Preschool teachers have to be flexible, but Dianna Langdon (Park Early Childhood Center – Ossining, NY) is taking that necessity to a whole new level. She used her FFT grant to obtain certification as a registered children’s yoga teacher and now incorporates the practice daily to unite four-year-olds’ minds, bodies, thoughts and actions while also fulfilling state standards requiring preschoolers’ physical, social and emotional development.

Two weeks of instruction at the Bhodi Tree Yoga Resort in Nosara, Costa Rica, equipped Dianna to weave yoga and mindfulness into classroom instruction in English and Spanish to include the large percentage of students from Latin American countries. She also leads staff development sessions that empower all of the preK teachers and assistants to incorporate breathing and movement exercises that reduce student stress and increase healthy practices.

“My prekindergarten students now enjoy much needed opportunities throughout their learning day for movement, which helps increase their attention and stimulate their cognitive ability,” said Dianna. “Students are also developing mindful habits through the use of new meditative strategies I’ve learned such as mindful minute, guided visualizations, and affirmations.”

Despite their high energy level, the young yogis look forward to the chance to  relax together, according to Dianna. She leads some exercises, then students use their creativity to dream up and share their own poses (pictured). They also share thoughts about feelings, hopes and worries. “We even use yoga breathing strategies to support ourselves at other times during the school day and to modulate our energy during learning,” Dianna said.

Ultimately, she envisions daily yoga sessions developing in her students the principle of ahimsa, or non-harming.

“By teaching my students this principle and encouraging them to think about it in other areas of their lives, we will all go into the world outside our classroom with a focus on kindness toward the other.”

Namaste.

For more stories about teachers pursuing mindfulness strategies with their grants, read about the work of these Houston teachers, as well as the impact of these Fellows who learned under experts at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts and a Buddhist monastery in France.

This February, Fund for Teachers is celebrating Black History Month by highlighting some of our Fellows’ journeys to bring a better understanding of the African American experience to all students. In this four-part blog series, we’ll be diving into everything from the Transatlantic Slave Trade to student advocacy. Our Fellows explored the “past and present” of black history in our last blog. In this final installment of our blog series, we look at how Fellows Shunn Rector, Diane Palm and Kristin Peterson are addressing the achievement gap impacting students of color. Read on to learn more about their experiences in the classroom and how they are honoring Black History Month in their schools.

Kristin Peterson is a special education teacher at a Saint Paul, MN, school that not only addresses students’ academic needs, but also fills needs stemming from poverty. Her school houses medical, dental and mental health clinics, as well as a food and clothing shelf. Visiting the National Museum of African History and Culture in Washington DC is not an option for her students at this point, yet she felt it vital that her students see their great heritage showcased.

Kristin wanted them to see how others have struggled also, and gone on to do tremendous things. So she went to the Smithsonian’s newest institution on her fellowship and created a Virtual Field Trip Kit with photos, interviews and primary sources she collected along the way.

“The greatest challenge that my school, students and district face right now is the significant achievement gap that exists,” said Kristin. “I believe my Virtual Field Trip through African American history is inspiring ALL students to reach for their own greatness and aspire to achieve at their very highest levels of learning.”

Inside the walls of Houston’s Juvenile Correction Facility, the achievement gap is impacted by students’ surroundings as much as their ethnicity. Shunn Rector and Diane Palm teach the incarcerated middle school students and decided to research black history in Senegal, the first African country to adopt a law criminalizing the slave trade.En route to Senegal, the duo conducted research on the Transatlantic Slave Trade at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library and, afterwards, explored Le Petit Senegal, a thriving population of 8,000 Senegalese immigrants in Harlem. The remainder of their fellowship consisted of interviews and documentation across Senegal. Now, their students design personal “Doors of No Return” to connect with this period of history and also make correlations with their own struggles.

“We recognize that the achievement gap exists when students feel like outsiders due to barriers of language, religious beliefs and race,” said Diane. “We wanted our students to understand that, unlike kidnapped enslaved Africans, they have choice when we are confronted with our symbolic Doors of No Return.”

Bridging gaps is what Fund for Teachers is all about. We step in with funding that equips preK-12 teachers with experiential learning that directly transfers to students’ needs, academic and/or otherwise. We thank Shunn, Diane, Kristin and all of the Fellows who participated in this series for sharing their experiences and their students’ learning. Make sure to see our previous Black History Month series blogs here, and stay tuned for more inspiring stories by following us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

This February, Fund for Teachers is celebrating Black History Month by highlighting some of our Fellows’ journeys to bring a better understanding of the African American experience to all students. In this four-part blog series, we’ll be diving into everything from the Transatlantic Trade to student advocacy. Our Fellows explored how Black history is taught in our last blog. This week, we are taking a deeper look at how Fellows Merle Rumble, Melissa Petropoulos and James Petropoulos are reframing black history to help students identify with their heritage and with others. Read on to learn more about their experiences in the classroom and how they are honoring Black History Month in their schools.

Although African American herself, Dr. Merle Rumble realized her knowledge of civil rights pioneers lacked a breadth and depth she wanted to share with third graders at Fox Run Elementary in Norwalk, CT. The ephemeral Martin Luther King Day left untapped the vast legacies of those who came before and after the progressive leader. She decided to embark on an independent tour of civil rights sites across nine southern cities with her Fund for Teachers grant to increase her understanding and inspire students to see themselves in the achievements of African Americans.

“I wanted to help my students not only to dismantle the false assumptions of African Americans being relegated to slaves and protestors, but also develop their appreciation for the positive impact and contributions of those whose struggled and persevered,” said Merle.

Through guided tours and impromptu interviews, she gathered materials to inform four new units: Africa to slavery, Rosa to Martin, The Civil Rights Movement and African American Heroes. Students are now researching African American heroes and learning songs and poems from the Civil Rights era, inspiring them to identify with those leaders’ achievements.

Looking more deeply into the lives of enslaved Africans during the Colonial Period led Melissa and James Petropoulos‘ students to reconsider how unique they all are. After learning about the unique contributions made by African Americans whom Melissa and James researched on their fellowship, their fourth graders organized a school-wide Unity Day assembly.

“Focusing on humanizing the slave as a person instead of the person as a slave helped students respect what slaves endured,” said Melissa. “Their response was increased empathy for each other.”

In this celebration of kindness, acceptance and inclusion, student pieced together their individual identities to form this Unity Wall. Each description, together, represents the diverse community that Roywaton Elementary strives to be.

While the name of our organization is Fund for Teachers, students are equal beneficiaries of the $27 million in grants awarded since 2001. These teachers crafted fellowships around what they felt would most impact their students. Consequently, students – for years to come – will see themselves and their ancestors in a whole new light.

We thank Merle, Melissa and James for sharing their experiences and their students’ learning. Make sure to check our Black History Month feed on our blog here. Next week, we’ll be exploring how FFT Fellows are assessing the past and present in terms of black history. Stay connected and find out when it’s live by following us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Read our first installment in this series here.

Our team is ready to answer any last minute questions you might have before submitting your application for a 2018 Fund for Teachers grant. Just email info@fundforteachers.org or call 800.681.2667.

Don’t forget to proofread and compare your proposal against the scoring rubric by which it will be evaluated. Our Application Tooklit is also an excellent resource.

Deadline: Today at 5pm CDT. Good luck!

It’s the New Year’s Eve song most of us mumble through, but the English translation of “Auld lang syne” is “times gone by.” Looking back over the year in fellowships, our grant recipients spent their time actively pursuing what they determined will best impact student achievement. Specifically,

• 546 prek-12 school teachers
• completed fellowships on 6 continents
• in 88 countries
• now leveraging $2.1 million in Fund for Teachers grants
• into amplified learning in 321 public private and charter schools across America
• with approximately 11,000 students.

Fund for Teachers is proud of the way our Fellows transform learning communities after dreaming big and clicking “Submit” on the FFT application. Enjoy this homage to our dedicated 2017 Fellows and to all we wish a new year of interests and impact!