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

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

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

At Carrowkeel Mounds near Sligo, Ireland, I was able to explore freely without any restrictions other than my own fear. Believe it or not, I did muster the courage to skinny into the tomb behind me. It was for science!

Enter If You Dare — And She Did

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

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

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

Her Haunting Question

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

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

Demystifying the Megaliths

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

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

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

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

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

The post Happy Halloween “Tomb” You first appeared on Fund for Teachers.

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

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

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

Start Your Application Here

Are You Eligible?

YES, if you:

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

What’s Your Re?

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

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

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

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

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

The post 2024 Fund for Teachers Grant Application Opens first appeared on Fund for Teachers.

Hyam Elsaharty

Prior to joining Seattle Public Schools as its District Social Emotional Learning Consulting Teacher, Hyam taught math and special education at Stephen T. Mather High School in Chicago, IL. In 2017, she and a colleague used a Fund for Teachers grant to investigate programs within refugee and public schools in Malaysia (pictured). Afterwards, the duo expanded existing advisory curriculum to meet the specific social and emotional needs of Malaysian and refugee students. In addition to her FFT fellowship, Hyam is also the recipient of the P. Buckly Moss grant and was named Chicago Public School’s SEL Teacher of the Year in 2019.

“Becoming an FFT Fellow was the impetus which began my life shift personally and professionally,” said Hyam. “As a woman of color who works in SEL where I get to help folks develop a sense and pride in their identity, self-advocate, and practice empathy, I am deeply committed and connected to the EAC’s objectives. In fact, without FFT I do not believe I would be secure in my own identity.”

Read more about Hyam’s fellowship here and her thoughts on social emotional learning in this Chalkbeat Chicago article.

Marco Cenabre

Marco teaches high school literature at New Haven, CT, in the district where he was born, raised and from which he graduated. In 2019, he used his FFT grant to attend the Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking in Annandale, NY, and afterwards award-winning author Debra Moffit’s “Gaining Creative Self Confidence Writing” retreat in Lake Annency, France, to implement intentional strategies in reflection and storytelling.

“I believe in teacher-to-teacher collaboration, and leadership,” said Marco on why he chose to join the EAC. “One of the largest issues in teacher development is the fact that administrators, representatives of organizations, and others far removed from the classroom are the ones constructing the ‘solutions’ and offering them to teachers. It is through teacher innovation, reflection and a wide range of perspective that will spark what’s necessary in order for change to be truly enacted. Being a part of the EAC, and collaborating with others, will be an opportunity to offer solutions leading to widespread change.”

In addition to leading Fund for Teachers’ Social Justice Innovation Circle, Marco teaches a graduate course on reflective practice to first year teachers throughout the state, is a member of the Anti-Racist Teaching & Learning Collective and is a Teach for America alumni. Read more about Marco’s fellowship here.

Marin Leroy

Marin teaches at Evergreen Community Charter School in Asheville, NC, where she coordinates for environmental education programs. In 2015, she used her grant to attend the week-long Edible Schoolyard Academy in Berkeley, CA, with subsequent mentoring at a K-8 Life Lab garden in Santa Cruz, CA. She returned to curate a team of educators from her broader community to support local edible education and school yard garden projects.

“My opinion is that most teacher certification programs give teachers a foundation, a starting place, but that FFT provides ways for educators to cultivate our own passions, which makes our teaching and facilitation of subject more highly engaging for students,” said Marin. “The more inspired we are as educators, the more we can spark our kids’ imagination and love for learning. As part of the EAC I will immerse myself in a community of professionals working to shift toward this academic paradigm through teacher engagement and inspiration.”

Read more about Marin’s community impact here.

Rao Olayeye

Rao recently returned from a teaching assignment in Bahrain, where she was the information technology specialist. Prior to that, she taught at the Atlanta International School, where she founded its middle school robotics program and developed the high school program into a competitive team. Her expertise in robotics began in 2012, when she used an FFT grant to attend a Robotics Education Global Conference in Oahu, HI, and enroll in Carnegie Mellon’s National Robotic Engineering Center in Pittsburgh, PA (pictured).

“There are not many women in educational leadership and I want to see a shift in that area,” said Rao on why she applied for an EAC position. “My masters and doctorate degrees, combined with years of experience teaching locally and internationally, are empowering me to be the change I want to see in the world and look forward to bringing that passion and commitment to the EAC to benefit a wider community.”

Victoria Thomson

Victoria teaches Integrated Science and astronomy in East Lyme, CT, after a career as a scientist/entomologist. In 2019, she used her FFT grant to participate in a summer teacher training course sponsored by the Galileo Teacher Training Program in the Canary Islands, home to some of the most technologically-advanced telescopes in the Northern Hemisphere (pictured).

When asked why she wanted to join the EAC, Victoria responded, “I am the first generation to go to college in my family and ended up thriving at an Ivy League School. I wanted to give back to students and inspire them, which is why I became a teacher. As an adult, I see teachers get stuck by the barriers placed on them in the classroom. I see and hear teachers feel like victims of a system. I want to be a part of a group that inspires teachers to find other teachers to be rise up together and be brave, to do what is best for our children, our future leaders.”

Read more about Victoria’s fellowship here.

The post Teachers Leading Teachers first appeared on Fund for Teachers.

Reflections are just that, evenings in which Fellows convene to reflect on all they accomplished over the summer. We asked Alycia to share a little about these inspiring nights when she witnesses the impact of Fund for Teachers grants…

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]Q[/minti_dropcap] You see Fellows twice a year: at Orientations in the spring and Reflections in the fall, after they’ve had a few months to process their fellowships. What’s the “before and after” you observe?

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]A[/minti_dropcap] At Orientations, I hand teachers checks for up to $10,000 and say, “We believe in you and your ideas.” Because they rarely hear this sentiment, the teachers look shocked — even though they worked diligently on their proposals for months and received their award notifications via email weeks earlier. During these “pre-fellowship” events, the teachers are reserved, cautious and sit far apart from each other. During the Reflections, however, the same teachers are chatty, warm, laughing and sharing their learning. Getting their attention can be a challenge because they are eager to network and leverage each other’s fellowships to benefit more students.

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]Q[/minti_dropcap]What are the most common things Fellows say during Reflection events?

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]A[/minti_dropcap] Hands down, that they’ve never been trusted with so much autonomy as educators. Teachers live in a one-size-fits-all/cookie cutter/prescribed environment when it comes to professional development, so the freedom represented by a Fund for Teachers grant is unprecedented for most. Fellows talk about walking back into their classrooms after their fellowships with a confidence they didn’t previously have. They feel like experts on topics they pursued during the summer and that impacts how they teach the rest of the year. I also hear:

• “I’ve never seen an organization that meets me where I am.”
• “At every turn, Fund for Teachers says, ‘Yes! Do that!'”
• “Throughout the process of designing a blueprint for learning, executing my plans and bringing it back to students, I felt honored, trusted and respected as a professional.”

Read more about the Tennessee Reflection here.

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]Q[/minti_dropcap]You’ve been a program officer for eight years. What advice do you have for teachers preparing their application for a 2020 grant?

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]A[/minti_dropcap] In my opinion, the most important part of crafting a solid proposal is identifying one’s passion. It’s so clear when someone wants to travel to Italy and writes a proposal for that purpose versus when someone finds a need in their practice or gap in their knowledge and then creates a road map for how they are going to address those learning goals. Also, no matter what teachers want to learn or where they want to learn it, their proposals should be personal and capture their passion for the topic. If a teacher can make a case for why it’s vital for them to make this fellowship happen and their passion shines through, that’s a great start.

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Click here to meet three of our program officers and hear their tips for crafting a strong grant proposal.

(Pictured L-R: Salma Zaky, Alycia Johnston and Stephanie Ascherl while filming a Facebook Live tutorial. Watch for upcoming Wednesday Webinars led by these experts on November 13, December 11 and January 8. Register here.)

The post Reflections of an FFT Program Officer first appeared on Fund for Teachers.

Why was it vital for you to pursue this particular opportunity/experience?

An educator in Denali shares with us about the methane that is being released as a result of permafrost melting.

We teach in a school that has students from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds. Some students have second homes in the Hamptons, while others have grandparents/aunts/uncles cousins all under the same small roof in Chinatown. We previously did a Human Impact project; students relied on internet searches to source information. Now we have brought real data; photos, interviews, and our stories to ALL of our students–we are bringing the world to them even if they have yet to board a plane.

I now see the bigger picture in a deeper way and I’m more passionate about making my students ‘see’ it, too. It’s easy to read articles about climate change and cognitively understand what is happening. It’s an entirely different boat to stand by the sign showing where a glacier was just 10 years ago (and now it’s ice-free) and not viscerally feel how the world is being affected.

Why was this opportunity transformative for your teaching on a macro-level?

On our heli-hike adventure, we learned how about it’s not how warm it is, but rather the length of the growing season that is changing the vegetation.

Teaching is a joy and a grind. You are always “on;” engaging with students in person, families via email, via google docs with colleagues, or in person at staff meetings. This opportunity allowed me to turn my brain to a different mode from the regular routine. I was learning, yes, but in a more open and unencumbered way than the minute-by-minute schedule of a middle school environment. I landed back in NYC feeling enriched and invigorated for the year ahead.

Also, we experience the world through storytelling and now, our stories are going to be much richer and more vivid; filled with cutting edge science and personal anecdotes from our time in Alaska. They will be able to cite specific examples — equisetum plants spreading, the number of days above 50 degrees Fahrenheit North of the Arctic Circle, soil that doesn’t hold rain, roadways decimated from melting permafrost, increased frequency of wildfires, heavier snowfalls in winter, methane gas being released at an alarming rate, the list goes on — and then have teacher stories/images to connect to these sometimes hard-to-internalize science facts.

How did your fellowship changed your personal and/or professional perspective?

In 2010, the ice used to be where we’re standing.

I went into this fellowship with the understanding that I was traveling with my co-teacher, Molly, and that we would strengthen our co-teaching skills on this trip. I didn’t know how much so, though! I traveled with my 5-month-old infant, so I relied on Molly in SO many ways for support and sanity. This journey to Alaska was like the ultimate trust-builder. If students thought we completed each other’s sentences BEFORE this trip, now they’re going to think communicate telepathically!

Additionally, living in a city, it is easy to go about my day and not feel fundamentally affected by climate change. My food, my transportation, my workplace, and home are all far enough removed from Mother Earth that I am not forced to see how climate change is a real thing affecting real people, animals, and plants. On this fellowship, I was able to witness how ice has shifted, plants and animals have migrated, and people have altered their ways of life because of a warming planet.

And finally, what we’re all here for…What did Sophie think?

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Helen is in her 15th year of teaching. She is a New York City Teaching Fellow, Math for America Master Teacher, and former Department of Energy Teacher as Scientist. She believes in helping students to see science in their everyday lives; continually striving to make connections between their world and the science they are learning about. Outside the classroom she is a passionate runner. She’s a proud mom to two young children.

The post A Mom/Teacher’s Work is Never Done first appeared on Fund for Teachers.

Deborah Tubbs and Dana Smith share a lot in common with Bell: They are deaf education teachers and are also intent on changing the way their second- and third-graders not only communicate, but also integrate and socialize with their hearing peers. Ostensibly our most excited grant recipients judging from this video, Deborah and Dana designed their fellowship to attend the AG Bell Association for the Deaf‘s Global Listening and Spoken Language Symposium in Madrid.

In advance of the symposium, Dana and Deborah toured London schools with programs similar to theirs and with whom their students interact via a pen pal program. En route to Spain, they visited the National Institute for Young Deaf in Paris, established in 1760 as the first public school in the world for deaf students.

We caught up with Dana and Deborah in Madrid as their fellowship is drawing to a close…

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What are your main takeaways so far?

“Deaf Awareness. Not just for a select few but for the entire staff and student body, including our students who are deaf. Everyone needs to understand and appreciate the potential challenges that can arise when communicating with individuals who are deaf. And it is up to all parties to anticipate and recognize when they occur in order to overcome them. For our students who are deaf, they must learn to advocate for themselves.”

How will this impact your students?

“As we come back to Davis Elementary School in Plano, TX and apply what we have seen and learned, our students who are deaf will become more confident in who they are and how they communicate. Our short term plan for our own learning goals can be summed up in two words: learn and connect. Each leg of our fellowship is providing us with both of these opportunities. We are learning from and and connecting with our historical predecessors, our British colleagues and our global professional mentors. Long term, we’ll use these unique experiences to help students become more confident in challenging listening situations, develop skills necessary to repair communication breakdowns, and evolve from a fixed mindset, where they are too intimidated to speak up for their communication needs, to a growth mindset, where they recognize the challenges they face and have the tools and strategies they need to become successful and effective communicators.”

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Follow the remainder of this fellowship on the teachers’ Instagram feed @deborah_dana_fft.

The post Helping Deaf Students Speak Up first appeared on Fund for Teachers.

The post 2019 Grant Application Available Today first appeared on Fund for Teachers.

“Once upon a time there were two teachers in search of a way to make fairy tales come alive for their urban students.” This is how preK and kindergarten teachers Carmen Kaemingk and Kirsten Carlson began their FFT grant application, proposing a journey along the Fairy Tale Trail in Germany, Italy and France. By researching the origins of stories by Perrault (Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella), Collodi (Pinocchio) and the Brothers Grimm, they believed they could encourage students’ imagination as an alternative to technology-driven entertainment.

Turns out, they were right — sort of.

Students now use props their teachers brought back to act out fairy tales in class, expanding their language skills and building vocabularies. This exercise has proven especially fun (and effective) for English Language Learners. Students also write and illustrate their own fairy tales and their parents attended a Fairy Tales 101 night to learn how sharing stories from their own cultures can develop literacy and language skills in their children.

The “sort of” disclaimer is because the innovative teachers are using technology to enhance the fairy tale units. By strapping on Virtual Reality headsets loaded with images taken on the fellowship, students marvel at landscapes in which the familiar stories took place. They also dictate into recording devices their own narratives, learning digital storytelling techniques.

“Our goal was to take fairy tales off the movie screen and activate our students’ imaginations through the magic of reading fairy tales,” said Carmen. “While we’re accomplishing that goal, we’re also teaching them how to tell a story in correct sequence, a necessary reading skill that builds and strengthens students’ comprehension.”

And they are all learning happily ever after.

The end.

The post All Fairy Godmothers, No Big Bad Wolves first appeared on Fund for Teachers.

Pearl visited the childhood home of Senghor, Senegal’s first president, where she researched the origin stories and history of Senegal’s democracy.

Steve Jobs said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” Our Fellows personify Jobs’ belief as they purposefully leverage history to change the future.

Establishing that African Americans HAVE a history is the beginning of Pearl Jonas’ teaching with students at Philadelphia’s Science Leadership Academy. She begins with the Transatlantic Slave Trade, then dives deeper into oral traditions as sources for understanding cultures and the past. Senegal and the surrounding countries provide the richest historical narratives, so that’s where Pearl conducted research on her Fund for Teachers fellowship. She now leads more engaging discussions that challenge how we think in the present based on how history was taught in the past.

“There are several myths, misconceptions and incomplete histories told about African societies,” said Pearl. “This has roots in some 19^th and early 20^th century European historians’ ideology that Africa has no history to tell.”

Conflict resolution inspired the fellowship of Ashley Porter and Kaitlyn Kraushaar. As teachers at Hixson Middle School, just twenty minutes from the 2014 shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson, MO, Ashley and Kaitlyn struggled to give their predominantly white students perspective through this tumultuous time. To find new ways to shape conversations on diversity across their district, the teachers designed a Fund for Teachers fellowship to research how teachers around the world address social justice.

“The current climate in our city remains very racially charged and divided, and healing is needed on both sides of the issue,” said Ashley. “Bringing to light race relations and the struggles of other minorities in a safe and responsive environment is key in helping all of our students make sense of who they are and who they’d like to be.”

Principal Lee leading a restorative circle.

Students at Hixson now regularly participate in restorative circles, such as this one led by Principal Grace Lee, to reevaluate how they handle tense or even hurtful situations. Kaitlyn and Ashley also applied FFT funds to purchase a Safety Pin Box, conversation prompts and tasks designed to help students become allies for the black community.

“The Safety Pin Box is a great resource that is helping our school as we strive to eliminate the equity that still oppresses our students of color,” said Principal Lee.  “As a city, we are confronting racial inequities that support unjust systems. Hixson is at that table around those conversations and our kids are passionate about leading the work for change.”

America’s teachers no longer have the luxury of merely teaching one subject; instead, they are on the front lines of students’ academic and moral instruction, as well as their emotional and physical safety. Fund for Teachers is privileged to represent and advocate for our nation’s educators who look beyond current circumstances and resources to shape more informed and empathetic citizens.

We thank Pearl, Ashley and Kaitlyn for sharing their experiences and their students’ learning. Make sure to check our Black History Month feed on our blog here. Next week, our final post in this series will explore how FFT Fellows are addressing the achievement gap with students of color. Stay connected and find out when it’s live by following us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The post Past vs. Present | Black History Month first appeared on Fund for Teachers.