Kicking off Women’s History Month, we share this fascinating fellowship designed by two teachers from Alpine, Texas.

“An American woman with a prosthetic leg, a Black woman born into poverty and segregation, and a Sufi Muslim Indian woman facing prejudice, were not satisfied to stand still or conform,” wrote Cory Cason and Renee Parson in their 2023 Fund for Teachers grant proposal. “Stories of historical figures serve as powerful role models and as high school U.S. and world history teachers we are in a unique position to use them as a classroom tool. Their compelling stories will inspire our students to look beyond their own circumstance as they ‘see’ the world and help cultivate the characteristics of empathy, resilience, adaptability, and courage we wish to see in our students.”

Thus began this teaching team’s quest to follow Virginia Hall, Josephine Baker and Noor Inayat Khan through Europe. Why these women in particular? Because in addition to their public personas as author, entertainer and princess, they also became exceptional WWII spies.

Dead, Old and Irrelevant?

Renee and Cory live in a remote corner of West Texas and teach at a school where sports and organizations such as Future Farmers of America characterize the cadence of the school life and the surrounding community. The history teachers (in addition to coaching track and field, history fair, and UIL academic contests) realized that students’ awareness of the wider world and appreciation of historical events were lacking.

“If we do not tell compelling narratives, our students will not be affected,” said Renee. “We believed that discovering
the stories of historical figures could be used as a strategy to create empathetic global citizens, but it’s difficult to use
historical figures as role models if we and our students cannot relate to them as real people.”

Renee and Cory designed a Fund for Teachers fellowship to:

1. Become experts on Virginia Hall, Noor Inayat Khan and Josephine Baker,
2. Create substantive authentic teaching materials, and
3. Navigate international travel in search of history

to use historical figures as role models by cultivating a real connection to these women and inspire an interest in the world beyond Alpine High School’s campus. The end result would be a new unit called “Spies Like Us.”

Sleuthing Out Surprising Facts

The International Spy Museum in Washington DC kicked off the transatlantic fellowship, where all three women are featured in the “Sisterhood of Spies – Celebrating Women in Espionage” exhibit. Their narratives are told and artifacts are on display, including Baker’s sheet music with invisible ink, a clandestine Mark II radio and transmitter, the type used by Khan and Hall’s Order of the British Empire award.

Next, a flight to London, where the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) recruited Hall and Kahn. A day trip to the Beaulieu Finishing School revealed the site where British SOE spies (including Hall and Kahn) mastered radio communication, weapons and sabotage.

Chunneling to Paris provided the opportunity to visit The Pantheon Mausoleum, where Baker is one of the few women and the first woman of color to be memorialized, as well as visit the Parisian streets and arrondissements where the three women lived and worked — including Avenue Foch where Khan was arrested and interrogated at Gestapo Headquarters. Additional stops included:

• The Musée de la Libération de Paris-Musée du Général Leclerc-Musée Jean Moulin museum partially housed in former secret French Resistance tunnels,
• The Chateau des Milandes where Baker lived after WWII and is now a dedicated museum space with exhibits from all aspects of her life,
• The medieval village of Villefranche-de-Conflent where Virginia Hall began her escape during the
  winter of 1942 with a wooden prosthetic leg over the Pyrenees into Spain, and
• Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site where Noor Inayat Khan was imprisoned and executed.

From every stop, Cory and Renee sent missives to students via social media to report on their findings.

Cluing In in the Classroom

Renee and Cory are translating their experiences into a spy school for students set in the high plateau of the Chihuahuan Desert between the Glass and Davis Mountain Ranges. Students are creating podcasts about women involved in World War II espionage and hosting a dinner party or tea at which students “interview” these same individuals for a cumulative report.

Along the way, the teachers’ content knowledge and mindset expanded as much as the students’:

• The independent bookstore and public libraries asked them to speak about their fellowship; and
• The duo is producing a podcast about the entire experience and impact.

“Sometimes when you do something for a long time, you take it for granted,” said Cory. “Admittedly history was becoming a bit boring for me. But as we traveled, I fell in love with history all over again. Experiencing history outside of the classroom and in the present was an adventure. I found that even though this was my first big trip overseas in 25 years, I was able to take advantage of every moment offered.”

Fund for Teachers does not exist without Friends for Teachers – those of you who contribute financially and donate your time and voices to help us spread the word about our nationally-unique approach to impacting education. On the heels of our hometown of Houston hosting the College Football Championship last month, we are particularly grateful for Extra Yard for Teachers and the College Football Playoffs Foundation.

In addition to sponsoring uplifting events in local schools and collaborating with non-profit education partners in and around the city, Extra Yard for Teachers also donated $100,000 to Fund for Teachers earmarked for fellowships designed by Houston-area teachers. Receiving this gift, as well as this vote of confidence in our approach to investing in teachers, models what is possible through non-profit collaboration and makes the upcoming summer one of new knowledge and insights for Houston educators and, afterwards, their students and school communities.

If you want to learn more about how to support teachers, their students and school communities through Fund for Teachers, contact our development director Stephen Butler.

Tasked with developing and implementing an African American history course in keeping with Virginia governor’s executive order, FFT Fellow Ariel Alford (Alexandria, VA) leveraged a Fund for Teachers fellowship to build content and context knowledge. The following is her account of exploring British Black History last summer and why that matters to her African American History students.

“On August 24th, 2019 at Old Point Comfort, the site where the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia over 400 years ago, Governor Ralph Northam signed Executive Order Thirty Nine and announced the establishment of the Virginia African American History Education Commission. One of the Governor’s many charges to the Commission was to thoroughly examine Virginia’s K-12 curricula and make recommendations for improving the way African American history is taught in Virginia schools. The Commission found that the social studies standards presented a master narrative that erases the presence of non-Europeans from the American landscape and Virginia’s Social Studies Standards of Learning were deemed incomplete with regards to the inclusion of African American.

In light of this research, the Virginia African American History Commission was tasked with:

• ensuring that the standards were more inclusive of African American history;
• providing opportunities for students to deeply engage with the content, drawing connections to its relevance in our contemporary communities: and,
• overseeing the development of the first African American history course ever offered in the state of Virginia.

Impacting the Present

In the Summer of 2021, I was selected to join a curriculum project team and assist in the course development and implementation of a 9-12 African American History elective course within my district’s secondary schools for the 2021-2022 inaugural school year. Within this team, I was tasked with creating and revising course themes, yearlong pacing guide, unit guides, unit objectives, and driving essential questions.

I’ve taught this course from its inaugural year until the present. In these three years I have personally witnessed parents and students share their disappointment at the lack of intentional and progressive inclusion of African American history and global African Diasporic history throughout their K-12 journey. Too often when the content is presented it focuses exclusively and poorly on slavery, suffering and trauma. Students deserve opportunities to confront this “hard history” through various lens – including agency, resistance, and culture.

Therefore, when given the opportunity to propose a Fund for Teachers fellowship centered in students’ interests and culture, my focus was clear. I wanted to continue my commitment to engaging the African Diaspora and exposing my students to the connected diversity within it.

Using a $3,000 grant, I explored significant cultural and historical sites throughout London and other boroughs to document Black British history, with a focus on cross-cultural connections with African Americans during the Civil Rights era and modern social justice movements.

 

BCA is the only Black History museum in the United Kingdom

The World Reimagined was an outdoor exhibit featuring 36 giant globes

I sat in the British Museum and pondered the cultural plundering suffered by African people

Walking Through The Past

Because my current curriculum covers five overarching themes of the African American history course (Agency, Culture & Innovation, Memory, Power, and Resistance), I designed my fellowship to support those themes as well – examples included visiting the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton, The Museum of London Docklands oral history project, and engaging Black History Walks walking tours led by Tony Warner.

What I found most affirming about these experiences was listening to and learning from community leaders who have an unwavering commitment to justice, liberation, and self-determination. From the Black Parents Movement, British Black Panther Party, Speakers Corner in Hyde Park (Docklands), or the hidden Black history in Regents Canal (Black History Walks) I was privileged to witness the preservation of African Diasporic history and culture in real-time.

One of the most formative aspects of the fellowship was developing a partnership with Charles Golding and Lawrence Hoo, founders of the CARGO Movement and its CARGO Classroom initiative. CARGO Classroom and others are leading the charge to elevate Black History education throughout the United Kingdom by building curriculum and resources teachers need to engage African Diasporic history in meaningful ways.

Awakening the Future

This month, as a member of the DC Area Educators for Social Justice, my students are participating in the 2024 Black Lives Matter: Week of Action campaign promoting a set of national demands based in 13 guiding principles that focus on liberation and racial justice in education for youth, educators, and communities. I was able to share my 2024 plans and its connection to my FFT fellowship during our annual BLM @ School Curriculum Fair in mid-January.

For the 2024 week of action, my students and I will focus on principle five Globalism (Globalism: We see ourselves as part of the global Black family and we are aware of the different ways we are impacted or privileged as Black folk who exist in different parts of the world.) to explore the African Diaspora. In connection with my summer fellowship, students will focus on the Black led movement in the UK throughout the 1960s and 70s, analyzing the similarities, differences, and connections between similar Black led movements in the US.

Additionally, students will have the unique opportunity to participate in a virtual workshop with Charles and Lawrence (CARGO Movement) to learn about contemporary issues and movements impacting Black/Afro-Diasporic communities in the UK, preview new digital content from CARGO classroom, and engage in a Q&A session about various topics.

My passion for the holistic development of young people and positive elevation of the African Diaspora are coupled as I continue to seek out innovative experiences for my students. I believe in Dr. John Henrik Clarke’s quote:

“History tells a people where they’ve been, what they’ve been, where they are and what they are. Most importantly, history tells a people where they still must go, what they still must be.”

I am grateful for the role my Fund for Teachers fellowship plays and will continue to play in how I live out this purpose.

 

For more:

• Access troves of varied and in-depth learning curated by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
• Watch FFT Fellow Brian Scannell (Ghent, NY) share about how attending a workshop on radical nonviolence sponsored by The International Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies informed a student field trip from upstate New York through the Deep South to coincide with MLK Day last month.
• Listen to FFT Fellow Pratia Jordan (Houston) reflect on her fellowship researching the Transatlantic Slave Trade through historical sites in Europe, Africa and North America to teach students that their history didn’t start or end with slavery.

Thanks to FFT Fellow Tim Barry for his reflection on his two Fund for Teachers fellowships inspired by students’ curiosity and focused on elevating the experiences of Native Americans during World War II.

I am in my sixteenth year as a Special Education Teacher and have spent fifteen of those years teaching middle
school. Based on students’ needs, much of my time is spent teaching and supporting students in English and social studies classes. Our 7th-grade students read Code Talkers, by Joseph Bruchac and Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Houston as part of our English curriculum that explores the importance and impact of identity. In 8th grade, we read All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque. The beauty of this subject matter is that it fosters intellectual curiosity in our students. They want to know more, they want to ask questions, and oftentimes, these questions create dialogue and a spirit of inquiry that extends into authentic, teachable moments.

As a student of history, I am very familiar with the Pacific and European Theaters of World War II. Admittedly, the story of the Navajo was one that I was aware of, but not well-versed in. When reading Code Talkers, the idea that is most foreign and confusing to our students revolves around “why?”

Why would the Navajo be so loyal to a country that attempted to erase their culture? Why would these people be willing to save the country, with nothing in return?

As Code Talkers is our students’ first introduction to the World War I & II subject matter, it is the ideal opportunity to take an anchor text and extend the discussion beyond the pages of a book. This is not just a story of what the Navajo did, but an introduction to WHO the Navajo are. This fellowship provided me with an opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of how their culture and identity impacted their role in World War II and bring back an authentic experience to the students.

Having previously completed a Fund for Teachers fellowship to Manzanar in 2018 to examine life in and around Japanese Relocation Camps in Utah and Colorado, I was awarded a second grant last summer to engage with the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico. I examined the importance of cultural identity and explored how that identity empowered them to overcome marginalization by the U.S. Government and embrace the role as Code Talkers in World War II.

Read more about Tim’s 2023 fellowship here.

The highlight of my fellowship was hearing Peter MacDonald speak at the National Code Talkers Day event. Mr. MacDonald, at 94, is the youngest of the three living Code Talkers. He told the story of his enlistment at the age of 15 and the pride he felt in being Navajo and wearing the Marine Corps uniform. During his speech, he implored the Navajo youth to continue learning, protecting, and using the Navajo language despite its challenges because language is the key to sovereignty.

As I spoke to members of the Navajo Nation, I began to question my qualifications to teach about the Code Talkers’ story. This was not due to any unfavorable reception of my fellowship; quite the opposite, everyone I interacted with was welcoming and willing to share their knowledge. My concern revolved around doing justice to their culture, community, and the Code Talkers. Ultimately, it will drive me to deepen my learning and seek experts to share their stories.

The experiences I returned with have allowed me to provide authentic insight and perspectives to increase and enhance my students’ comprehension within our Code Talker unit. I gathered a variety of vetted, leveled texts to enrich academic discussions among students of varying ability levels. Most importantly, I have created relationships with people who can offer a cultural background vastly different from my students and foster a climate of understanding.

My Fund for Teachers fellowship reinforced the importance of self-discovery and lessons presenting themselves. My experience initially concentrated on enhancing my understanding of Code Talkers, which evolved into a story of the preservation of language, culture, and identity that is still challenging today.

When experiencing new cultures, we cannot rely solely on academics studying from a distance. It is critical to interact with communities directly to ensure that shared knowledge is culturally relevant.

Additionally, the fellowship enhanced my desire to explore and foster a sense of intellectual curiosity with my colleagues. The opportunity it provides for teachers to enrich their learning and share the inspiration of self-study rekindles much of the excitement that brought many of us into teaching.

Halloween can be a scary time for teachers, due students’ sugar highs, costumes gone wrong, and the  “ghosting” of students” the day after. For Jinafer Brown’s French students, the learning takes on a fatal feel, as well.

Jinafer used a Fund for Teachers grant to explore the mysterious megalithic stone structures in Western Europe, gather evidence from French forensic scientists and archeologists on the origins of the civilizations that built these structures and create an inquiry-based unit to improve students’ science literacy skills.

This fellowship focused on death is rooted in data: 79% of students at Jenks High School scored below proficient at in science. Additionally, an Academic State Standards for World Languages that Jinafer struggles to meet is “expanding students’ knowledge of other disciplines while using the language to develop critical thinking.” Researching Neolithic stones in Western Europe and the French forensic evidence of their origins offered the perfect mix of science and language (and also speaks to the free reign our grant recipients have when crafting their unique fellowships).

Read our 2022 Halloween post about FFT Fellows’ research of Jack the Ripper here

Enter If You Dare — And She Did

Last summer on her Fund for Teachers fellowship, Jinafer documented:

• the Megalithic Passage Tombs of Boyne Valley of County Meath, Ireland (older than Stonehenge in England and the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt)
• the Gavrinis Tumulus in France, built in 3500 BCE;
• Roche-aux-fees, a 5,000-year-old passage tomb in Western France (pictured at the top of this post);
• the Carrowkeel Mounds near Sligo, Ireland; and,
• the Clava Cairns, a 4,000 burial site near Inverness, Scotland.

Her research included filming the sites for VR headsets, touring museums — such as the Archeology Museum of Dublin, where remains of “bog people” from AD 20 are on display — and interviewing docents. Jenifer participated in a workshop about the first villages of France at Paris’ Musée d’Archéologie Nationale in conjunction with annual European Archaeology Days and joined summer solstice celebrations at stone circles in Scotland.

Her Haunting Question

Throughout her learning, one question haunted her: “Should I be here?”

“I found that I had an internal debate as to whether or not funeral sites should be excavated. Should the remains of these kings and respected leaders be disturbed and viewed by thousands of visitors each day or should they remain closed out of respect for their cultures and their beliefs?” said Jinafer. “My professional mindset is that one’s intention makes all the difference. If one is studying these remains in order to make connections and remember the culture of that civilization, this is honorable.”

Demystifying the Megaliths

Jinafer created this fantastic website for students to discover the “Mysteries of the Megaliths.” Here they will view videos and interviews in the French language.

“I gathered PDFs and hard-copy books that explain the Neolithic civilizations in French. I collected articles and 360-degree photos that allow students to examine artifacts extracted from tombs in Ireland, Scotland, and France. Using Virtual Reality headsets [which Jinafer secured with a second grant], these materials will come to life.”

Using a THIRD grant, Jinafer purchased friction kits and students will follow the science lab friction experiment procedures in French.

“In small groups, students will propose prototypes of sleds and other means to Move a Megalith, she said. “Community partners (retired engineers and business owners) will work with students to build their prototypes. Last, in a school-wide event, students will carry out their experiments to see if they can move a megalith using only materials available in the Neolithic era.”

Take advantage of the website, that includes Jinafer’s FFT grant proposal, here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For hundreds of teachers, today changes everything. Because today, Fund for Teachers’ 2024 grant application opens. Empowered by experiential learning fueled by $5,000 (for individuals) or $10,000 (for teams of two or more), our grant recipients are inspired to rethink their practice and reignite their passion for teaching, which consequently impacts their classrooms, school communities and careers for years to come.

PreK-12 teachers from across the country are invited to propose a summer fellowship that is:

1. professionally centered on students, and
2. personally supports their development as experts and exemplars for students and colleagues alike.

Our application deadline is January 18, 2024, and members of the 2024 FFT Fellow cohort will be notified on April 4, 2024.

Start Your Application Here

Are You Eligible?

YES, if you:

• Teach full-time in a public/private/charter or religious school with at least 50% of instruction in a classroom or classroom-like setting (including a library, gym or pull-out scenario);
• Will return to the classroom the following year; and,
• Have completed three years of teaching by the conclusion of the 2023-24 school year.

What’s Your Re?

This year, we’re asking potential applicants to consider “What’s your Re-?” In other words, what could a Fund for Teachers grant help you accomplish? 

• Reengage students in learning that centers them? 
• Recharge from burnout? 
• Reconsider narratives you’ve taught? 
• Revisit topics that once held your curiosity and could inspire your students? 

During the next few months, Fund for Teachers will offer webinars and workshops designed to facilitate fellowship proposals that have the best chance of being awarded. (Watch our website for updates and registration links).

We also encourage applicants to take advantage of our Online Learning Center, which has links to the scoring criteria, grant writing tips, and a timeline for managing the process.

“Fund for Teachers is the country’s largest investor in teachers’ professional learning, with approximately 10,000 educators awarded $32,000,000 in grants for self-designed fellowships since 2001,” said Karen Eckhoff, executive director. “Now it’s time to add to our cohort of teacher leaders committed to their profession and their students’ learning.”