I teach high school Spanish, serve as chairman of the National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY) and am an FFT Fellow. All three of these roles converged in December when I co-led a group of 50 Connecticut FFT Fellows in a one-day workshop asking the post-fellowship question, “What’s Next?”
NNSTOY is a professional association of teachers leading in policy, practice and advocacy. Our national organization’s primary membership consists of State and National Teachers of the Year, as well as finalists. NNSTOY’s mission is to engage ALL educators in leadership opportunities that promote relevant policies and best practices. One way we accomplish this goal is by providing workshops designed to train and grow teacher leaders. The sessions are rooted in the Seven Domains of the Teacher Leader Model Standards. It was my privilege to host this opportunity for my FFT peers and guide them in developing the skills and dispositions that will allow us to extend our impact beyond the classroom.
As FFT Fellows, we are committed to integrating into our classroom practice the learning that results from our fellowships. We learn, return and can’t help to reflect on the question: “What’s next?” It is easy to create lessons as a result of our fellowship experiences. NNSTOY’s Teachers Leading workshop is special because it allows Fellows to explore how to scale the impact of those lessons beyond individual classrooms. During the session, we spent the day discussing our current and potential roles as teacher leaders and agents of change and considered how we could shift teaching in a way that ultimately impacts more students.
In my presentation, I elaborated on the shift from teaching students to collaborating with adults. The goal was for Fellows to consider how they could expand their impact post-fellowship and promote positive, sustainable change in their schools, districts and beyond. Practically, this meant demonstrating how to facilitate highly effective teams, navigate the change process, and create and implement action plans – new skills for most teachers. In the weeks ahead, NNSTOY will virtually reconvene the Fellows on a webinar to assess how they’re doing and how we can further help them scale their fellowship impact.
As a Fellow I am extremely grateful for the professional learning experience that FFT made possible for me, and through my sharing of NNSTOY’s work on teacher leadership, I felt that I could pay it forward. And so, while our Teachers Leading workshops are normally fee-based, I asked the executive director of NNSTOY if we could provide this training to FFT Fellows at no cost in order to extend their summer learning. She enthusiastically agreed and shared that only by empowering great teachers to lead will we be able to effect real change in education. With teachers leading, I firmly believe that we can improve outcomes for all children and help them to live the lives they dream.
A previous Connecticut Teacher of the Year, Chris Poulos (Joel Barrow High School – Redding, CT) is National Board Certified and teaches all levels of Spanish, while also serving as an adjunct professor at Fairfield University. He previously served for two years in a hybrid role, splitting his time between teaching in his district and working alongside policymakers as a Teacher Leader-in-Residence at the Connecticut State Department of Education.
Amy McDonald (Shades Valley High School – Birmingham, AL) recently sat beside Max Steinmetz at Temple Emanu-El, signing books and greeting visitors at an event hosted by Birmingham’s Holocaust Education Center. The two are old friends and partners in educating the next generation about the Holocaust, but on this day, they are author and subject of Amy’s new book, Determined to Survive: A Story of Survival and One Teacher’s Passion to Bring That Story to Life.
Max annually visits with Amy’s AP United States History students to talk about his childhood in Targu Lapus, Romania, and his family’s imprisonment in the Szaszregen Ghetto before being sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp/killing center.
Last year, Max and his wife asked Amy to share his story in writing. She was honored and humbled and agreed.
By using her Fund for Teachers grant to witness places she had heard Max reference with students, Amy was able to bring his story and this book project full circle, not just for her students and other students in Alabama and the United States, but also those in Max’s hometown of Targu Lapus. Additionally, she also now:
Below Amy shares more about how her time in Romania impacted her, her teaching and her students:
“It is impossible to write in a few lines how much I was impacted by visiting Munich, Germany, as well as Targu Lapus and other sites in northern Romania. It was an amazing experience and beyond anything I could have ever expected,” said Amy of her fellowship. “While I saw many important sites, the most valuable and touching times were those spent with teachers and students. Their hospitality, warmth and kindness were truly humbling. Their openness to Max’s story was genuine, and their messages, words and gifts back to him were ones of respect and admiration.
There is much work to be done here, and my belief in the value of Holocaust Education was
strengthened even more. This fellowship shaped the experience of my Holocaust Studies class as more than an exchange of information. It allowed me to make the numbers, statistics and documentary footage of the Holocaust more personal. Holocaust education is in a state of transition as survivor witnesses become fewer and fewer. New approaches will be needed to maintain the intimacy of this history that we have been so fortunate to experience. We must prepare ourselves to continue to tell their stories as they have so bravely done in their efforts to ensure that all of those lives lost would not be in vain and that we “Never forget.”
As the plane leaving Romania carried me back home, I had the thought that regarding Max’s story, I had hopefully left no stone unturned. I had now done all I could possibly do. I suddenly realized that I had not. Teachers are never finished. I am only just beginning.”
Read more about Max and Amy’s research on his remarkable life at http://bit.ly/FFTSurvivor.
Today mark’s the third annual Mindfulness Day, but an increasing number of FFT Fellows use their grants to incorporate mindfulness into EVERY school day.
Deborah Howard and Judith Fitzgerald (Naubuc Elementary – Glastonbury, CT) spent a week this summer at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, MA.
“When we arrived at Kripalu, we were bubbly, excited and couldn’t stop talking, much like our students on the first day of school. Then, we immediately cringed when we noticed the ‘Quiet, please’ and ‘Enter mindfully’ signs posted everywhere,” said Deborah. “Through the techniques we learned and practiced, we can now help our students learn better emotion regulation leading to less stress and reduced impulsiveness.”
Although strangers prior to their fellowship, Shannon Kephart (Roberto Clemente Community Academy High School – Chicago) and Jodie Lang (Mary T. Murphy Elementary – Brandford, CT) both sought mindfulness practices at the same Buddhist monastery. Shannon teaches Algebra to special education students with various learning and emotional disabilities while Jodie teaches fifth graders at a Title I school. Independently, they observed students lacking focus, patience and cognitive flexibility. At Plum Village Mindfulness Retreat Center in Bordeaux, France, the teachers learned how to bring mindfulness into their own lives through learning sessions, meditations and the integration of mindfulness into daily chores on the working farm.
Shannon says her FFT fellowship completely shifted her mindset about how best to work with students to help them achieve as much success as possible.
“It has given me a new approach for helping students overcome anxiety, low confidence, and concentration difficulties and feel more connected to their school and schoolwork,” she said. “Often, students’ emotions and anxieties get in the way of them being willing to work and put in their best effort. By practicing mindfulness, students can begin to build their comfort level with themselves and grow into the strongest, most courageous, and thoughtful learners possible.”
Additional FFT Fellows research strategies for implementing yoga into their classrooms, like this team from Hinojosa Early Childhood/PreK in Houston who completed Yoga for Classroom Teachers training in the United Kingdom to promote teamwork, healthy living and improved concentration. See how other Fund for Teachers Fellows pursued mindfulness education by visiting our Project Search and enter the key word “mindfulness.”
Leslie Knope would say “yep” to Cassie Pierce (Prairie Vale Elementary – Deer Creek Public Schools, Edmond, OK). Played by Amy Poehler in the television comedy Parks & Recreation, Leslie served as deputy director of the Pawnee City Department of Parks and Recreation, regional director of National Park Service Midwest Region and founded the organization Pawnee Goddesses to get young girls out into nature. Troop leader Leslie might even award a merit badge to Cassie for the Fund for Teachers fellowship she designed.
For 18 days and culminating in “Parks and Recreation Month,” Cassie explored five national parks in the southwest and western United States to incorporate the White House initiative
“Every Kid in a Park” into her fourth grade social studies curriculum. “Every Kid in a Park provides fourth grade students free access to all parks and sites managed by the National Park Service,” said Cassie. “The combination of this initiative, the National Park Service’s centennial, Oklahoma’s social studies standards, and my own belief that national parks are America’s greatest classroom confirmed to me that focusing my fellowship on national parks would have the most impact on my students.”
Cassie traversed Grand Canyon National Park (north and south rim), Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park. Across each location and in six states, she filmed video to create virtual field trips to be shown in the classroom. She also took advantage of Ranger-led walking tours, programs provided by naturalist guides, and a mule ride along the eastern rim of the Grand Canyon. In addition to observing geothermal and geological formations, Cassie studied petroglyphs and pictographs on Newspaper Rock to build a lesson around Ancient Native American peoples.
You can see photos of Cassie’s experience on her Instagram feed @PierceAndParks.
“Through this fellowship, I will be able to put into practice my belief that the most effective way to teach social studies is with first hand knowledge,” said Cassie. “The way to make curriculum meaningful and personal for my fourth graders is to put it in a real world context infused with excitement and adventure.”
Cassie believes the clearest benefit to her social studies students will come in the form of reworked lesson plans that are more engaging and interesting. She also knows her “being there” will make the wonders of national parks real for them.
“My students might not ever see a geyser or ride a mule into a rocky canyon, but they will know someone who has,” said Cassie. “Often, as educators, we teach our students information straight from a resource book or textbook teacher edition. Now, my teaching of the Southwest and West region of the United States will be more than rote facts and small snapshots. My trip will fuel their desire to set out and experience our national parks for themselves one day.”
Cassie, in the words of the Pawnee Goddesses motto: “You’re freaking awesome!”
Cassie Pierce is a a fourth grade social studies teacher at Deer Creek Prairie Vale Elementary School in Edmond, Oklahoma. Her main goal in the classroom is to instill the love of learning in all of her students because she believes it will equip them for lifelong success. Recent achievements include initiating and leading a monthly after school STEM program and site Teacher of the Year.
In June 2014, Washington DC Fellow Ariel Laguilles began his Fund for Teachers fellowship – a 200 mile section of the historic Camino de Santiago pilgrimage from France to Spain. The following three years, he’s returned with his students from Gonzaga College High School.
Ariel’s goals for his FFT fellowship were twofold:
Judging from his student’s final observation on the blog maintained throughout the 2015 journey, both of Ariel’s goals have now been met…
“We have arrived! Señor Laguilles, Mr. Szolosi and the boys have made it into Santiago de Compostela! The morning started off relatively early – 6 am – as the goal was to make it to the pilgrim mass at noon. After a short breakfast at a nearby cafe in Pedrouzo, we set out, with the two veterans quickly leaving the high schoolers in the dust.
Today’s mileage was nothing compared to earlier in the week, clocking in at a paltry 12.5 miles. After watching the Km markers on the side of the road slowly dwindle, the boys were excited to see the glimmering city of Santiago on the horizon. It was a shame that that horizon was cleft in two by a mountain. Hours of hiking later, we were finally in the city…
…which was a shame, because the cathedral (where the pilgrimage REALLY ends) was another two miles inward. It was kind of cruel, in a way. The streets of the city were filled with cafes of all sorts and citizens who were clearly not strangers to tired-looking Americans with packs on.
Then, we truly arrived at our destination. The cathedral of St. James, with centuries-old stone towers arcing into the sky, stood before us. The fact that it was covered in scaffolding didn’t faze us at all, as we were too busy congratulating each other on having completed El Camino. Maybe we were celebrating the last day of walking. I dunno.
However, with the end of the Camino only ended the trek. This trip has been full of unique experiences which I wager will come to impact me and my actions for years to come. Reflecting on the trail has been a common theme, and now it is time for us to step back and reflect on what this adventure has meant for all of us. It may be different from person to person, but that’s the magic of the Camino: it provides. Exactly what it provides is up to the peregrino to decide.
The Eagles are on their way home. I hope the plane and train rides pass quickly. I miss my dog.”
Read more about Ariel’s 2014 Fund for Teachers fellowship on the blog he maintained throughout his “walk.” Ariel is a Spanish teacher and Department Chair at his alma mater, Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC. He taught in Managua, Nicaragua, as a Jesuit Volunteer for three and a half years and has been at Gonzaga since his return in 2004. In 2006, Ariel was recognized by the High School Principals Association of the Archdiocese of Washington as a New Teacher of the Year. Aside from teaching, he coaches the school’s cross country and tennis teams, and enjoys ultrarunning “to stay sane.”
“It didn’t have to be this way – I didn’t have to get caught. Why didn’t I travel the Railroad from the start? Perhaps our grief numbed our minds and blurred our caution? Perhaps my white skin gave me the illusion of protection? But there is no protection. No one is safe from slavery. It destroys people, as it did Cass. It breaks apart families, as it did Emma’s… and now mine. I’m learning terrible lessons, I who like playing teacher.”(North by Night by Katherine Ayres, pp. 172-173)
In the historical novel North by Night, the ramifications of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act come to life through the journal entries and letters of one white teenage girl in Ohio. South Central Los Angeles teacher Melissa Minkin took it one step further by designing her Fund for Teachers fellowship to follow the northern trail of the Underground Railroad from Ohio to Canada, mirroring the journey of characters in the novel.
“My fellowship underscored the importance of integrating history, particularly the history of African Americans before the Civil War, into my language arts curriculum,” said Melissa. “I experienced first-hand the power of individual stories, of people’s personal experiences, and the ways they help make history come alive.”
“Until my fellowship, I believed that America’s success and ability to complete in the global economy were largely the result of American hard work. I realize now that a large percentage of that work was done under duress, by people of African descent who were not paid, not given a choice and received no
benefit for their labors – all the while enduring horrific physical and emotional abuse,” said Melissa. “While only some people traded and owned other humans, many more benefited from the institution through their roles in banking, insurance, shipping, and other professions that served the slaveholding economy and those who prospered, directly and indirectly, from it.”
Interested in free lesson plans Melissa and her traveling partner developed based on her fellowship? Click here to subscribe to her blog and here to obtain her Underground Railroad resources.
Melissa’s educational road trip began in Cincinnati at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The Center provided an important foundation of content and context for her fellowship, setting the stage for rest of her trip. Her journey then took her on an Ohio River cruise, and through the Ohio River Valley, the primary setting of North By Night. In addition to talking with locals about their family histories in the region, she was able to take many photographs and video clips, to help give her students a sense of this geographical region, and what it might have looked like in the 1850s, so different from Los Angeles.
One of the highlights of the trip was the hidden gems she learned about from locals she met on the journey. In addition to Melissa’s planned stops, a local historian encouraged her to visit Ripley, a town on the Ohio River which played a key role in helping freedom seekers escape from Kentucky to Ohio, and then north to Canada.
Heading north herself, Melissa then stopped in Detroit, to visit another key cultural institution, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, and to see for herself the short distance between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario in Canada where many runaways crossed to freedom.
Another local she talked with during her travels encouraged a visit to Buxton in Ontario, a community founded in 1849 for Blacks who were fleeing slavery in the US. The Buxton National Historic Site and Museum was rich with artifacts and stories from the history of the community, which is still home to several families with roots dating back to its founding, including two museum staff she met. The highlight of the fellowship, according to Melissa, was arriving at The Liberty Bell of Freedom, rung by slaves who safely crossed the Ohio River. (Buxton is the setting for two Christopher
Paul Curtis books, Elijah of Buxton and The Madman of Piney Woods.)
Melissa’s journey continued as she drove across Ontario, Canada, re-entering the US through Upstate New York. She visited the Susan B. Anthony’s home and the Women’s Rights National Historic Park. She ended her travels in New York City with a walking tour of Lower Manhattan’s key historic sites of slavery and the Underground Railroad. Lower Manhattan, then New Amsterdam, was built by enslaved Africans brought to the New World by the Dutch. She learned that Wall Street was initially a wall, built by enslaved Africans to protect the Dutch settlers from local indigenous people. Africans lived outside the wall, as a buffer between the native people and the settlers. She also visited the African Burial Ground National Monument. A somber and sacred space outside the boundaries of New Amsterdam, both free and enslaved Africans were buried here between the 1690s and 1794. The burial grounds were rediscovered in 1991 as a result of the planned construction of a Federal office building.
Melissa says her students are troubled by the racial injustice they see in their communities and on TV. “They wonder about the choices that that bystanders and allies make, and the reasons that some people take enormous risks to stand up for justice. This fellowship helped me gain more context and background about slavery and the Underground Railroad. I feel better prepared to help my students understand and grapple with questions about this historical period and our modern era.”
As an English teacher at Edison Middle School, Melissa acknowledges that the standard narrative taught about the Underground Railroad largely omits the prominent role that people of African descent played in helping each other seek freedom. The fellowship made of her aware of other gaps in history, as well.
Melissa’s students are using the photographs, videos and artifacts she accumulated on her fellowship as source material for multimedia projects and an original film adaption of North by Night using a class set of iPads and the Adobe Voice app. Students will debut their work in a culminating event for the school community on the themes of slavery, the Civil War and the Underground Railroad.
“As 7th and 8th graders, my students are differentiating from their parents and developing their own sense of self. As such, they are grappling with deep and important questions about injustice and morality. This fellowship helped me and my students make connections across time and space, as we continue to wrestle with the essential challenges of being human.”
Melissa is a National Board Certified Teacher, a Writing Project Fellow, and a UCLA Teacher Initiated Inquiry Grant Awardee. You can read about her fellowship educational road trip on her website, and download some lesson plans about the Underground Railroad at www.teacherhacks.net. She is also
accessible on Twitter at @MelissaMinkin.
I am a Spanish-bilingual second grade teacher in an urban, high needs, public school. Yet, I find that 42% of the school’s student population is not Latino, they are either Chinese American or newcomers from China.The Chinese bilingual families in my school and community speak Cantonese. In addition, the majority of my colleagues, as well as my principal, are also Chinese American. Since taking a position at my school, I have been eager to better understand Chinese culture and language. This summer, I did it.
Learning about Chinese culture while spending four weeks traveling through China and studying Cantonese on my Fund for Teachers fellowship provided me with needed skills to serve and empower the other half of our school.
My goal was threefold:
Through Global Exploration for Educators Organization (GEEO), I experienced China with a small group of intellectually-curious academics like myself. We toured the most important cities and historical sites, observed schools, collected artifacts and met daily with an assigned curriculum discussion group to develop lesson plans. Afterwards, I took private basic language classes.
As a teacher, I give information all year. In China, there was a change: I was given the chance to absorb as a student the history and culture that was foreign to me. Another thing that changed about me was my language proficiency. After working hard with my teacher Abbe at the Hong Kong Language School, I can now say complete phrases to parents like, “How are you today,” and “Your child is very smart.” Further, one of the biggest shifts I’ve experienced since the trip is in the relationship I have with my Chinese-American colleagues. Now back from China, I have noticed a shift in how they interact with me. It’s as if they appreciate me more.
It was vital for me to pursue my fellowship to expand my knowledge of China and Cantonese thus bolstering connections with my community. I have lived in my community for 20 years and was always intrigued by Chinese customs and cuisine; however, I felt alienated by my ignorance. After the fellowship, I feel more connected. In sum, I set out to help desegregate my Hispanic and Chinese-American students and in the process integrated myself.
As a career educator, I constantly strive to improve my teaching craft. After studying Cantonese, I have evolved in my empathy and understanding of my Newcomer students. I can relate to what it feels like to be surrounded by people speaking a language that is incomprehensible. I will do everything I can to help them feel comfortable, make their acculturation process to the U.S. smooth, and employ strategies that will bolster their English Language skills in a fun way. In addition, I will grow my teaching through implementing a unit on China to share my impassioned new knowledge with my students.
When I planned out my school year, I wanted to begin sharing my China experience right away. Our school provides breakfast in the classroom and during the time while the children eat, I show them pictures from my trip and tell them about what I learned. They love it and always ask for more.
My second graders are learning in a new way through a unit I developed about China. Over the seven years I have taught second grade, I only touched on Chinese culture through a few lessons around Lunar New Year. The lessons did not go deep or broad enough. Upon my return, I created an integrated unit on China that teaches the children about Dynasties, the Great Wall, the life cycle of the panda, writing Chinese characters and folktales. My youngsters research and do an oral report on one of China’s wonders such as the Terracotta Warriors, panda bears, or The Forbidden Palace.
Most importantly, I’m incorporating English lessons that emphasize the similarities between Hispanic and Chinese cultures. Students from the two cultures interview each other and share their information about each other’s culture with their class. The Latino and Chinese American students don’t really mix due to the language strands at our school. To remedy that, I began in January implementing a unit in China and Chinese culture with my Latino students. As the Lunar New Year approaches, we will take a field trip to China Town when the Cherry Blossoms are full to learn about Chinese American History, eat food in an authentic Chinese restaurant with chop sticks and shop at a Chinese herb market. Throughout all of these lessons, I’m helping my students see a bigger picture – how much they have in common with their peers and, hopefully, forge new bonds.
For seven years I have felt something was missing for me at my school. I felt held back by a lack of understanding of the Chinese cultural events at our school and couldn’t connect with all of my colleagues. Thanks to Fund For Teachers, I feel a part of my entire school community, enriched the lives of my students, experienced first hand the magnificence of China, and have improved my craft as an educator. What a gift! “M goi” Fund for Teachers.
Courtney Cook has been passionate about teaching in bilingual classrooms for 19 years. She teaches second grade Spanish bilingual at Spring Valley Science School in San Francisco. Courtney has aught in Mexico and Columbia, holds a Masters in Teaching and is a National Board Credentialed Teacher in the area of English as a New Language.
by, Natalie Biden & Emilie Jones-McAdams – Bronx, NY
“I looked across the border – that invisible line which separated my family’s old life from our new one – and wondered what was in store for us.”
This was the opening line in one of my student’s free writes about what it means to be a survivor. Barely a teenager, he explained how difficult the process of immigration was on his family. Out of his family’s struggles with emigrating from Mexico to the Bronx, one struggle landed harder int he forefront of his young mind – the lack of cultural and racial acceptance from his peers. Of course, he describes it as bullying, but what it really is: prejudice, ignorance and intolerance. As teachers, we firmly believe that communities in which all cultures are celebrated are the most beneficial places for our students’ educational, social and emotional well being. It is the desire and passion for fostering strong classroom communities that inspired our fellowship.
We left our home in NYC and ventured into the American South and Europe in order to complete a comparative study looking at the significance of those two locations in relation to civil and human rights violations. Through our Fund for Teachers grant, we were able to travel from the American South to Post-Holocaust Europe to discover and research their shared history of both discrimination and reconciliation.
Our key questions were:
We visited over 10 cities (in America and Europe) in the span of one month. Our goal was to visit important historical locations, learn from guides and educators, and collect invaluable artifacts and pieces of knowledge that would aid us in teaching the Civil Rights Movement and the Holocaust.
We started in the South. Some of the highlights were:
Then we headed to Europe.
We stepped onto four different concentration camps – Auschwitz, Birkenau, Dachau, and Buchenwald. Our Berlin Walking tour focused on periods of repression and persecution of various people groups in the city’s history, while Warsaw offered us a glimpse into its Jewish Ghetto past. By researching in cities such as Berlin, Munich, Krakow, Warsaw, and Prague via train,bus, walking, bike, and Trabant, we were able to appreciate these places for their history, their monuments and important markers of the past, as well as their growth and change over time into the modern cities they have become.
Each destination proved to be a powerful, moving and highly educational experience. In America and Europe, we were steeped in the rich histories, cultures, traditions, and stories. We paid witness to the shoes that the one of the girls was wearing when she lost her life during the 16th Street Baptist Church
bombing, and we paid witness to the thousands of shoes left behind by the victims of Nazi brutality. Never will we forget the things we saw during our journey.
After looking out at the world, it was time to look into our classrooms in order to help students develop a critical consciousness that allows for open and honest discussion and exploration of historical and current issues within a safe and supportive classroom community. As a result of our fellowship, students are tackling the complexities of human and civil rights violations. They are engaging in two new units on civil rights – one focusing on the Holocaust and the other on the Civil Rights Movement.
Viewing and discussing artifacts and pictures collected during our journey, and reading the challenging and complex texts gathered from the two major locations of our trip, students are being exposed to the histories of the South and Eastern Europe. We hope that the discussions and work that come out of these
topics will not only push our students thinking in ELA and social studies, but also encourage our students to think critically about the civil rights and equality issues of their time.
Culturally-responsive education research proves students thrive in classrooms where all cultural vantage points are considered valuable and celebrated. We believe that it is essential to not only teach tolerance,
respect, and acceptance, but it also important to carefully explore with students the times in history when human rights have been violated, and throughout the year, we will explore these moments in history.
Ultimately, the major impact on the students is learning how to turn tragedies from the past into lessons for the present and future. In the present, they are understanding why people should have basic human rights and what happens when people are denied those rights. This impacts the class by applying those same ideas to how they treat their classmates. When our students leave us and go on to higher levels of education and future careers, they will encounter people different from them and ideas different than theirs. We want our students to be good citizens and thoughtful people who impact their communities in positive ways.Learning to treat people with respect and celebrate differences will set them up to live honorably, think deeply, and engage in the social challenges of their times.
by, Britnie Girigorie & Simone English – Brooklyn, New York
When Europeans first began to colonize Australia in the 18th century, the traditionally nomadic culture of the Aborigine people changed drastically. Under British rule, the Aborigines lost much of the land that they lived off of for centuries. They were subjected to removal of their children from their homes, racism and genocide, denied the right to vote and state benefits and segregated from the main population of Australians. Due to their dark skin the Australian Aborigine people were easily identified and discriminated against. In the 1920’s, the beginnings of a Civil Rights Movement in Australia began to emerge. However, it wasn’t until the 1960′s that the movement began to gain traction. Freedom rides and peaceful protest modeled after the American Civil Rights Movement led to a constitutional referendum allowing the Aborigine people equal rights as Australian citizens.
As English teachers at FDNY High School for Fire and Life Safety, we both noticed a need for units of
study to introduce our students to the diverse world to which they currently have little access. Studying the Aborigine Civil Rights Movement allows our students to connect with a culture across the globe and discuss similarities of the human experience, cultivating empathy and compassion for all of humanity. Therefore, we designed our Fund for Teachers fellowship to spent two weeks in Australia researching the Aboriginal Civil Rights movement to discover how it reflects the more familiar struggle of African-Americans in the United States and create a curriculum about how self-expression helps convey human experiences common throughout the world.
We started our research in Melbourne, where we visited several Aborigine museums and cultural centers. Also in Melbourne, we visited the Worawa Aboriginal School and met with the director, Ms. Lois Peeler. Ms. Peeler and her three sisters are the subjects of the movie The Sapphires that was released in the United States last year. She is to the Aborigine Civil Rights Movement what Rosa Parks was to African Americans. She is also the first Aborigine Super Model in the world.
While visiting the girls-only school, we had a meeting with several heads of departments there and
were given access to class rooms, dorm rooms and other areas of the school including spending time with the students. Over lunch, we learned from Ms. Peeler and others about the Aborigine movement and the progress of the Aborigines in Australia. We discovered that many of the girls were deaf because they live in remote villages and didn’t have access to proper medical care. However, to help with that, all the classrooms have surround sound hearing aids and the teachers speak through a microphone hung from her/his neck.
Our initial question was “How did the American Civil Rights Movement influence that of the Aborigine People?” However, not long after we arrived we realized that we would have to first answer other questions, such as “Where are the Aborigine people now?” We were surprised to find that not
many Australians knew about the Aborigines or simply where they lived. Even when we visited the cultural centers, information about the Aborigine people was limited and sketchy. Visiting the Worawa School really enhanced our learning.
Our second week was spent in Sydney were we visited an Aborigine cultural center. We were privileged to sit with elders who told us stories and showed us how to create our own boomerangs. We witnessed
traditional dances and participated in a smoke ceremony.
We developed the following essential questions to engage our students and school community:
How did the American Civil Rights Movement influence that of the Aborigine people?
In addition to looking to at the American Civil Rights model, we also study Aboriginal literature to discover what forms of self-expression the Aborigine people used to convey their challenges and triumphs? Our two texts for the unit are:
The poems we study include “A Song of Hope” by Oogeroo Noonuccal; “Word of a Ghetto Child” by Ray Sailor; and “What Becomes of us Now?” by Richard G. Kennedy. We also study poems from African American poets such as “Mother to Son” and “Too America” by Langston Hughes and “America” by Claude McKay. Through these books and poems, students experience the pain, the fears, the hopes, dreams, resilient spirit and the triumphs of the Aborigine people. We will seek to uncover what heroes or key figures emerged during this movement and how they use words to inspire change. Answers to these essential questions help our students understand the human struggle and human experience through the similarities in the fight for equal rights of Aborigines and African-Americans.
In addition, we developed an interdisciplinary curriculum unit with colleagues which will spark a culture of leadership, growth and learning among our school staff and we learned how two cultures so drastically different, used similar methods to gain equal rights. Students are learning about the Aborigine people through viewing photos, video footage and artifacts. They now know that African-Americans are not the only group of people who have had to fight for equal rights. This has cultivated empathy within our students, as well as a connection to another culture.
Learning about the struggle for human rights across the globe has fostered a sense of citizenship within our students, inspiring them to fight for themselves, as well as others, in the face of inequalities at the hands of the society. Students are also learning to value and understand differences among people. We help them begin to understand that the human experience is similar across many cultures. The Australian Aborigines, to which we may feel we have very little connection at the surface, faced inequalities and injustices similar to the family members of many of our students. This realization develops a tolerance for difference and a sense of advocacy for
others who may be suffering.
Living, studying and traveling within Australia for two weeks allowed us to gain a deep understanding for the Aboriginal people. Consequently, we now teach our students about what we learned with a passion that stems from personal experiences. We serve as examples for our students to take advantage of learning opportunities and never be afraid to grow professionally or personally. This opportunity to learn and carry out our own professional development allowed us to cultivate our interests and think carefully and strategically about our skills, knowledge and curriculum development practice as well as to foster our curriculum development skills. Through our fellowship, we developed a
common core unit based on what we observed and lived is an unmatched once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that surely ignited a fire within us.
by, Jessica Mascle, Anthony Riccio, Nate Streicher & Eric Levine – Amherst, NY
At the Central High School National Historic Site Museum
On an early Sunday morning in July the Tapestry Charter School Civil Rights team traveled to Little Rock, AR for a truly unique experience. We designed our Fund for Teachers fellowship to attend an educators’ Civil Rights Institute to help students make important connections between historic events and challenges of modern society in a way that engages the question, “How can I make a difference?” Little did we know that casual conversations had with fellow educators, hotel workers, shop keepers and cab drivers would be engraved in our minds and retold in our stories of the battle for civil rights.
During the course of the week, we were students engaged in the investigation of primary sources, fieldwork, experts and assessment tools. Our group traveled to several historic sights including the Arkansas State Capital and Little Rock Central High School. During these experiences, participants read excerpts from Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, which fostered a visual understanding of the author’s writing and therefore created an emotional connection that reading the text in a classroom would not foster.
The importance of the Little Rock Nine is incalculable. Perhaps the most compelling discovery was the idea of personal narratives of the students themselves and the community at large. During our time in Little Rock, we were surprised by the impromptu “narratives” we were told by cab drivers as we were given informal sight seeing tours of the city. We were inspired by working with other educators, learning how different schools teach social justice issues, learning from the people who were living in Little Rock during the school integration crisis, learning new ways to use protocols for writing and processing fieldwork, and gaining new ideas for writing projects and final products.
The zenith of the week was sitting down and speaking with our interview subjects. Our conversations turned into our product:personal narratives telling the story of our subjects – their struggles, hardships
and ultimate ability to succeed in the South.
Far north of the Mason-Dixon Line we returned with the reality that although the fight for Civil Rights has come a long way, we still have a long way to go. From conversations with other Institute participants, informal conversations with cab drivers and shop keepers, and the interview sessions, all those involved painted a vivid picture of how America is still not equal.
Our experiences during the Institute allowed us to reevaluate our teaching plans to focus on connections from the Civil Rights Movement to modern day civil rights efforts, including those in our own school community, and what they hope to achieve. Western New York is a very diverse place and being so lends itself to the stories, struggles and tribulations of those who live here. By examining Western New York and our own school, we will be able to create a personal connection with our students, making the content more meaningful.
Experiences on our fellowship taught us is that history is better told by listening to a story than simply reading it out of a textbook. We now teach our students interview and oral history recording techniques that we learned and send them out into the Western New York community to obtain first hand stories of community members that have encountered hardships and struggles trying to achieve equality and respect so that future generations will be able to read and partake in the local civil rights movement. Additionally, we:
The most memorable experience of our fellowship was a conversation we had with a cab driver named Owen. We asked him to reflect on his 60 years living in Little Rock and if life has changed for the better. He told us “you are naive to think that discrimination has ended. It has simply just changed its shape, color and stripes.“
Our job as educators is to make sure our society does not become complacent with injustices, and to make sure our students and children know that issues can not be changed if others do not know about them. Through case studies in classes and activities in crew, students will deepen their understanding of civil right and the importance of community.
2018 Update: Since submitting this story, Diego shared this story:
“FFT was transformative, probably the best PD I have done as an educator. My fellowship in South Africa included a visit with Christo Brand, one of Mandela’s former prison wardens who eventually became Mandela’s friend, confidant and served with him when he became president. It worked out beautifully, as Mr. Brand visited my school in Fall of 2015 and FFT allowed me to travel for my fellowship in December of that year, so we stayed in touch and I had the chance to learn first hand about what it was like to be next to Mandela. This picture of Christo and me is right after visiting Robben Island on a beautiful crisp morning in Cape Town.
I’ve continued to use what I learned in my fellowship with my classes. All of my students read a chapter from Mandela’s Robben Island: The Dark Years, his memoir of his imprisonment, in a class called LeadServe, where we think about citizenship and civics.
Teaching this class led me to be selected as one of 20 national fellows working with Citizen University, based out of Seattle, to think of new ways of bringing citizens together and engaging the through public “Civic Seminaries.” I trace this work directly to my learning as an FFT Fellow.”
by, Diego Duran-Medina – Estes Park, CO
For most of my social studies students at Eagle Rock High School, social justice is perceived as very US centric, mostly revolving around American historical figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. I designed my Fund for Teachers fellowship to expand students’ knowledge base to an international context by researching social justice in South Africa. For two weeks, I explored the history, impact and legacy of apartheid and Nelson Mandela to gather lessons for students as they begin defining their own path within our progressive, restorative-justice based alternative school. In doing so, I’m facilitating students’ understanding of issues around social justice movements by comparing and contrasting the Civil Rights Movement with apartheid and reconciliation.
Standing outside Mandela’s cell on Robben Island.
My passion for this fellowship comes from having spent over a decade developing my own curricula around issues involving access, social justice, civil rights, definitions of citizenship and exploring what it means to belong and exclude in different contexts. I have never been a traditional teacher relying on textbooks; instead, I prefer to create learning experiences around current events, historical narratives and issues that my students are interested in. This has to do with my own development as a student who always enjoyed history, but found it to be a subject that can often be reduced to static dates, rote memorization and mythology of “great (white) men.” My passion is driven by the fact I want students to know I continue to expand my knowledge and to actively seek new answers with new questions by traveling to a country and culture that I have never visited, but has always fascinated me – South Africa.
I chose to spend my fellowship observing and researching the Mandela Museum in Mthatha, the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, Mandela Square and the Mandela House in Soweto, because I believe that these places offer a perspective that can only be experienced by visiting and have become part of Nelson Mandela’s myth and legacy. By visiting sites over multiple days, I gathered detailed and thorough information to supplement my teaching and curriculum. I also interacted with educators and museum personnel to connect with those who were able to provide personal insight into Mandela’s life and legacy. As a result, I added an important layer of an international focus with an in-depth study of a historical figure beyond the usual pantheon of Civil Rights figures from the US context. My curricula will deepen with a specific example of social justice and a comparative model with apartheid for looking at slavery, oppression and freedom.
On January 6, I started a class called LeadServe, taking a hard look at what it means to work for democracy in different contexts: the two primary examples we will use are Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela. Students will learn though readings, historical context, connected facts and artifacts collected from my fellowship. They will develop a notion of history that moves beyond facts and moves from the impersonal to the personal (i.e.“What does this history mean for my own life?”) They will also develop skills in comparing and contrasting cultures, movements, societies and historical figures, specifically the U.S. and South Africa.
Being awarded this fellowship solidified for me that I can be a teacher who focuses on social justice and that my work has real meaning and substance. These stories need to be told to students in a way that goes beyond the classroom or the textbook, and the example I am setting by
traveling to South Africa is much more powerful than just a lecture on apartheid.
There’s a certain inspiration and renewal of the spirit that happens when I pursue these personal passion projects and it helps inject my career with new energy and
focus. Also, as I advance in my career, I am committed to making sure that younger teachers understand the power of experiential learning for their practice and are able to implement similar experiences in their classrooms and curricula.
Learning through travel is the most powerful combination for connecting the classroom and community, the learning with the doing, and the present with the past. Therefore, I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and treasure the days I spent in South Africa, both learning and reflecting on my practice. I consider it an honor to have been selected as a Fund for Teachers Fellow and entrusted with representing myself, my school and my country.
Eagle Rock School is a full-scholarship high school for 72 adolescents who are not thriving in their current situations, for whom few positive options exist and who are interested in taking control of their lives and learning. Eagle Rock is also a Professional Development Center where educators from across the country learn how to re-engage, retain and graduate students. Diego plans to use his fellowship learning in both settings.
During the 2014/15 school year, the Fund for Teachers grant opportunity was presented in Norwalk and, consequently, I created a wonderful learning experience for myself; but I’m here to say that Fund for Teachers doesn’t just just touch students and teachers. It touches so many more people. In my case, Fund for Teachers impacted teachers whom I met in Hawaii, as well as my family and, since April, Fund for Teachers has impacted a special population of doctors at Walter Reed Medical Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.
My father, Joseph Giandurco, is a medically retired Vietnam Marine and some years ago he was diagnosed with diabetes, causing him to develop kidney disease related to his service. He was my biggest supporter when I told him I was going to try for a Fund for Teachers grant that would help my special education students learn in a new way. He encouraged me to try and, thanks to his support, my idea was brought into the light. And as part of my fellowship, my family and I have been shown the true meaning of the Aloha Spirit.
During my journey to becoming a better teacher, my father was undergoing a journey that was much harder – he was seeking a kidney donation, since no one in our family was a proper match. In April my dad, mom and I decided to visit Walter Reed in hopes of an eventual kidney transplant. While going through their process, my dad managed to tell every doctor about Fund for Teachers and the grant I earned to study in Hawaii for my students. One doctor was so impressed that he told my father he should go with me and see my work in action. That sparked my dad’s desire to pay his way to Ohau, too.
The experience was rewarding for both of us. My dad was able to enjoy Honolulu while still undergoing his peritoneal dialysis. He loved going to the various sites and was very excited to hear about the different myths and legends presented to us in the diverse Hawaiian culture. He also really enjoyed seeing all the sites he could while he was feeling well, including Pearl Harbor.
While touring this solemn memorial, we met several veterans, as well as enlisted men from different branches. One Marine veteran who worked as guard and was a native Hawaiian saluted my father wishing him “Semper Fidelis,” but then also told him that Hawaii has a way of presenting new journeys and “healing a person’s worries.” We all thought that was just a nice way of saying, “Take time to enjoy the area.” Little did we know that his message was prophetic. In retrospect, I can say that this veteran shared our first dose of the Aloha Spirit and we didn’t even know it.
On October 8th, my dad was finally accepted by Walter Reed and the following day, we received the call to come to Maryland immediately because they had a kidney from another military veteran from Hawaii. With tears of joy and disbelief, my father, mother and I drove eight hours in rainy, Friday night traffic to get him ready for his procedure and, on October 10th, he received the greatest gift – a second chance from another servicemen and his family who generously shared the gift of life with a stranger.
Walter Reed runs an outstanding transplant program available to active and retired soldiers and families. It was established in 1970 and is one of the nation’s oldest and most successful transplant programs. Our family is so blessed to see my dad making progress after waiting 2½ years on multiple wait lists, including New York and Yale. The fact that the kidney came from Hawaii from another veteran makes it all the more special.
Finally, the transplant team encourages patients to give their new organ a name. In the spirit of Hawaii, my dad named his “Mahalo,” which means “thank you.” Now, every doctor helping my father recover in Maryland knows about his extra special gift filled with the Aloha Spirit and about my professional development grant from Fund for Teachers that changed all of our lives.
Yesterday was Veteran’s Day and, thanks to a retired serviceman’s continued dedication to his country, another veteran got to celebrate the day as well another Marine Corps Birthday.
Semper Fi,
Missy Giandurco
Thank you to Missy and her family for sharing this wonderful story. Click here to learn more about Missy, her fellowship and her first encounters with the Aloha Spirit.
We live in a paradox, a society of consumption and waste paired with health concerns over rising obesity. The high prevalence of overweight children and unhealthy eaters within our student population highlights the importance of examining factors affecting their food choices. As educators with 27 years of collective experience in elementary education, we’ve witnessed positive changes to policies regarding school lunches and snacks, yet it is our belief that if students become more involved in the actual growing of healthy food while learning organic practices and sustainability, they are more likely to develop lifelong healthy eating habits and values consistent with sustainable living.
Hombre Farm, where organic cheese is produced and distributed locally
Therefore, we designed our Fund for Teachers fellowship to research the sustainable food movement in Italy by exploring organic gardens, specifically the first Zero-Waste town of Capannori, to influence organic gardening projects within the school community and influence students’ healthy food choices.
Italy is the European leader in organic farming, with approximately 45,000 operational organic farms – 2,300 in the Tuscan region alone. The demand for organic produce in Italy has grown significantly since World War II, thus sustainability has become a lifestyle, a culture among Italians countrywide. An essay written for NewFarm.org, states, “Italy is smaller than the state of New Mexico, but it has more land under organic management than does the entire United States.” We spent 14 days last summer researching organic farms in “the Green Heart of Italy” by:
The knowledge we acquired gave us the confidence and expertise to apply effective and efficient
teaching methods that will promote content-rich instruction. We now have the conviction and self-assurance in our understanding to share with and help other teachers, as well as our students, and to make their learning more meaningful.
Although the impact of our fellowship in the classroom and community is just beginning, it mirrors this year’s school theme, “From Small Beginnings Come Great Things at USE,” inspired by our fellowship and new school-wide garden. T-shirts bearing the slogan were made for all the staff and sold to students and families by the PTA. With information acquired through our meeting with the town council of Capannori during our fellowship, we are expanding our school-wide recycling program, as well as the program that donates unopened milk and food items to non-profit organizations. We are also implementing a school composting program, run by our student council, to facilitate student awareness of how prior waste becomes nutrient rich soil.
Other plans for the academic year involve students tilling and planting phases of our newly constructed organic garden. Each grade level has their own plot to tend. Students researched and identified an organic source from which to purchase different types of seeds for our soil and climate. The effort also involves collaboration with science, math and writing teachers to form lessons that incorporate:
Implementing the school recycle and less food waste program
Teachers long to have first-hand knowledge and we know how important it is that our students have it, as well. When students lack personal experiences, teachers need to be prepared to compensate and build connections. We know that with hands-on, direct and personal experiences, learning at any age becomes more evident and meaningful offering higher chances of retaining and applying the information. For teachers to be awarded the chance [through Fund for Teachers] to lend possibilities to all types of diverse learners from disparate backgrounds is an incredible gesture of graciousness and generosity. We had ideas and plans and hopes, and we were able to live those out and return with a renewed sense of passion and purpose ready to share, to offer and to engage with what will remain with us for the rest of our lives.
This month, the science team at Stephens Elementary won a $5,000 grant from the KatyISD Education Foundation for their school garden!
Stacy Slater and Becca White teach at Ursula Stephens Elementary in Katy, TX. You can follow on Twitter progress of the new school garden at @StacylSlater or using hashtag #useitaly.
When the Ebola outbreak caught the attention of my students, I looked for ways to capitalize on that interest and help them look at the global issue through the lens of statistical modeling – but I felt ill prepared. Most of the educational materials I found online were focused on the biology of pathogens and how to spot the symptoms. One student said, “The person on the news told me not to worry, that chances of getting Ebola are low. How low is low? And isn’t there a possibility?” As a Statistics teacher, I answered, “There is always a possibility.”
That answer did not satisfy my students, nor did it satisfy me. I want my students to know that I am the kind of teacher who listens to their questions and who takes their curiosity seriously. I designed a Fund for Teachers fellowship to deepen my understanding of mathematical modeling and statistics in the context of Public Health and Epidemiology in two phases over a three-week period. For the first phase, I participated in the “Introduction to Infectious Disease Modeling and Its Applications” course at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; for the second phase I visited governmental,non-governmental, and academic institutions across the east coast of the United States.
Teaching, in many ways, is analogous to what Epidemiologists do: studying the spread of knowledge (instead of disease) and consistently planning and implementing intervention plans and measuring the impact of those interventions.
In London, I was introduced to this exciting and expanding area by professionals working on infectious diseases in both developing and developed countries. The emphasis was on developing a conceptual understanding of the basic methods and on their practical application, rather than the manipulation of mathematical equations. Back in the States, I met with experts at the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, CT, Partners in Health in Boston, and National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. I sat down with people who use Statistics in their careers to better understand the world around them, and made videos of our discussions to expose students to careers in fields that are not often covered in the media.
Throughout my fellowship, I was reminded that learning in context is important. In math, topics can often seem random and as though you are marching through a disconnected series of rules and procedures. The learning I accomplished this summer is in a beautifully real-world context, which motivates me to keep going. I wanted to figure out the formula because I wanted to know how the average age of infection has changed since a vaccination has been introduced. After this experience, I am recommitted to the importance of students learning mathematics because so much of our understanding of science and society has foundations in algebra and statistics.
Through the lessons and projects built on the foundation of my fellowship, students will learn about careers in health and research that they can pursue and what academic background they would need to be prepared for those fields. I am excited to implement my senior-freshman health and mathematics writing buddy program this fall. I am working with the ten 9th grade Health Writing teachers to develop an Infectious Disease unit for which my AP Statistics students will serve as student mentors. I foresee great benefits for the seniors learning about writing in the math content area who will be able to turnkey that knowledge and become more confident through their work with freshmen.
I used to think about a career change from teaching to working in public health, but through my experience this summer I realized that I do work in public health- I teach statistical literacy and help students be responsible owners of their minds and bodies. I am recommitted to my career in education, realizing that I am able to effect the change I would want to through a different career right where I am.
Eleanor Terry Vierling has been teaching math at the High School for Telecommunication Arts and Technology (HSTAT) in Brooklyn, NY, for almost 10 years. She has taught everything form numeracy to AP Statistics. Five years ago, she also took on the role of college advisor. In 2013, Eleanor was awarded the Sloan Award for Excellence in Teaching Science and Mathematics.
- Portland Children’s Museum
- Terra Nova Park in Vancouver
- Zilker Park in Austin
Laura Wilbanks (Whiteface Elementary – Whiteface, TX) hit the road today in the name of play. With her Fund for Teachers grant, she will interview in Austin, Portland and Vancouver experts leading the movement to redesign school playground landscapes. Along the way, she’ll observe excellent programs in Whitefish, MT; Olympia, WA; and Fresno, CA. Armed with research on best practices and materials, Laura will return to lead the construction of on an outdoor adventure space for at-risk students – a playground for which she raised $30,000 and secured donated supplies. She shares more of her plans…
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The lack of outdoor play is short-changing the education, health, and development of our children.Outdoor exploration and experiential learning helps improve motor functions, creativity, decision-making,problem solving and social skills, yet almost half of children get less than three hours of active play per week. Dr. Stephen R. Kellert of Yale University, states,
“Play in nature, particularly during the critical period of middle childhood, appears to be an especially important time for developing the capacities for creativity, problem-solving, and emotional and intellectual development.”
As a teacher who nurtures these children on a daily basis, I see firsthand the results of too much time spent indoors.
To combat what Richard Louv coined “Nature Deficit Disorder,” I designed my Fund for Teachers fellowship to observe to the top three destinations for outdoor spaces for children: Zilker Park in Austin, TX; the David Heil Group Specialists in Portland, OR; and the Terra Nova Outdoor Adventure Park in Vancouver, British Columbia. Collecting testimonies and hands-on experiences with the directors and children in the outdoor spaces will allow me to design a space in my community that will be the most effective and researched-based area possible.
My learning goals are:
The impact will be clear – outdoor education will become a daily part of learning for the students in my district. Students in environment-based instructional programs score as well or better on standardized measures in four basic subject areas — reading, math, language and spelling. The benefit doesn’t stop with just science. Outdoor programs also foster cooperative learning and civic responsibility, using the natural characteristics of the school grounds and local community as a framework for curriculum, and life itself. Students need wild places to explore and a safe area in which to experience the wonder of nature.
My research will provide the information needed to establish an outdoor space at Whiteface Elementary. With funds and supplies committed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Friends of Muleshoe/Grulla Naitonal Wildlife Refuge Group and The Bamert Native Seed Company, we will set a standard in outdoor excellence for my area of Texas so that other schools will become proactive in the outdoor movement, as well.
An excerpt from Louv’s The Nature Principle states,
“Connected and honored, natural teachers could inspire other teachers; they could become a galvanizing force within their schools. In the process, they would contribute to their own psychological, physical, and spiritual health.”
There is no doubt about it, schools need communities in order to support outdoor learning, but educators can lead the way; and, I believe that as one teacher, I do make a difference.
(Photos: L-R Austin’s Zilker Park and the Terra Nova Outdoor Adventure Park in Vancouver)
As a biologist for the Fish & Wildlife Service, for 27 years Laura has also taught students to make a difference in their world through project-based learning – earning her students $800,000 in scholarships. She received the President’s Innovation Award in Environmental Education, The Richard C. Bartlett Award (donating the $5,000 cash prize toward construction of the outdoor adventure park), Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year, Texas Environmental Excellence Award, Soil & Water Teacher of the Year and is TMA’s Top Texas Elementary Science Teacher.
Happy Lunar New Year from Fund for Teachers
Last summer, 146 teachers used FFT grants to pursue new knowledge & skills across Asia. We honor their work and subsequent impact by featuring a few Fellows learning in Cambodia, China, Japan, Laos, Maldives, Mongolia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
I teach a class of first through third graders at Garden Oaks Montessori in Houston, TX. Social studies and science are the center of our curriculum, with math and language arts integrated as tools for learning. We take an anthropological approach to history, examining how each culture met universal human needs such as clothing and shelter, but our materials were embarrassingly Eurocentric.
Milking a yak in Mongolia
To increase my knowledge of Asian culture, history, and ecology and enhance this part of our curriculum, I embarked on a three-week expedition in Mongolia and China. My small group visited three different biomes in Mongolia and met six herding families. These families likely represent the last generation to practice a traditional nomadic lifestyle. At each stop, I participated in daily living. I milked a yak, built a ger tented shelter, dressed in a Mongolian deel, and cooked a meal.
To bring the experience to my students, I assembled a mystery trunk of artifacts from my journey, including a wooden spoon for milk offerings, camel hair rope, yak and reindeer fur, wooden puzzles, an ankle bone game, a Buddhist prayer scarf, samples of Kazakh embroidery, a traditional music CD, an ink stick and compressed tea from China, and more. Each student acts as an expert in a discipline: botanist, zoologist, anthropologist, meteorologist, etc. As they examine an artifact, our experts will ask, “What is it made of? How is it used? Which experts would be interested in it?” After reviewing photographs with more clues, the children will draw conclusions about where I traveled, citing evidence for each guess.
Perhaps the most fun application of my fellowship coincides with Halloween. Each year, I “become” Mrs. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus. Last year, a student pointed to Ms. Frizzle in Imperial China and asked, “Ms. Frizzle, next year could you wear this dress?” He got his wish. This week, we will celebrate Chinese New Year with calligraphy and chopsticks lessons and kite-making with a museum scientist.
After 15 years of teaching, I risk becoming stagnant. This fellowship renewed my adventurous spirit. I worried less and relished challenges. I did laundry in a river. I used a doorless wooden outhouse on the side of a highway. I crawled through a glacial ice cave, spent chilly nights in a ger under the stars, and tasted reindeer milk and silk worm larva. It was freeing to say yes to new experiences. Now, my example spurs students to take adventurous risks in their learning, as well.
Shana documented her entire fellowship with a blog. She regularly presents at state and national Montessori conferences and she professional development courses for the Smithsonian ScienceEducation Center. She also volunteers with the paleontology field team from the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
Among the world-class presenters at this year’s Southeastern Geologic Conference will be Leah Keith’s students from Red Bank High School (Chattanooga, TN). Their topic: Using GIS/OSM to prepare communities for natural catastrophes.
Considered experts in this field, Leah’s students learned these skills following her example. A geologist by trade, Keith was the first teacher ever accepted into UT-Chattanooga’s Tropical Island Ecology & Geology program. Using a Fund for Teachers grant to join the program’s work last summer, she canvassed 10,000 individual homes, businesses, schools and churches on three Caribbean islands to gather demographically-correct data for use post-hurricane.
Armed with this information and expertise, Leah now teaches students how to conduct scientific research inspired by hands-on humanitarian work. Last fall, students constructed San Salvador’s first maps with geological and demographic information for use in crisis management and by ambulance and postal services. Students download aerial images, run them through Open Street Mapping (OSM) software, then label cemeteries, driveways, schools – anything to help first responders get their bearings and locate victims.
“They now ‘do’ science for a purpose,” said Leah. “They realize that mapping an area to know where people live is ethically and morally important. Their work can help save lives in the aftermath of a natural disaster.”
At the regional Geological Society of America conference this March, Leah’s students will discuss their maps of San Salvador, as well as maps they created for first responders’ use during landslides. Future projects include working with professional cartographers to map escape routes for Syrian refugees and villages in the throes of the Ebola epidemic. To facilitate this work, Leah’s class was awarded a Teacherpreneur Grant from PEF Chattanooga to purchase drones for future mapping projects.
“Kids won’t work for themselves, but will DO ANYTHING for others,” said Leah “My students go on to college knowledgeable of GIS and OSM applications. Their professors say ’Kids aren’t supposed to already know how to do this’ and they reply ‘You don’t know Ms. Keith. She assumes we can because no one told us we can’t.’”
For an update on Leah’s students and their role in disaster relief and recovery, click here.