The motto of Edward W. Morley Elementary School in West Hartford, CT, is “Character Builds Community.” Principal Ryan Cleary and the school’s staff sought a meaningful way to put that motto into action and decided to focus special attention on the country and people of Haiti. In collaboration with the nearby Crosby Fund for Haitian Education, students exchanged artwork with the L’Ecole Papillion primary school in Deschapelles, Haiti, an exchange that culminated in a community-wide art auction to perpetuate the international relationship. Further, students and parents raised money (teacher Kimberly Ashworth taught students how to knit hats, which they sold) to sponsor four Haitian students’ tuition for one year. Inspired by students’ sustained interest in the project and their new peers, a cross-curricular team of teachers designed a Fund for Teachers fellowship to visit L’Ecole Papillion, learn more about the needs there and strengthen collaborative learning opportunities.

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Kimberly, FFT team member Dave Aparo, and a student sponsored by Morley Elementary.

FFT Team from Morley Elementary in Deschapelles.

“Prior to our fellowship, much of the content I presented to my students was based on hearsay and information I had found on the internet,” said Kimberly upon her return. “Now my teaching is based on actual experiences and personal knowledge. My goal is to inspire them to help others and appreciate other cultures and ways of living.”

Judging from the actions of students Olivia Chambers and Ella Haggerty, GOAL ACCOMPLISHED. After learning about the plight of Haitian children unable to pay the requisite school fees, these fourth graders set out to be the change they want to see in the world. This dynamic duo recently presented to the local school board their impact and next steps and were gracious enough to share the transcript of their speech:

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Olivia: Since the middle of last year, we’ve been raising money for Haitian kids to go to school.  We never thought that donating money to a charity would lead to writing, rehearsing and performing a speech.  We would like to thank our families for supporting us and overall just being wonderful about our bumps, needs, and even our wants.  Now you’re all probably wondering, why are two 10-year old’s here speaking tonight?

Ella: Thank you, Olivia.  Our story started last year when we were in 4^th grade.  We had something called academic choice time where we could do anything that involved self-driven learning for an hour on Friday afternoons.  We knew we wanted to do something together, so we narrowed it down to something to do with making a donation, but which one?  After some thought, we decided to work towards a way to donate money to Haitian girls and boys to go to school and to purchase supplies.

Make up application and mani/pedis were a few of Spa Haiti’s services.

There are a couple of reasons why we chose this path.  Last New Year, I made a resolution.  I told myself I would make a difference.  At our school in West Hartford, we have a sister school in Haiti.  We’re helping to raise money for the children there.  Olivia had a big role, she’s our treasurer, so she keeps all the money safe.  Olivia and I decided we would save our own birthday money, tooth fairy money and pennies from our penny collection. We also raised money through bake sales, car washes and even by offering spa services at our own spa.

We saved money all through the school year. By June, we had saved $200 to provide a Haitian child a 1-year scholarship. Morley teachers who traveled to Haiti this past summer were able to meet 10-year-old Sophia Melissa Albert. She was the girl who received a scholarship with the money we raised. We were especially glad to hear that she was chosen because we found out she no longer has her own parents. Over this past summer we continued our effort and raised an additional $375 by hosting a fundraising event to provide a 2^nd scholarship and to buy school supplies.

Olivia: Getting invited to this event touched our hearts and made us proud, excited, nervous, and now we feel like global citizens, as we know you all are too.

What we want to come out of this is not fame, or to put it on a college application.  We want to change the world for the better.  We want this to go national and have people donate and help us make a difference.  And, we want the 2 kids that we are sponsoring to complete primary school and go on to high school and college. We hope they get a job and send their kids to school (if they have kids) –– and to create a snowball effect of goodness.

We would also like to acknowledge our 4^th grade teacher for all she did to inspire us.  She will always be our favorite teacher.  Thank you, Kimberly Ashworth! Thank you also to Mr. Cleary, our Principal, for encouraging Morley students to do self-driven learning. Also, we are grateful that the Fund for Teachers helps educators to go on their own self-driven experiences and that the Dalio Foundation provides the funding for them to go.

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To watch news coverage on Ella and Olivia, click here.

WWII Veteran, business leader, philanthropist and stalwart individualist, Raymond N. Plank passed away at his beloved home in Ucross, Wyoming on Thursday, November 8^th, 2018 at the age of 96. Throughout his life, he continued working, writing, reading, learning and contributing to society.

Plank founded Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA) and managed it for fifty-five years as it became a global energy enterprise. He was active in state, national and international politics during his career, was a leader in promoting civil rights, and founded several successful non-profit organizations promoting the arts, education and conservation.

The youngest of four siblings, Raymond Norwood Plank was born on May 29, 1922 on a farm in Wayzata, Minnesota to farmer, coal miner and printer, Raby Plank and Maude Ruth Howe Plank. His parents’ schooling was limited but they instilled in their children the value of education and Plank dedicated himself to lifetime learning.

As a young boy, Raymond demonstrated his entrepreneurial bent selling eggs, maple syrup and other products produced on the family farm. He attended the Blake School in Minneapolis and earned admission and entered Yale University in September 1940. A member of Pierson College, he relished college life and made many lifelong friends. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Plank enlisted in the US Army Air Corps Reserves. He was called to active duty in March 1943 and would not resume his education until the end of the war.

After completing his flight training in Fort Stockton, TX and instructor’s flight school at Randolph AFB, Raymond piloted B-24 bombers of the 64^th Bomber Squadron of the 43^rd Bomb Group in the Pacific Theater from March 1944 to December 1945. He completed forty combat missions, earning a Bronze Star, two Oak Leaf Clusters, and numerous other combat related commendations. Many of his missions encountered furious enemy fire and three of the aircraft he steered safely back to base were so badly damaged they never flew again. On August 9, 1945, Plank witnessed from the air the mushroom cloud rising from the second nuclear bomb “Fat Man” dropped on Nagasaki, which forced the Japanese to surrender.

At Yale graduation

Upon graduating from Yale in 1946 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Plank returned to Minneapolis and with two partners formed Northwest Business Service, an accounting, tax and business advisory firm. One of his partners Carl Somekawa, a Japanese American, whom Plank hired and supported in spite of severe discrimination during and after the war, was one of the first instances of Plank’s commitment to defending and promoting the civil rights of individuals.

Through providing accounting and tax advice, Plank became familiar with investment structures being offered to individuals in oil and gas exploration. Recognizing that investors’ interests in the field could be better served through a different structure, Plank and two friends, Truman Anderson and Chuck Arnao, formed Apache Corporation in 1954 with $250,000 in initial capital. Apache offered its first oil and gas investment program in 1956 and funded much of its early growth through drilling funds, which provided tax advantages to individuals. Always innovative, Apache created the first vehicle for program participants to exchange illiquid units for publicly-traded stock, and in 1981 created the first public Master Limited Partnership (MLP), a structure that revolutionized the financing and growth of asset-based businesses in all aspects of the energy business as well as many others.

Anderson, Plank and Arnao formed Apache Corpration (APA on NYSE) in 1954

As a public company Plank grew Apache rapidly by acquiring and developing property packages from major oil and gas companies and extended its presence internationally with concessions in Egypt, Australia, China, The North Sea, Poland, Canada, and Argentina.  Apache ultimately became one of the world’s leading independent oil and gas concerns with thousands of employees, 2.4 billion BOE reserves, and a market capitalization exceeding $50 billion.

Unlike many founders and CEOs in the oil & gas business, Plank’s management approach had a strong financial and accounting perspective. Under his leadership, Apache was always financially innovative but also conservatively capitalized, and careful financial management of all projects was emphasized. He observed his industry environment with the same focus on financial reporting, structure and performance, and was not afraid to speak out when he saw or suspected abuse or malfeasance. He was notably involved in the late 1990s and early 2000s in criticizing and ultimately exposing the unethical and illegal financial manipulations of Enron.

During his tenure as Chairman and CEO of Apache, Plank founded several charitable organizations that have enriched the lives of millions.  Believing that artists need creative space to focus their energies, he established the Ucross Foundation in 1981, an internationally recognized artist-in-residence program on a 20,000-acre Wyoming ranch. More than 2,000 artists, writers and composers from around the world have been awarded residencies, and experienced the gift of uninterrupted time and space, surrounded by the austere beauty of the Wyoming grasslands.  Ucross residents have earned prestigious recognition, including ten Pulitzer Prizes, nine MacArthur “Genius” Fellowships, six National Book Awards, six Tony Awards, and two Academy Awards.

Plank’s love for Wyoming led to a lifelong dedication to conservation efforts, which included the 1999 establishment of a conservation easement on the Ucross Ranch with The Nature Conservancy in Wyoming. His vision for Ucross as a multi-use resource center included the restoration of a 19^th century barn and ranch house, known as Big Red, now listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. He later spearheaded the creation of the Park at Ucross in 2012, which features the interdenominational Ucross Chapel, open to the public at all times, the Johansen Memorial Gardens, and the Raymond Plank Creative Center.

Greeting FFT Fellows; touring a Springboard School for Girls in Egypt

Plank was a fearless learner and had a deeply held respect for teachers as the architects of our civil society.  In 2001, he created Fund for Teachers, a national organization that empowers teachers to push the boundaries of their own learning in order to spark creativity and life-long learning in their students. He understood that an investment in a great teacher has a ripple effect, ultimately touching the lives of thousands of students.  To date, eight thousand Fund for Teacher Fellows, working with more than twenty-four million students, have designed their own learning odysseys, deepened their knowledge in over one hundred countries, and brought back new opportunities for students to explore what lies beyond their own horizon line.  Another educational initiative, Springboard – Educating the Future, was established in 2004 during Apache’s active concession development in Western Egypt, and now has two hundred one-room schools for girls, provides educational opportunities to this underserved population in Egypt.

He endowed the Raymond Plank Professorship of Global Energy Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School, the Raymond Plank Chair in Incentive Economics at Carleton College and has been generous in his support of Yale University. As a corporate leader, Plank spearheaded Apache’s charitable activities. Raymond along with Apache Corporation has funded programs to, among other things, plant over four million trees across the US. He was active and influential in statewide and national politics during his career and continued his involvement after his retirement, when he was proud to have raised in excess of $1,000,000 in individual contributions in support of the Presidential Campaign of Donald Trump as well as strongly supporting the Wyoming Republican gubernatorial candidate.

Plank retired as Chairman of Apache Corporation in January 2009. He remained active as a consultant to the Company and in support of his many charitable activities. He completed and published his memoir, A Small Difference, in 2012. The memoir drew from over eighty years of daily diaries that Raymond kept religiously beginning in first grade with his teacher’s encouragement to improve his penmanship. The title was inspired by his father’s advice to him at age ten “to try to make a very small difference on behalf of others.”

In 2013, in a unique partnership with the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Plank established the Ucross High Plains Stewardship Initiative focused on land management in the American West.  The initiative provides students with opportunities to connect with land management practitioners in Wyoming and beyond, while also pursuing cutting-edge research aimed at enhancing the ability of landowners to make financially and ecologically sustainable decisions.  More recently, he established the Plank Stewardship Initiative to further promote conservation practices within working agriculture.  Plank has donated his archives and memorabilia to be conserved at the Minnesota Historical Society while contributing significant funding to assist with the Society’s restoration of Historic Fort Snelling in Minneapolis, where his collection will ultimately be housed and where, fittingly, Raymond first enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942.

Plank was an avid outdoorsman who loved hunting and fishing well into his eighties.  He was a crack shot with a rifle and shotgun, once bringing down an antelope at six hundred yards.  He loved walleye fishing with family, longtime friends and business associates at Lake of the Woods, Ontario, Canada.  He delighted in annual corporate team-building hunting trips to Ucross, WY he held every year for Apache executives and taught many a newcomer to enjoy the sport.

Plank was known for being a demanding, driven and outspoken yet respectful and encouraging leader who had confidence in the potential of every individual and inspired admiration, affection and loyalty among his employees and colleagues. Raymond led a remarkable, achievement and service filled life, guided by principles instilled by his parents and perhaps best embodied in his quote engraved at the entrance to Apache headquarters in Houston:

“The capacity of the individual is infinite. Limitations are largely of habit, convention, acceptance of things as they are, fear, or lack of self-confidence.”

Raymond was married three times. His first wife was Sally Stevens, with whom he had five children; Katherine, Michael, Pamela, Roger and Dana. Subsequent marriages were to Lollie Benz and Heather Burgess, with whom he had a sixth child, Raby. He was preceded in death by his parents, Maude Ruth Howe Plank and Raby Plank; his sister, Rebecca Pettijohn (husband William); sister, Ruth Plank; and brother, Raby Plank.

Raymond is survived by his children, Katherine Bovey Plank Sage of Longmont, CO; Michael Raby Plank and his wife, Mary Holter Plank of Buffalo, WY; Roger Barton Plank and his wife, Constance Ryan Plank of Houston, TX; Pamela Stevens Plank Thaut of Tucson, AZ; Dana Raymond Plank and his wife, Maureen Parker Plank of Boise, ID; Raby Burgess Plank and his wife, Kelsey Hall Plank of Denver, CO; and his nephew, William “Tom” Pettijohn and his wife, Cheryl Pettijohn of Sedona, AZ.  Raymond has twelve grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.

Memorial services will be held at Christ The King Presbyterian Church, 1201 Silber Road in Houston, Texas on Thursday, November 29^th, 2018 at 1:00 PM followed by a reception for close friends and family at Houston Country Club.  In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to Ucross Foundation http://www.ucrossfoundation.org or Fund For Teachers http://www.fundforteachers.org.

His children would like to give special thanks to Dr. Edmund Chute of Minnesota, longtime friend and personal doctor, Dr. Alysse Williams and Johnson County Healthcare of Buffalo, WY, Mel’s Helping Hands of Casper, WY, Hospice of the Big Horns and Dr. Irving Robinson of Sheridan, WY for their warm and exceptional care of their father.

Pixar’s Coco familiarized many with the tradition of Dia de los Muertos, or “Day of the Dead.” And before Nancy MacBride‘s fellowship to Oaxaca, Mexico, the annual holiday inspired Voluntown Elementary’s singular art project honoring Latin American history and culture. Now, the celebration honoring life and death is just one in a series of year-long art opportunities linked with Latin culture in a preK-8 school that only offers 60 hours of social studies instruction annually.

“Voluntown, CT, is a rural, homogenous community with only one school (ours) where only 1% of students have other languages spoken at home,” explained Nancy. “The insular culture creates challenges for children to learn about different cultures and accept the differences in others. I felt our students needed cultures, not walls, so I designed a fellowship to make it happen.”

Usually Fellows’ implementation of their summer grants begins upon their return to the classroom, but Nancy started the learning when she applied for her FFT grant in the fall of 2017.

• Through the school’s PTO and a local Mexican restaurant’s sponsorship, three groups of Mexican folk artists visited the school.
• Older students read Esperanza Rising in English and created ofrendas, or altars, for loved ones who’ve passed away.
• Kindergarteners created multi-media collages of a Mexican desert landscape.
• Second graders learned Zapotec weaving techniques.
• Fourth graders read and illustrated a Mexican legend and painted portraits of Frida Kahlo.
• Fifth graders created metallic masks inspired by Pre-Columbian versions.
• Multiple grades watched PBS’ “Craft in America” episodes on Mexican art and were introduced to an artisan Nancy would meet on her fellowship.

The “pre-learning” culminated in a community Noche Mexicana last spring, attended by students, their families and government dignitaries.

This summer, students followed Nancy (a working artist herself) via Instagram as she lived out the learning they shared the year before. Nancy spent a month in Oaxaca, staying in a community that caters to local artisans, taking language classes, sketching World Heritage Sites and experiencing Pre-Columbian and folk art in surrounding museums and cultural centers. She practiced weaving through the Weaving Oaxaca initiative alongside a twelve-year-old teacher whose family has dyed natural wools and created art for generations; she also worked with Zapotec ceramist Adrian Martinez for a week. The highlight was visiting the artist studio of Magdalena Pedro Martinez, whom students came to know through the “Craft in America” series.

This fall, Nancy’s experiences in Mexico continue to inspire projects and discussions with students. Fifth graders are preparing to create wooden assembled animals inspired by Mexican alebrijes. Sixth graders are creating their own versions of sculptures modeled after artifacts Nancy brought back from Josefina’s Oaxacan workshop. And beginning this week, students of all ages will have the opportunity to join a new Spanish Club Nancy initiated as an elective.

Perhaps more importantly, students have a new appreciation for “our neighbors to the south,” according to Nancy. As a volunteer with the Voluntown Peace Trust, she collaborates with the Hartford Catholic Worker to bring urban minority children out of the city to enjoy the surrounding nature. Nancy’s leadership as a role model through this effort, combined with the cross-disciplinary learning she provides, is creating a new culture in the school community.

“My admiration of artists from other cultures helps break down the walls and build bridges to other cultures for students,” she said. “My Fund for Teachers fellowship wasn’t just about the place visited, or knowledge, skills and capabilities I gained; it also moved appreciation of Mexican culture from my head to my heart and that passion is now spreading to my students.”

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Nancy (pictured with a state selectman and superintendent at Noche Mexicana) has taught art for 31 years, a career that has included teaching sculpture to widows and orphans in Zambia and earned her Connecticut’s Outstanding Elementary Art Teacher award. She frequently exhibits her own work in galleries and museums, which you can see on her website. (Top picture of students dressed as Frida and her fawn at the Noche Mexicana.)

Happy Halloween! Today, we’re celebrating the clever teachers who incorporate creepy into their curriculum to engage students. Read on, if you dare…

Emily at The Stanley Hotel

Emily Young (High School for Arts, Imagination and Inquiry – Brooklyn) investigated how places “haunt” writers and readers by exploring Salem, MA, and The Stanley Hotel (which inspired Stephen King’s The Shining) to ignite my students’ interest in reading, the writing process, and how their own places are imbued with meaning.

“I wanted to expand and improve my teaching practice when I had the time and freedom to play with ideas. The school year is so fast-paced that it can be difficult to experiment and just let your brain wander — there is often a fear of sacrificing valuable instructional time for something that might not pay off. My fellowship gave me the chance to work and discover at my own pace, and more deeply than I am able to during the school year.”

In a Charleston cemetery on the Ghost Tour.

Kelly Benham, Kathy Rutherford, Melissa Waterman and Ronda Hatton (Owasso 8th Grade Center – Owasso, OK) walked in the steps of patriots, pirates, slaves, soldiers and ghosts in Charleston, SC, to study the city’s influence on American history and facilitate students’ ownership of our country in a way that improves their stewardship of civil rights and duties.

“On the fourth day of our fellowship, we experienced the dark edges of Charleston on the Ghost and Provost Dungeon Tour. We descended under one of the cities oldest buildings, The Old Exchange Building – now a museum. Some of the highlights of this day was hearing the low country superstitions of spirits like Plateyes and Boo Hags, as well as learning about the haunted houses and structures such as the South End Brewery. This day may be one of the most exciting to our students. What child doesn’t love to hear about ghosts, pirates, and prisons where the innocent and guilty died of disease and horrible conditions?”

Greeting Lord Byron amidst the mist of Aberdeenshire.

LaVerne McDonald, Phylecia Raglund and Stephen Howard (Ossie Ware Mitchell Middle School – Birmingham, AL) explored the British Isles’ geography, cultural influences, and historic sites that inspired Byron, Polidori and Stoker’s development of vampire legends to increase students’ interest in reading. Read more about their impact here.

“After telling students what to read for all those years, I turned it back on them and asked what they wanted to read. ‘Vampire stories’ unanimously topped the list. I decided if I could use vampires to get their attention, then I automatically get their interest and the war was won.”

At the spot memorializing the mummy’s discovery.

Kelly Houston (School for Democracy and Leadership – Brooklyn) trekked to the site of Otzi the Iceman’s death on the Tisenjoch Pass along the Italian-Austrian border and also explore artifacts related to the mummy at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology’s Otzi exhibit in Bolzano, Italy, to create a Forensics mastery project about possibly the oldest victim of murder and increase students’ skills and interest in science. Read more about her impact here.

“I was able to see Otzi’s body and belongings and visit Neolithic sites, Glacier museums and zoos to get a better sense of Otzi’s environment and the crime scene itself — the oldest unsolved murder case in human history. Students now study about Otzi through lessons that I created and complete a mastery project around his case, developing their own hypotheses as to why and how Otzi died and presenting their findings to peers and professionals at our annual science fair.”

Learning how disease was transmitted from a historian at the Cosmeston Medieval Village in Penarth, UK.

Tania Williams, Lanetta Koonce and David Williams (Lauderdale County High School, Rogersville, AL) tour the Center for Disease in Atlanta and research historic sites in the United Kingdom related to the Black Death to guide students’ understanding of disease transmission, the role diseases play in governmental policies and social customs, and the effects of a pandemic on literature.

“When designing our fellowship, we thought a  unit on diseases would help them to make educated choices and provide them with insight as to how society is touched by sickness and death. We never dreamed how the experience itself would shape the way we teach and think. And we discovered that our research was not really about death; it was about helping our students live healthy lives. When it comes down to it, all of education should be about enriching the lives of students.”

Starr Weems’ students live in a state that ranks at the top in biodiversity, childhood obesity and unhappiness. Her answer: Get them outside.

Scientists refer to the Alabama farmland surrounding Ardmore High School as “America’s Amazon,” but Starr’s survey of students revealed that 56% of them spend less than three hours per week outside — including school sports practices and PE classes. According to her, they didn’t know what they have in their literal backyard. A Fund for Teachers fellowship helped change that.

Last summer, Starr used her grant to earn Wilderness First Responder certification on the Appalachian Trail and, afterwards, complete a four-day hike across Icelandic glaciers, geothermal hot spots, lava fields, mountains and rivers. Throughout it all, she created a sketchbook to serve as an example for students in her Naturalist Studies program.

“This experience taught me how to manage student risk in remote settings, negotiate a wide variety of landscapes and weather conditions, and intertwine art and culture with the environment,” said Starr. “Now, if we’re learning about plants, we hike into the forest to find them. If we are exploring how cypress trees grow in water, we kayak out to see them. If we are studying geology, we get out in the rocks and go bouldering and rappelling.”

Starr sees students becoming more appreciative of the state’s natural resources, making them more likely to be stewards of their global hotspot of biodiversity that supports potential careers in forestry, tourism and agriculture.

“My students are next in line to be caretakers of this rare world treasure, but they won’t be inspired to care for it if they don’t feel a connection to it,” she said. “In helping them engage with our natural world, I’m helping prepare them to make wise decisions as future decision makers. People protect what they love.”

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The name of our 49th state derives from the Aleut word alyeska, or “great land.” Many FFT Fellows would agree after experiencing the culture and ecology of the land that – 151 years ago today – was acquired from Russia for $7.2 million. In celebration of Alaska Day, enjoy the following images, insights and impact of grant recipients’ learning in “The Last Frontier.”

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2018

Panning for gold in Mineral Creek.

Robin Barboza-Josephson & Catherine Gardner (New Milford High School – New Milford, CT) joined an expedition through the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and Denali National Park to demonstrate the work of scientists and move ecology education to a model supporting Next Generation Science Standards. (Featured in clip above.)

“We hope to trigger a need for changes in human behavior to try and combat global warming before it is too late. I hope that by sharing my photos and experiences with them, they will realize that their behavior here (4000 miles away) still has an impact on environments they have never seen before.”

Listening to a lecture by Sheeren on Glacier Bay.

Columbus may have sailed the ocean blue in fourteen hundred ninety two, but South Dakota instituted October 8 as Indigenous Peoples’ Day in nineteen hundred eighty nine as a counter-celebration. This is the holiday Rebecca Zisook’s students will be commemorating today due, in large part, to her FFT fellowship this summer.

“Previously, our third grade curriculum included an ‘Explorers’ unit that glorified post-Columbus imperialism and oppression of those colonized under a mask of purported bravery and achievement,” said Rebecca. “I wanted my Latinx students to be aware of the bravery and achievements of their ancestors, and I wanted to communicate with them more fluently beyond conversational Spanish.”

At the Library of Congress, reading, with a magnifying glass, an 1860’s issue of the Frederick Douglass Papers.

With her $5,000 Fund for Teachers grant, Rebecca investigated the richness of Mesoamerica’s indigenous peoples, first using primary sources from  the Library of Congress and the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, and then through language and cultural immersion in Oaxaca, Mexico. Her goal was to gain a nuanced perspective of Mesoamerican peoples and bring this knowledge to students in a way that applies to a broader American and global perspective.

Through guided tours of sites like the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, Rebecca learned the dominant narratives about customs and peoples from the region. She sought out primary source materials as taught at the Library of Congress Summer Teacher Institute she attended prior to departing for Mexico, and enrolled in a four-week language school while living with a host family in Oaxaca. Her experience there included touring the Ethnobotanical Gardens and partaking in cultural events, such as a Guelaguetza, the annual celebration uniting representatives from 16 different ethnolinguistic groups.

Rebecca’s view of the Guelaguetza, watching performances from people from across the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

Rebecca plans to host her own Guelaguetza at Chicago’s Helen C. Peirce School of International Studies this year. She’s also collaborating with colleagues on an enhanced International Night in keeping with the school’s International Baccalaureate tradition and is in the process of replacing the “Explorers” unit with a “Culture” one.

“We can change the mindset of those who believe that speaking Spanish is somehow a hindrance to learning or identity,” said Rebecca. “We can break the pattern of Spanish-speaking immigrants feeling shame instead of pride for their home language. We can reclaim our histories, our languages, and our identities. We can build a more empathic world.”

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In honor of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday today, we share the thoughts of teachers who analyzed his practice of ahimsa, or non-violence on their 2015 FFT fellowship. Katie Seltzer and Eric Berge spent five weeks in India learning about the teaching of non-harm present in Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. They share some of their experiences and insights below:

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]Q[/minti_dropcap] Can you briefly describe your fellowship — where you went and why?

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]A[/minti_dropcap] We were truly immersed in the culture of non-violence during our participation in the International School for Jain Studies Teaching for Peace Program by living, (even eating!) and studying nonviolence. Additionally, with our side trip to Varanasi, we explored the Buddhist roots of nonviolence in India by visiting Sarnath, the site of the Buddha’s first sermon, where he taught the origins of suffering and the method for overcoming suffering. In Varanasi, we explored the Hindu practice of cremation on the sacred Ganges River—a returning of body and soul to the earth in a non-violent burial practice. From these experiences, we deepened our understanding of ahimsa through the study of Gandhi’s writing and visiting his home in Mumbai, his home in New Delhi and site of his assassination, and the site of his cremation. We were impressed with Gandhi’s commitment to simple living, exemplified by the exhibit on his few possessions. The inspiration for our learning was to determine how schools and students can be agents of peace in the midst of diverse cultures and religious illiteracy.

On the Ganges River in Varanasi.

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]Q[/minti_dropcap] How did your fellowship translate to the classroom?

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]A[/minti_dropcap]

Eric: I incorporated the religion of Jainism into my teaching of World Religions. In India, we had the opportunity to learn about the Jain teaching of nonviolence directly by spending a month living in Jain communities. Students were fascinated to learn about how the Jain teaching of nonviolence extends to animal and plant life. I shared with students the strictures of the Jain vegetarian diet—eating no meat, leafy green vegetables, and root vegetables. I had the students read the story of the Mango Tree, which we learned about in India, to teach about why Jains follow this diet. Students read the story, which talks about a group of friends walking through the forest and encountering a mango tree. In order to get the mangos, one friend suggests cutting down the tree, another cutting down a branch, and another picking the mangos off the tree. However, the final friend tells them that if they look around, there are enough mangos on the ground to feed all of them. This friend illustrates ahimsa by limiting his harm of the natural world, and ensuring that there will be enough for everyone to go around. We also learned about the Jain commitment to nonviolence by learning about the lives of Jain monks. After watching an Indian cartoon about Mahavir, the founder of Jainism, and his commitment to nonviolence, students looked at photos of Jain monks and nuns that I took in India. I shared stories of the Jain monks that we met, and we watched a short video I filmed of a woman taking the vows to become a Jain nun. Students then reflected on what Jainism can teach them about nonviolence. Students realize that nonviolence can include what we eat, how we interact with others, and living simply. These Jain truths are relevant to all students regardless of religious traditions.

Katie: I incorporated my experience of Gandhi into my teaching of Religion and Social Justice.  We begin by studying the life of Gandhi through images of him, a brief documentary on his movement, and primary source documents, including his own writings. Students explore how nonviolence is an active, not a passive, method of working for social change. A new student project has students find their own injustice in society and create the idea for a nonviolent movement to address the problem, using the methods of Gandhi. Additionally, students look at how Gandhi’s methods can help them resolve conflicts in their own lives. We watch a Bollywood movie, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, about Gandhi coming back to life to teach a mobster about how ahimsa is more powerful than physical force. The humorous movie builds on the concepts of Gandhi that students explore earlier in the unit. The students then work on applying Gandhi’s techniques in case studies of interpersonal conflicts and then to conflicts in their own life. The goal is to make Gandhi’s teachings of ahimsa relevant, and have his movement educate a new generation of students.

Katie and Eric pictured with FFT Fellow Monica Shah (Chevy Chase, MD) who participated in the same nonviolence immersion program at the Mahaveer Public School in Jaipur.

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]Q[/minti_dropcap] What do you consider the lasting impact of your learning in India?

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]A[/minti_dropcap]In a sense, words fail to describe how fully we were able to deepen our study of ahimsa by experiencing it in our daily life. We maintained a strict vegetarian diet, which may not sound life-altering, but the impetus behind it (that non-violence starts with how you sustain your life at the most basic level) is a completely different world view from an American one. Participating in the ISJS Teaching for Peace Program enabled us to live as and among Jains who are firmly committed in all that they do to reducing violence in the world. While we won’t be testing our students on how to be vegetarian, we will be better equipped to answer questions about belief-systems that are so radically different from mainstream American views. Our fellowship enabled us to meet and with students, teachers, monks and lay people daily striving for ahimsa. Their example became an example to us—ahimsa made visible in their welcoming of us and their daily practices. So our main take away from the fellowship really came from those whom we met as living examples of Gandhi’s quote: “There is no path to peace, peace is the path.”

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At the time of their fellowship, Eric and Katie both taught at Cristo Rey New York High School in Harlem, but have since moved to Portland Oregon and teach at Valley Catholic High School and Oregon Episcopal High School, respectively. They are proud that that their fellowship is affecting three schools on two coasts. Eric received his BA in Religious Studies from Gonzaga University and an MS in Conflict Resolution from Portland State University. Katie is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and Harvard Divinity School.

Last week in Chicago, our board of directors meeting agenda included a special guest – 2017 FFT Fellow Paula Dell, teacher at Robert Lindblom Math and Science Academy High School in the city’s South Side. Paula used her grant to work with researchers and professors active in current excavation, research and teaching of human evolution in South Africa’s Gauteng Province – also known as the “Cradle of Human Kind.” In addition to sharing about her experiences, Paula also talked about her unique path to becoming both a teacher and an FFT Fellow.

Homo naledi on display at Maropeng. The discovery of this new species has brought much into question of what we have previously thought about human development.

“I came to education and teaching science later in my working career when a friend who worked in CPS told me that they were looking for science teachers,” said Paula. “I was eager to use my science background so I jumped at the chance. What a great job – teaching science and critical thinking to our youth.”

Over the past 14 years, Paula has led student expeditions to Cuba, China and Iceland. She also researched in the Antarctica with a PolarTREC grant, earned her National Board Certification and applied for a Fund for Teachers grant three times before being awarded.

“Each time I improved my proposal with the insight of Martie Sanders, professor for the School of Science Education at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg,” said Paula. “By the time I received the FFT grant, we had been corresponding for three years!” When Paula finally arrived in South Africa, Martie introduced her to Marina Elliott, world-renowned biological anthropologist and lead researcher at the Rising Star dig. Marina spent one morning showing Paula around the excavation, including the cave where the 250,000-year-old Homo naledi was found.

With Marina Elliott at Rising Star.

Paula leveraged her time spent in the field with leading researchers, asking questions, visiting dig sites, and learning about the latest technologies in dating and analyzing the fossils to create a revised, phenomenon-based unit based on the most current scientific understanding. Marina Elliott even Skyped with her students during one lesson. Paula says her biggest accomplishment, however, centers around “the big picture.”

“The relationships with professors and scientists that I formed while in South Africa are real and we have kept the collaboration alive,” said Paula. “We established a network which include teachers in Canada and America. Maintaining an ongoing collaboration with these impressive researchers is so motivating and translating all of that into the classroom is equally exciting.”

After our board meeting, Paula sent a note of thanks and added the following:

“The Fund for Teachers fellowship has been such an amazing experience for me and, in turn, my students and colleagues. I cannot stress enough that the success of FFT is not measured just through analytics, which I think you know. I don’t think the greatest impact is truly quantifiable – how we bring it back to our classroom in a thousand ways, sometimes bold and obvious, sometimes more subtle. I don’t think the majority of FFT Fellows are any less committed than myself or that I am some sort of outlier. My hat is off to FFT for being one of the (too few) entities that truly places trust in teachers to know what is best for our kids. Not a bad rep to have among teachers!”

Paula with staff at the Tanajane Senior Secondary School in Bushbuck Ridge, Mpumalanga Province, after serving as a guest speaker.

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Paula (pictured Skyping with her Chicago students from Antarctica) believes that scientific exploration at all ages is crucial in understanding the world in which we live. She is a strong proponent of teaching science through inquiry, as evidenced by her students’ design of a successful underwater camera system, Fish Spy, recently deployed in Antarctica. 

Researching the Trans-Saharan trade routes in Tangier, Morocco.

FFT Fellows take planes, trains and automobiles in pursuit of knowledge that will engage students. Kristie Blanchard and Christine Troup’s transportation of choice? Camels.

UNESCO World Heritage Sites can be hard to get to.

According to the United Nations Education, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Heritage Sites are cultural and/or natural sites considered to be of ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ with special importance for everyone. Everyone, that is, except Kristie and Christine’s students at Bacon Academy in Colchester, CT.

“Our rural public high school lacks diversity and global acuity,” said the teaching team. “Freshmen also take a year-long geography course that lacks geospacial technologies used by professionals in the field. We designed our fellowship to explore iconic sites of Catalan, Andalusia and Morocco. Documenting the destinations with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) linked world cultures with geography to emphasize WHY these places have value.”

Taking their lead from the UNESCO theme “Protecting our Heritage and Fostering Creativity,” Christine and Kristie started their fellowship at the Creativity Workshop in Barcelona. There, they deepened proficiencies in the “Four C’s of Deeper Learning” outlined by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills: work collaboratively, improve communication, critical thinking and creativity.

Then, they set off for the Iberian Peninsula to interview citizens and learn from local guides and docents how UNESCO sites represent the cultural landscape of each unique region. Their odyssey took them to:

• Antoni Gaudi sites, including Sagrada Familia
• the Alhambra
• Alcazar of Seville
• El Torcal de Antequera, and
• the “Blue City” of Chefchaouen

The question that guided all of their research was “What makes a place worth preserving?”

Kristi and Christine began the school by addressing the lack of Middle Eastern and European elements in their curriculum. An ESRI Story Map documenting the fellowship models for students how technology can bridge information with authentic learning in multiple aspects of their lives and their community.

“In keeping with our fellowship’s guiding question, students will be challenged to find sites that they believe are worth preserving in our town,” said Kristie. “Through research, inquiry and writing, students may influence the Historic Preservation Office of Connecticut to add additional sites to their register.”

“We’re now able to make text-to-world applications through our experiences and gathered artifacts,” added Christine. “By using new techniques, all students, including those who read and write below proficiency level, will be encouraged to participate in more personalized ways to tell their authentic stories, as well as those of our community.”

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Christine Troup has taught grades 6 – 12 in three states over the past 23 years. In her free time, she enjoys reading, writing, and traveling, or any combination of the three. Kristie Blanchard has specialized in teaching 9th grade Geography and 10th grade AP Human Geography for nearly 20 years. Her career accomplishments include: the National Council for Geographic Education Distinguished Teaching Award, New England St. Lawrence Valley Geographical Society’s Friend of Geography Award, and the American Geographical Society Teacher Fellow.

Fund for Teachers fellowships are NOT vacations. So when a teacher applies for a grant to learn in Hawaii, selection committees raise an eyebrow. The proposal has to be extra convincing that teacher learning and student impact will extend beyond beautiful sunsets and drinks with tiny umbrellas. Christa Phillips’ proposal passed muster.

A first-grade teacher at Marshall Primary School, Christa used her Fund for Teachers grant to compare and contrast the culture, natural resources and geography of Hawaii with Belton, SC, to create an integrated unit that increases students’ curiosity, global awareness, appreciation of diversity, and helps make connections between people and their environment.

At first glance, South Carolina and Hawaii have little in common; however, both are home to endangered sea turtles and both lie on faults in the Earth’s crust. (Marshall Primary School performs multiple earthquake drills throughout the year!) Both states also have petroglyphs dating back thousands of years; Christa photographed the markings carved into lava rock by ancient Hawaiians to compare with symbols created by Native Americans in South Carolina’s red clay. She’ll incorporate all of these topics, as well Polynesian culture and the history behind Pearl Harbor, into a new multi-week course that directly addresses state standards for Science and Social Studies.

“I have been in the teacher role for nearly two decades. As an FFT Fellow, I became the student,” said Christa. “This new perspective gave me an appreciation for the challenges of my students in seeking knowledge and understanding of the natural world and the diversity within it. It also inspired me to challenge myself to do things I was previously too afraid to do: flying around the world, hiking through a rain forest, driving up steep mountains at high elevations, walking on lava fields, seeing endangered species in their natural environment, and exploring 8 out of the world’s 13 climate zones! I have a new excitement for learning and teaching stemming from this wonderful experience.”

Christa is a National Board Certified Early Childhood Generalist. For nearly two decades, she’s demonstrated a passion for learning- both personally and professionally. Since 2007, she has partnered with the WebbCraft Family Foundation to provide tens of thousands of free books to children in the community. You can see more images from her fellowship on the dedicated Instagram account.

[minti_dropcap style=”normal”]A[/minti_dropcap]s part of the “follow up” portion of an FFT fellowship, grant recipients complete a Passport that documents their learning and where they plan to go from here. Teachers answer brief questions in three categories:

1. Personal and Professional Growth
2. Impact on Your Classroom, School & Community, and,
3. Imagining the Future.

During the month of August, we’ll share some of our Fellows’ Passports to get us all in the “Back to School” mode. Today, we’re proud to share the reflections of Nolan Hanson, teacher at Oscar F. Mayer Elementary in Chicago, IL. He described the threefold nature of this fellowship in his grant proposal:

Shopping for paints at Sennelier, where Picasso purchased supplies.

The knowledge and insights I gained into the cultures and environments that impacted Picasso’s life and art have grown immeasurably as a result of my fellowship. Coupling this with my newfound knowledge of him as a person and an artist, as well as the complexity of his background, provided me with an understanding of how each of these elements are displayed in his work. I now feel capable of presenting these characteristics and experiences to my students and school community effectively.

First and foremost, my capacity to teach art in Spanish now exists, which it previously did not (except on a superficial level) as a result of: 1) the instruction I received from multiple museum staff members on art creation, appreciation and analyzation; and 2) having now observed, analyzed and appreciated the art of so many Spanish and Latin artists. Where I previously included art in my instruction, I will now be able to embed art in my instruction as a means for dialogue and inspiration.

Living for a month in Spain has to be the greatest personal accomplishment of my fellowship. During the writing of my proposal, I regarded being a Spanish teacher who had never been to Spain as a personal and professional deficiency. I can now state that deficiency has been satisfied with incredibly memorable experiences and professional growth. The fact that the entire fellowship was centered around the study of one of my Spanish heroes enhances the richness of each experience.

Impact on Your Students, School & Community

On a walking tour of Picasso’s Paris, at the St. Germain studio where he painted “Guernica.”

I will now be able to provide my students with the opportunity to use art in their weekly Spanish instruction. The authentic resources I was able to collect during my fellowship will provide them with quality enrichment tools to better connect with the experiences of Picasso and the culture of Spain. Using all of these resources together will allow us to create a positive social emotional learning environment that up to this point has been challenging to build within a language classroom.

In collaboration with the humanities teachers at my school we developed an interdisciplinary unit to cover the life and times of Picasso. Students will research and discuss the major world events that parallel Picasso’s lifetime in tandem with a micro focus on specific events that happened to Picasso. We will then combine these into an evaluation of his work and what influences we can see in his choice of subject, color, technique and message before students begin making their own artwork.

“Why?” is the response of elementary-aged students to virtually every statement, which is why many parents are happily walking their kids back through the school doors right about now. When Lori Lyn’s second graders at Houston’s Hicks Elementary used to ask WHY Texas was so great, she quoted the usual (ranks second in population and size, ecological diversity, Willie Nelson, Whataburger, etc.) These answers failed to convince her cynical social studies students. So this summer, Lori set out on a road trip to prove WHY all should hail the mighty state.

“Most of my students have had very limited, if any, opportunities to experience Texas’ landmarks and monuments, but are still required to learn and understand their historical significance,” said Lori. “I needed engaging answers to their questions of WHY Texas’ history, symbols and landscapes have meaning in order to make the learning last.”

Three thousand miles and multiple nights at Days Inn, Econolodge, Motel 6 and a tent later, Lori is ready for this year’s class of inquiring minds. Her sedan took her to 11 cities, where she collected artifacts from sites including, but not limited to:

• Fort Worth’s Stockyards National Historic District and Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame
• Dallas’ Sixth Floor Museum
• Austin’s State Capitol, Governor’s Mansion and Bob Bullock Museum
• San Antonio’s Institute of Texas Cultures
• Port Isabel’s Historical Museum and Point Isabel Lighthouse
• Galveston’s Texas Seaport Museum and the state’s oldest public library
• La Porte’s Battleship Texas and San Jacinto Monument
• Houston’s George Ranch Historical Park, and,
• Big Bend National Park

Lori is one of 489 Fund for Teachers grant recipients who designed experiences to impact student achievement this summer. Since its founding in 1981, the national non-profit has awarded more than $28 million in self-designed fellowships to 8,000 prek-12 teachers across the country – impacting approximately a quarter of a million students.

This fall, Lori’s students will model her adventure by charting their own Texas Tour, using maps and brochures she brought back from the road. They will also create journals and postcards to document and share what the “see.”

“Not only will I be teaching about the knowledge I gained, but my students will be empowered and excited to teach others in the school community about the state in which we live,” said Lori. “The ultimate goal is that they will ‘Remember the Alamo’ and a whole lot more.”

If you know a dedicated, innovative teacher like Lori who would be interested in designing their own Fund for Teachers fellowship, encourage them to apply using the online application available on October 1 at fundforteachers.org. And if you would like to be from Texas, but aren’t, here’s a song just for you.

Pictured above at Battleship Texas, the last of its kind that served in World War I & II and a National Historic Landmark. Collage (clockwise): Johnson Space Center in Houston; Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge; 10,000 year-old Inner Space Cavern, discovered in 1963 when the Texas Highway Department built I-35; by the world’s tallest statue of an American Hero – two-time Texas president Sam Houston; The Sixth Floor Museum; the State Capitol; and Sea Center Texas – the world’s largest redfish hatchery.

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Lori is a second grade teacher at Hicks Elementary School in Alief, outside of Houston. This is her 16th year in the district, in which she has been a team leader, as well as a lead teacher in both Reading and Science. Lori is one of the few three-time FFT Fellows and has also been awarded five Donors Choose grants and an Association of Texas Professional Educators grant. Follow her on Twitter here [minti_social icon=”fa-twitter” url=”https://www.twitter.com/_MrsLyn” target=”_self”]

[minti_dropcap style=”normal”]A[/minti_dropcap]s part of the “follow up” portion of an FFT fellowship, grant recipients complete a Passport that documents their learning and where they plan to go from here. Teachers answer brief questions in three categories:

1. Personal and Professional Growth
2. Impact on Your Classroom, School & Community, and,
3. Imagining the Future

During the month of August, we’ll share some of our Fellows’ Passports to get us all in the “Back to School” mode. Today, we’re proud to share the reflections of Carly Connor and Jill Padfield, teachers at Franklin School of Innovation in Ashveille, CT. They described the purpose of the fellowship in their grant proposal:

Students view our school as a place they have to be, and despite our “leave no trace” school norm, they don’t take ownership or pride over the spaces in which they learn. Part of this is most certainly due to the fact that our school is currently a collection of trailers–a temporary campus while we work toward funding for our permanent building. We have tried small improvements to make the campus more visually appealing, but these have not changed the students’ habits of kicking holes in the thin walls of the classrooms, writing on bathroom stalls, and leaving trash all over campus. We desperately need a culture change, especially as it comes to students owning school as their own space.

This fellowship will lead to a project that will allow students to have a voice in biophilic and sustainable features that could be added to our new school building. Research shows that buildings incorporating biophilia, a person’s innate biological connection with nature, can not only reduce stress, but also improve cognitive function and creativity. We will task the students with incorporating both biophilic and sustainable ideas into a real, physical structure in our new school building for the benefit of everyone in our school community.

Sun Pipes filter sun into classrooms and offices with no windows at Dover Court International School in Singapore.

Impact on Your Students, School & Community

Student-run gardens at Brentwood Secondary College in Melbourne, Australia.

Before this fellowship, we led student projects that were interesting, but they always seemed to fall short of truly authentic. Projects rarely included a service component and never positively affected our community. This fellowship and resulting project will be the start of helping students to connect their learning to their community in a meaningful way.

This project will require collaborative work in order for it to be successful. My partner and I plan to get the rest of the 10th grade team on board on our first day back by telling them about our learning, our project idea, and getting them to feel as excited as we feel. We are already organizing all of our photos and creating a presentation for the students, but we both feel like we can’t move forward at this point without the rest of our team, since the project will live in all of our classes.

 

Imagining the Future

Our project centers around our new school building, and our students will be creating new green-design features to be incorporated into the building. This may take a few years, but it could then include several grades that as part of this long-term, collaborative project. Most importantly, this project will help give any student who works on it more ownership of the new building and their community.

Part of the focus of our fellowship was to positively impact the environment that our students learn in. The best way to do that is to not only make them more accountable for their waste and their habits, but to give them a space to study that is green and healthy and productive. Lack of such spaces is a huge problem in many of our schools today, and our students are going to be at the forefront of changing this in our state.

I don’t think anyone would have guessed that two high school Math and English teachers would be able to create a meaningful, collaborative project about Science! It was not easy, but the opportunity for this fellowship pushed us to think beyond our own classrooms and our own content to what we thought our students and our community really needed. This fellowship took us from a subject-focused perspective to a student and community perspective, and now the possibilities seem endless!

Don’t forget to check out the previous two posts in our Passport to Learning series, featuring fellowships about British literature and African culture.

Last summer I traveled to Puerto Rico to explore the cuisine, flavors and agriculture of the island. One of the major concepts I focused on was the idea of “farm to table” and wanted to use an FFT fellowship to enhance my schools participation in Connecticut’s farm to school program.

While in PR, I got to work along a chef and was taught to make mofong, a Puerto Rican dish made with plantains. I also used the Cardboard Camera app I learned about from an FCS conference before I left to video places I visited and turned the video/photo into a panoramic image with sound. This allowed students to use virtual reality headsets that I got for the classroom and see real life images of the places I visited in Puerto Rico.  My travels came to life as students toured the city streets, restaurants and beaches!

Through my experiences I was able to put together some amazing lessons and hands on experiences for my students in our Family and Consumer Science (FCS) classroom.  I created a new unit within the Foods of the World course and students learned about Puerto Rico. We spent a couple lessons learning about the island and culture and I now had amazing photos and stories to share from my own first hand experiences. Together, we cooked mofong students so that they could see the ingredients along with kitchen tools and utensils, then students were able to recreate themselves.

One of my favorite things on the island was the fresh fruits and all the farm stands! All of the foods were so flavorful and fresh.  Farm to table is an idea that most natives of PR do on a daily basis, as many have their own gardens and there are many farms around the island.  Returning from my fellowship, I was so inspired and motivated that a group of students volunteered with me at our community garden. We helped plant, weed and harvest vegetables twice a week.  With all of our produce, we then planned and hosted a community dinner to share our experiences in the garden and food with our families, teachers and community members.  The week of the dinner all of the garden program kids and students researched recipes and we prepared and cooked in our kitchens at school. We served more than 60 people and my students spoke on their involvement and what they learned.  It was amazing! We made fresh pesto sauce over pasta, cabbage, green salad, butternut squash soup, collard greens, pizzas with tomorrow sauce from the garden and toppings and so much more!

The students’ interest continued to grow — now they wanted their own garden at school. Using the experience gained from writing my Fund for Teachers’ grant proposal, I began applying for grants to make it happen and, last spring, we received a grant from Whole Kids Foundation.  Just last week, our garden beds were put up and now I can bring farm to table to Washington Middle School! I am so excited to bring this new piece of gardening into my curriculum and will soon be reaching out to see if we can be part of the state’s farm to school program, now that we will be harvesting our own foods.

The entire Fund for Teachers experience has given me a new sense of accomplishment and confidence. Initially, I was apprehensive to submit proposal, in fear that others would not view my idea as a valuable learning experience. I now have no doubt and I can share personal experiences with my students to inspire them. I’m confident and not afraid to take risks — whether that be immersing myself in an unknown area or bringing new ideas into my curriculum. I know that I can help students be more successful and take their own risks. They’ve seen the (literal) harvest of doing so.

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Danielle (pictured making mofong on her fellowship) has taught Family & Consumer Sciences at Washington Middle School in Meriden, CT, for ten years. Danielle is always continuing her own education to bring students new, relevant information. She believes all students can learn and strives to help youth achieve independence while becoming productive members of society.

[minti_dropcap style=”normal”]A[/minti_dropcap]s part of the “follow up” portion of an FFT fellowship, grant recipients complete a Passport that documents their learning and where they plan to go from here. Teachers answer brief questions in three categories:

1. Personal and Professional Growth
2. Impact on Your Classroom, School & Community, and,
3. Imagining the Future

During the month of August, we’ll share some of our Fellows’ Passports to get us all in the “Back to School” mode. Today, we’re proud to share the reflections of Amber Neal, teacher at Almeda Elementary School in Houston, TX. In her grant proposal, she shared the inspiration behind her fellowship:

As a Black little girl, I grew up learning about Africa in school, but exclusively through the lens of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The curriculum and textbooks only reinforced stereotypes of Africans as remote village dwellers with spears and shields and co-existing with wild animals. Years later as an educator, I noted the elementary curriculum was greatly restricted by academic expectations and statewide annual assessments, completely lacking creative, culturally responsive texts or materials. In fact, our state’s education system actually came under fire for producing textbooks and curriculum that romanticized slavery, misinforming students that slaves were actually immigrants that made the decision to travel to the New World.

 

As a Black educator, I felt deeply offended that across the state, teachers were essentially educating students on historical half-truths. This trip will serve as a reminder that I am obligated to not only teach the standards of the course, but to recognize what’s not included and ask why. It is vital in our roles as educators to check our own perceptions and beliefs to become more cognizant of how important our part is in perpetuating stereotypes in the malleable minds of our students.

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Fellowship Description

Experience Tanzania’s history, language, culture and educational climate to deepen understanding of African refugee students and develop learning experiences that enhance global awareness, celebrate cultural differences and enrich classroom discourse.

Personal & Professional Growth

With Masai women sharing cultural & historical significance of bead work.

This fellowship expanded my worldview and enhanced my knowledge and understanding of East African cultures, languages and history. I’ve already utilized the acquired knowledge, skills and resources from Tanzania to develop instructional materials that will enrich authentic student learning experiences. Lastly, it has provided me a springboard to critically analyze what we teach, the methods in which we teach and the efficacy of the curriculum taught.

Observing Tanzanian teachers instruct and lead with upwards of 100 students per class was awe-inspiring! Tanzanian teachers are not always afforded the modern technological advances that are so prevalent in American schools; instead they use innovation, passion, inspiration and creativity to bring their lessons to life. I plan to incorporate various Tanzanian folktales, oral histories, and cultural artifacts in my ESL Reading classes to celebrate cultural diversity and improve global competence.

My greatest personal accomplishment was my ability to be completely immersed in the culture. Through this fellowship, I reaffirmed my identity as a Black educator by drawing connections between African-American and traditional African cultures, which will prove invaluable in my instruction of predominately Black students. I am also proud of the Swahili language skills that I acquired and plan not only to utilize them in the classroom setting, but will continue my study of the language.

Impact on Your Students, School & Community

While the current social studies curriculum mandates that 3rd-5th grade students learn both state and U.S. history, much of the curriculum lacks examination through a global lens. My fellowship experience will expose students to the beauty of the African diaspora by honoring history, celebrating cultures and recognizing the continent’s global impact. Students will develop their critical thinking skills by participating in activities that require critique and collaboration on real world issues.

I also believe that by sharing my experiences, curiosity among my colleagues will grow, inspiring them to seek out non-traditional professional development opportunities and challenge them to critically examine the curriculum and their own biases when working with students of color and students of historically under-served backgrounds. I want to be a role model for teaching a global citizenship curriculum, balancing critical literacy instruction and providing culturally responsive instruction.

 

Imagining the Future

Students will celebrate their new learning by reading the book Africa is Not a Country, which orients students to Africa as a continent through the exploration of the traditions and cultures of kids from 25 countries, including Tanzania. This interactive lesson will help students recognize country names, locations and regions while the mini-narratives in the book illuminates the immense cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity of the diaspora and dispels the myth of it being a country.

There is a large push in Tanzanian education reform for students to be a part of a global economy through their learning of the English language. However, in many public schools, the access to literature has been a challenge. I want to inspire my students to donate some of their favorite books to some of the primary schools, and include book reviews to inspire Tanzania students to read, in English. Through this experience, students will develop a sense of empathy for other students’ experiences.

This fellowship provided me the opportunity to explore the African diaspora, which was life changing, on a professional and personal level. The warmth of the people and my overall experiences felt like a pilgrimage back home. Through my journey, I have become more invested in my career as an educator and reaffirmed my passions as a lifelong learner. I will now bring my global experiences to the classroom and expose students to the world outside of the four walls of their communities.

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Amber (pictured picking up her FFT grant check) utilizes her social work background to improve students’ social, emotional and behavioral outcomes. She infuses culturally responsive materials to foster social justice, global awareness and civic engagement. A 2018 HEB Excellence in Education statewide finalist and 2017 Fulbright scholar, she also uses her global experiences to bring experiential, hands-on learning to her urban classroom.

The title photo of Amber was taken at Olduvai Gorge, considered the birthplace of humanity.

[minti_dropcap style=”normal”]A[/minti_dropcap]s part of the “follow up” portion of an FFT fellowship, grant recipients complete a Passport that documents their learning and where they plan to go from here. Teachers answer brief questions in three categories:

1. Personal and Professional Growth
2. Impact on Your Classroom, School & Community, and,
3. Imagining the Future

During the month of August, we’ll share some of our Fellows’ Passports to get us all in the “Back to School” mode. Today, we’re proud to share the reflections of Jacqueline Catcher, teacher at Exeter High School in Exeter, NH.

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Fellowship Description
Tour literary sites associated with famous British authors, including William Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters, and Horace Walpole; examine the impact of Gothic architecture in the development of characterization and theme in Jane Eyre; and study canonical literature at the Oxbridge Teacher Seminar at the University of Cambridge to create differentiated and engaging learning for academic and AP English students.

Personal & Professional Growth

Sitting in the teacher’s chair of the schoolroom where Shakespeare studied.

I am returning well equipped to integrate British literature, artwork, architecture, and history into all of my courses. I learned about unique ways to approach poetry analysis, which have students engaging in visual, auditory, and kinesthetic analysis. I can also see how various local museums, parks, and libraries offer unique opportunities for literary analysis based on these new techniques. This has been the most inspiring, exhilarating, and rewarding professional development I’ve ever had.

Oftentimes we teach art, history, and literature we’ve never actually seen. Now I am able to incorporate primary documents, pamphlets, photographs, books, and videos that I prepared throughout my trip and tailored to my lessons. I have photos of paintings and videos of interactive art installations that will help my students explore literary themes in unique mediums. I’m most excited to share the 3D and panoramic photos I took, so students can observe England as if they were actually there.

I challenged myself to create more adds-on units for traditional texts. I’m required to teach Shakespeare to my struggling readers, so I knew I wanted to build a Globe Theatre facade and host a night that would not only provide my students with an authentic audience, but it would also showcase their work. By collecting materials, visiting historic sites, and experiencing a performance in the actual Globe Theatre, I learned how to approach this project and production.

Impact on Your Classroom, School & Community

Students will read and discuss literature through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic methods that will engage them beyond the page. They will derive meaning from modern art, connect current historical and art exhibits to past literature, and think critically about how spaces and architecture frame both characters’ worlds as well as their own. They will visit England through photos and videos while at the same time physically constructing these spaces to share with their community.

“My students will build a massive facade of The Globe to hose a Shakespeare Night. This was my view watching The Winter’s Tale at the real one.”

I am collaborating with our school’s theater director to host a Shakespeare night. Our classes will work together to construct the facade of the Globe Theatre onstage and prepare a performance of various scenes, monologues, dances, and musical productions to honor Shakespeare’s work. In addition, I will also be collaborating with an educator from Pakistan who I met during my coursework. We are planning to lead short story discussion groups between our students via video chats.

Imagining the Future

“This art installation in the Bronte’s moors in Haworth was called ‘Literary Landscapes,’ fitting since I researched the impact of spaces like this on characterization in Jane Eyre.”

I believe the best way to celebrate student learning is by providing authentic audiences, which push students to educate others beyond their peers. Our community Shakespeare night will allow students to prepare and present their research, analysis, and performances for our local community. Additionally, my AP Literature students will construct small dioramas that look at natural and architectural spaces’ impact on characterization in Jane Eyre. These will be on display in our school library.

Too often we dismiss older literature as antiquated or out-of-touch. What we fail to recognize is that the reason these plays, novels, or poems are deemed classics is because they explore universal themes that help us contemplate the world around us. Literature can’t be read or even analyzed in a vacuum though. It is deeply social, overlapping with other subjects and cultures. I hope students can help others see that literacy and literature is valuable to understanding everything.

Observing the world as both a traveler and a teacher provides a unique vantage point. You absorb, discuss, photograph, and document everything with more intensity, knowing that you aren’t just seeing these places for yourself, you are experiencing them for the hundreds of students who will pass through your classroom. I can only hope my fellowship will change my students’ outlook on poetry, literature, art, and architecture as much as this journey has changed my life as an educator.

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Jacqueline teaches Freshman English and AP Literature, as well as pre-service teachers at the University of New Hampshire. She empowers students through independent reading and authentic writing experiences using a workshop model. Outside of the classroom, she enjoys serving as the vice president of the New Hampshire Council for Teachers of English and advisor of her school’s Government Club and Writer’s Club. See more of her fellowship and follow her on Twitter:[minti_social icon=”fa-twitter” url=”https://twitter.com/@JackieCatcher” target=”_self”]