the day discussing our current and potential roles as teacher leaders and agents of change and considered how we could shift teaching in a way that ultimately impacts more students.

In my presentation, I elaborated on the shift from teaching students to collaborating with adults. The goal was for Fellows to consider how they could expand their impact post-fellowship and promote positive, sustainable change in their schools, districts and beyond. Practically, this meant demonstrating how to facilitate highly effective teams, navigate the change process, and create and implement action plans – new skills for most teachers. In the weeks ahead, NNSTOY will virtually reconvene the Fellows on a webinar to assess how they’re doing and how we can further help them scale their fellowship impact.

As a Fellow I am extremely grateful for the professional learning experience that FFT made possible for me, and through my sharing of NNSTOY’s work on teacher leadership, I felt that I could pay it forward. And so, while our Teachers Leading workshops are normally fee-based, I asked the executive director of NNSTOY if we could provide this training to FFT Fellows at no cost in order to extend their summer learning. She enthusiastically agreed and shared that only by empowering great teachers to lead will we be able to effect real change in education. With teachers leading, I firmly believe that we can improve outcomes for all children and help them to live the lives they dream.

---

A previous Connecticut Teacher of the Year, Chris Poulos (Joel Barrow High School – Redding, CT) is National Board Certified and teaches all levels of Spanish, while also serving as an adjunct professor at Fairfield University. He previously served for two years in a hybrid role, splitting his time between teaching in his district and working alongside policymakers as a Teacher Leader-in-Residence at the Connecticut State Department of Education.

Amy McDonald (Shades Valley High School – Birmingham, AL) recently sat beside Max Steinmetz at Temple Emanu-El, signing books and greeting visitors at an event hosted by Birmingham’s Holocaust Education Center. The two are old friends and partners in educating the next generation about the Holocaust, but on this day, they are author and subject of Amy’s new book, Determined to Survive: A Story of Survival and One Teacher’s Passion to Bring That Story to Life.

Max annually visits with Amy’s AP United States History students to talk about his childhood in Targu Lapus, Romania, and his family’s imprisonment in the Szaszregen Ghetto before being sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp/killing center.

Last year, Max and his wife asked Amy to share his story in writing. She was honored and humbled and agreed.

By using her Fund for Teachers grant to witness places she had heard Max reference with students, Amy was able to bring his story and this book project full circle, not just for her students and other students in Alabama and the United States, but also those in Max’s hometown of Targu Lapus. Additionally, she also now:

• Combines the approaches of teaching the historical context of an event while engaging students with the personal stories and experiences of individuals and groups;
• Challenges students with not just the facts and statistics of what happened during the Holocaust, but by tackling the more complex questions of how and why it happened;
• Collaborates with a Romanian high school teacher on ways to connect classrooms and students;
• Combines teaching the history of the Holocaust with the power of one person’s story;
• Provides students with a first-hand account of the background knowledge of a local Holocaust survivor’s life, knowledge that can be transferred in the forms of world geography, cultural studies, world religions and the history of the Holocaust;
• Makes the numbers, statistics and documentary footage of the Holocaust more personal
• Leverages real-world connections, both locally and in Romania, to collaborate on shared projects such as common readings, You Tube videos and interactive presentations; and,
• Confronts students with how genocide, hate and intolerance impacted individuals, families, and communities, lessons that can be applied in today’s climate of terror, intolerance and prejudice.

Below Amy shares more about how her time in Romania impacted her, her teaching and her students:

“It is impossible to write in a few lines how much I was impacted by visiting Munich, Germany, as well as Targu Lapus and other sites in northern Romania. It was an amazing experience and beyond anything I could have ever expected,” said Amy of her fellowship. “While I saw many important sites, the most valuable and touching times were those spent with teachers and students. Their hospitality, warmth and kindness were truly humbling. Their openness to Max’s story was genuine, and their messages, words and gifts back to him were ones of respect and admiration.

 

There is much work to be done here, and my belief in the value of Holocaust Education was
strengthened even more. This fellowship shaped the experience of my Holocaust Studies class as more than an exchange of information. It allowed me to make the numbers, statistics and documentary footage of the Holocaust more personal. Holocaust education is in a state of transition as survivor witnesses become fewer and fewer. New approaches will be needed to maintain the intimacy of this history that we have been so fortunate to experience. We must prepare ourselves to continue to tell their stories as they have so bravely done in their efforts to ensure that all of those lives lost would not be in vain and that we “Never forget.”  

 

As the plane leaving Romania carried me back home, I had the thought that regarding Max’s story, I had hopefully left no stone unturned. I had now done all I could possibly do. I suddenly realized that I had not. Teachers are never finished. I am only just beginning.”

 

Read more about Max and Amy’s research on his remarkable life at http://bit.ly/FFTSurvivor.

Today mark’s the third annual Mindfulness Day, but an increasing number of FFT Fellows use their grants to incorporate mindfulness into EVERY school day.

Deborah Howard and Judith Fitzgerald (Naubuc Elementary – Glastonbury, CT) spent a week this summer at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, MA.

“When we arrived at Kripalu, we were bubbly, excited and couldn’t stop talking, much like our students on the first day of school. Then, we immediately cringed when we noticed the ‘Quiet, please’ and ‘Enter mindfully’ signs posted everywhere,” said Deborah. “Through the techniques we learned and practiced, we can now help our students learn better emotion regulation leading to less stress and reduced impulsiveness.”

Although strangers prior to their fellowship, Shannon Kephart (Roberto Clemente Community Academy High School – Chicago) and Jodie Lang (Mary T. Murphy Elementary – Brandford, CT) both sought mindfulness practices at the same Buddhist monastery. Shannon teaches Algebra to special education students with various learning and emotional disabilities while Jodie teaches fifth graders at a Title I school. Independently, they observed students lacking focus, patience and cognitive flexibility. At Plum Village Mindfulness Retreat Center in Bordeaux, France, the teachers learned how to bring mindfulness into their own lives through learning sessions, meditations and the integration of mindfulness into daily chores on the working farm.

Shannon says her FFT fellowship completely shifted her mindset about how best to work with students to help them achieve as much success as possible.

“It has given me a new approach for helping students overcome anxiety, low confidence, and concentration difficulties and feel more connected to their school and schoolwork,” she said. “Often, students’ emotions and anxieties get in the way of them being willing to work and put in their best effort. By practicing mindfulness, students can begin to build their comfort level with themselves and grow into the strongest, most courageous, and thoughtful learners possible.”

Additional FFT Fellows research strategies for implementing yoga into their classrooms, like this team from Hinojosa Early Childhood/PreK in Houston who completed Yoga for Classroom Teachers training in the United Kingdom to promote teamwork, healthy living and improved concentration. See how other Fund for Teachers Fellows pursued mindfulness education by visiting our Project Search and enter the key word “mindfulness.”

In June 2014, Washington DC Fellow Ariel Laguilles began his Fund for Teachers fellowship – a 200 mile section of the historic Camino de Santiago pilgrimage from France to Spain. The following three years, he’s returned with his students from Gonzaga College High School.

Ariel’s goals for his FFT fellowship were twofold:

1. Become a pilgrim walking one of the oldest Christian pilgrimage routes to reflect on his
   personal, spiritual and professional life, and
2. Research and create a unique upperclassmen Spanish curriculum for students to reflect on where they have been, where they are and where they hope to be.

Judging from his student’s final observation on the blog maintained throughout the 2015 journey, both of Ariel’s goals have now been met…

“We have arrived! Señor Laguilles, Mr. Szolosi and the boys have made it into Santiago de Compostela! The morning started off relatively early – 6 am – as the goal was to make it to the pilgrim mass at noon. After a short breakfast at a nearby cafe in Pedrouzo, we set out, with the two veterans quickly leaving the high schoolers in the dust.

Today’s mileage was nothing compared to earlier in the week, clocking in at a paltry 12.5 miles. After watching the Km markers on the side of the road slowly dwindle, the boys were excited to see the glimmering city of Santiago on the horizon. It was a shame that that horizon was cleft in two by a mountain. Hours of hiking later, we were finally in the city…

…which was a shame, because the cathedral (where the pilgrimage REALLY ends) was another two miles inward. It was kind of cruel, in a way. The streets of the city were filled with cafes of all sorts and citizens who were clearly not strangers to tired-looking Americans with packs on.

Then, we truly arrived at our destination. The cathedral of St. James, with centuries-old stone towers arcing into the sky, stood before us. The fact that it was covered in scaffolding didn’t faze us at all, as we were too busy congratulating each other on having completed El Camino. Maybe we were celebrating the last day of walking. I dunno.

However, with the end of the Camino only ended the trek. This trip has been full of unique experiences which I wager will come to impact me and my actions for years to come. Reflecting on the trail has been a common theme, and now it is time for us to step back and reflect on what this adventure has meant for all of us. It may be different from person to person, but that’s the magic of the Camino: it provides. Exactly what it provides is up to the peregrino to decide.

The Eagles are on their way home. I hope the plane and train rides pass quickly. I miss my dog.”

Read more about Ariel’s 2014 Fund for Teachers fellowship on the blog he maintained throughout his “walk.” Ariel is a Spanish teacher and Department Chair at his alma mater, Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC. He taught in Managua, Nicaragua, as a Jesuit Volunteer for three and a half years and has been at Gonzaga since his return in 2004. In 2006, Ariel was recognized by the High School Principals Association of the Archdiocese of Washington as a New Teacher of the Year. Aside from teaching, he coaches the school’s cross country and tennis teams, and enjoys ultrarunning “to stay sane.”

by, Natalie Biden & Emilie Jones-McAdams – Bronx, NY

“I looked across the border – that invisible line which separated my family’s old life from our new one – and wondered what was in store for us.”

This was the opening line in one of my student’s free writes about what it means to be a survivor. Barely a teenager, he explained how difficult the process of immigration was on his family. Out of his family’s struggles with emigrating from Mexico to the Bronx, one struggle landed harder int he forefront of his young mind – the lack of cultural and racial acceptance from his peers. Of course, he describes it as bullying, but what it really is: prejudice, ignorance and intolerance. As teachers, we firmly believe that communities in which all cultures are celebrated are the most beneficial places for our students’ educational, social and emotional well being. It is the desire and passion for fostering strong classroom communities that inspired our fellowship.

We left our home in NYC and ventured into the American South and Europe in order to complete a comparative study looking at the significance of those two locations in relation to civil and human rights violations. Through our Fund for Teachers grant, we were able to travel from the American South to Post-Holocaust Europe to discover and research their shared history of both discrimination and reconciliation.

Our key questions were:

1. How can we more effectively teach about the Civil Rights Movement in the American South and the Holocaust?
2. How can students use these historical events to reflect on how they treat peers? and,
3. In what ways can we use the idea of bystanders, victims, and aggressors in historical events to help our students gain a personal awareness of how they impact their peers and school community?

---

We visited over 10 cities (in America and Europe) in the span of one month. Our goal was to visit important historical locations, learn from guides and educators, and collect invaluable artifacts and pieces of knowledge that would aid us in teaching the Civil Rights Movement and the Holocaust.

We started in the South. Some of the highlights were:

• The Robert Russa
  Moton Museum in Farmville, VA, (considered the student birthplace of America’s Civil Rights Revolution)
• Woolworth’s lunch counter where the non-violent sit-in protests began (now housed inside the International Civil Rights Center Greensboro, NC)
• The King Center in Atlanta, GA, which included a visit to his birth home, the Ebenezer Baptist Church where he was a pastor, and his grave site
• The Rosa Parks Library and Museum in Montgomery, AL and,
• Activities in Alabama and Tennessee allowing us to physically walk us through locations of the Civil Rights March, including a service at the 16th Street Baptist Church, where Dr. King often spoke; Kelly Ingram Park, a ground for Civil Rights protests; and the Lorraine Hotel, the location of King’s assassination.

Then we headed to Europe.

We stepped onto four different concentration camps – Auschwitz, Birkenau, Dachau, and Buchenwald. Our Berlin Walking tour focused on periods of repression and persecution of various people groups in the city’s history, while Warsaw offered us a glimpse into its Jewish Ghetto past. By researching in cities such as Berlin, Munich, Krakow, Warsaw, and Prague via train,bus, walking, bike, and Trabant, we were able to appreciate these places for their history, their monuments and important markers of the past, as well as their growth and change over time into the modern cities they have become.

Each destination proved to be a powerful, moving and highly educational experience. In America and Europe, we were steeped in the rich histories, cultures, traditions, and stories. We paid witness to the shoes that the one of the girls was wearing when she lost her life during the 16th Street Baptist Church
bombing, and we paid witness to the thousands of shoes left behind by the victims of Nazi brutality. Never will we forget the things we saw during our journey.

---

After looking out at the world, it was time to look into our classrooms in order to help students develop a critical consciousness that allows for open and honest discussion and exploration of historical and current issues within a safe and supportive classroom community. As a result of our fellowship, students are tackling the complexities of human and civil rights violations. They are engaging in two new units on civil rights – one focusing on the Holocaust and the other on the Civil Rights Movement.

Viewing and discussing artifacts and pictures collected during our journey, and reading the challenging and complex texts gathered from the two major locations of our trip, students are being exposed to the histories of the South and Eastern Europe. We hope that the discussions and work that come out of these
topics will not only push our students thinking in ELA and social studies, but also encourage our students to think critically about the civil rights and equality issues of their time.

---

Culturally-responsive education research proves students thrive in classrooms where all cultural vantage points are considered valuable and celebrated. We believe that it is essential to not only teach tolerance,
respect, and acceptance, but it also important to carefully explore with students the times in history when human rights have been violated, and throughout the year, we will explore these moments in history.

Ultimately, the major impact on the students is learning how to turn tragedies from the past into lessons for the present and future. In the present, they are understanding why people should have basic human rights and what happens when people are denied those rights. This impacts the class by applying those same ideas to how they treat their classmates. When our students leave us and go on to higher levels of education and future careers, they will encounter people different from them and ideas different than theirs. We want our students to be good citizens and thoughtful people who impact their communities in positive ways.Learning to treat people with respect and celebrate differences will set them up to live honorably, think deeply, and engage in the social challenges of their times.