Today marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In November 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designated this day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism. We choose to do so by sharing the story of Kimberly McCabe, social studies teacher at Gulf Coast Middle School, Spring Hill, FL. With her Fund for Teachers grant, Kimberly joined a professional learning tour in Finland to explore that country’s model of Phenomenon-Based education practices, then researched historical sites and landmarks in Germany, Poland, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic to create a Phenomenon-Based unit on the Jewish Holocaust.

On January 27, 1945, the Soviets liberated the largest of the Nazi death camps which was located in German-occupied Poland. By this point Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau had an estimated death toll of over 1.1 million people and although it had originally been a detention center for political prisoners, it had turned into a death camp for Jews, Roma, and others who were deemed enemies of the Nazi state.

As we memorialize the beginning of the end of Auschwitz, I am brought back to this summer when, through Fund for Teachers, my colleague and I stood inside the gates of Auschwitz and took part in a six-hour educational tour of the camps. Our purpose? To more deeply understand life inside a concentration camp, to have the opportunity to speak directly to the very highly trained guides at Auschwitz and ask them the questions we still had, and to bring back resources to our classroom. Although we left Auschwitz with our arms full of books, professional photos, and other resources, the biggest resource we brought back to our classroom was our memories of that day and the feeling of walking through history.

One of the memorials that I found most impactful was the book of names at Auschwitz. Here is listed every single victim of the Holocaust. They also included blank pages for the 2 million people who were not identified.

As a Social Studies teacher, standing in a place where history has taken place always has a particular reverence to it. Touching a piece of the past always feels transportive and surreal. Auschwitz was no exception; in fact it may have been even truer there. I took a few moments during the tour to sit in one of the memorials and reflect on the sheer number of lives lost there and what could be taken from that ash and turned into beauty in the future generations, and what role I would play in that as a teacher. The six-hour educational tour is the longest tour that Auschwitz provides. It covers both Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau, and while I recommend the experience if you are visiting, I cannot stress enough how taxing it is both physically and emotionally. We left the location completely drained. Our evening was spent silently reflecting on our day. My thoughts kept returning to the fact that I had spent less than a workday in Auschwitz under voluntary circumstances, on a beautiful day in mid-summer. How could I possibly ever understand what life in Auschwitz was like for those who lived it? How could anyone survive that? Moreover, how could any human inflict that on another? The thoughts seemed too heavy for that day, and even today, months after my visit I feel the same when I reflect back. Now, even more than ever, it is my goal to honor the victims and celebrate the survivors of the Holocaust while also empowering the future generation to create a world in which discrimination no longer exists and differences are embraced.

Each year I am humbled by the task of teaching the Holocaust to my 7th grade students. For weeks prior to the unit I begin to feel the weight that comes with that responsibility. My ultimate goal is always to honor the victims and survivors as well as their families, while at the same time opening up my classroom to discussions of how this applies to them today. If I could choose one thing that every student would take away from this unit, it would be that we should always stand up for those being persecuted among us. This will not always mean large groups of people who are being persecuted by their government; it may be as simple as standing up for the kid being bullied on the playground-or more likely via social media. It may mean reaching out to those who are different from you in order to better understand their perspective. It may mean choosing to vote with other groups in mind.

One of the memorials at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The location was once used as a dumping site for crematorium ashes. However, now it is a quiet place to sit and reflect and memorialize those lost here.

Whatever form it takes, being an upstander is worth the temporary discomfort that may accompany it because if we don’t stick together as members of the human race, we will eventually look around us to find that there is no one there to support us in our time of need. 

For this I rely on a particular quote by Martin Neimöller that always makes an impact on me regardless of the number of times I have read it.

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

To me this quote embodies everything that went wrong during the Holocaust while at the same time allowing me to give honor to those who chose to stand up and do what they could to help others during the Holocaust.

Each week students are shown the biography of a different upstander. They are highlighted as the true heroes of the Holocaust, regular people who did extraordinary things to help strangers. To encourage this sense of empathy in my students, I hand-select a person for them to follow through the Holocaust. I talk to them about how each one of the people they will follow was someone’s child, sibling, parent, or friend. That just like all of us, they were a real individual with hopes and dreams, with fears and insecurities, with a whole future in front of them. I let them know that I am counting on them to take care of this person during our journey. To care about them, to become invested in their life story. Some even take time to research the person on their own time to learn more about them. Throughout the unit they find out more about the person they are following. They learn about their lives and families prior to the 1933. They hear about their family’s businesses and work, their home life, their country. As we move through the timeline of events they witness the changes in their individual’s life. Finally at the conclusion of the unit they find out whether or not their individual was a victim of a survivor of the Holocaust. It is a very somber class period because by this point the students have realized that no matter what the outcome, their individual has faced years of anguish that we can’t even imagine today. It is eye-opening to students that life can change so quickly because of one idea.

This year as a capstone to the unit, our students took part in a project which memorialized the victims and survivors of the Holocaust by creating a memorial quilt. Our local Holocaust museum is to credit for the idea behind the project as it is one they have done with visiting classrooms and have displayed in their learning center. Our students had the opportunity to visit the museum, hear from a survivor, view the quilt designed by past students, as well as take a guided tour of the museum. This visit created many questions for them which we explored during our unit. At the end of the unit they each created a felt quilt square. Each individual also wrote an accompanying essay explaining the symbolism present in their quilt square. The pieces were then combined to make one large class quilt as a memorial to the lives lost in the Holocaust and display in the school as a way to remember the lessons that can be learned from this tragedy.

Although there is nothing we can do to change the horrifying things that occurred during the Holocaust, the quilt project allowed our students to feel as though they were able to give something back to those who suffered by remembering and honoring them.  Rather than focus solely on the horrible things that were done, it allows us to focus on the beauty of the individuals and the hope that future generations will never allow this to happen again.

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Kimberly (pictured on the right with a member of their group at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam) is a middle school Social Studies teacher in the Tampa Bay Area. She is a mom of 3 and enjoys learning as much as she enjoys teaching. She is always looking for new ways to learn through experiences, and traveling to historic sites is her preferred way to learn. She has been awarded with 3 NEH teacher grants, is a graduate of the Florida Justice Teaching Institute, and a member of the 2019 iCivics Teacher Network.

On Pearl Harbor Day, we remember the 2,403 people killed in the surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service. The “date which will live in infamy” launched America’s entry into World War II; the bombings also resulted in the internment of 7,000 Japanese American citizens in relocation centers by order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Teaching the complexities of this time is complex in and of itself for Tim Barry. His students at Nathan Hale Middle School in Coventry, CT, fall within a wide range of ability levels.

“This drastic range creates difficulty when choosing and providing engaging and appropriate text for students of all abilities,” explained Tim. “Fortunately, with the broad scope of our World War II unit, we are able to provide high interest and appropriately leveled options so that all students may contribute and draw connections to classroom discussion and produce work that they can be proud of.”

But that unit lacked dialogue about the domestic impact of the war. Tim designed a Fund for Teachers fellowship fill that gap and, last summer, examined life in and around Japanese Relocation Camps in Utah and Colorado to help students:

• Connect to the past and apply that knowledge to the current climate in the United States?
• Draw parallels between the treatment of Japanese Americans in the United States and Jewish (and other minority) people in Europe during WWII?
• Understand the Pyramid of Hate and how the act of dehumanization impacts individuals and large groups through self reflection and journaling, and
• Support other disciplines across the curriculum such as math (budgeting), social studies (constitutional questions), and science (geographic significance of camps and land features that made them ideal).

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Last summer, I was fortunate to travel to Colorado and Utah to study Japanese Internment Camps as part of my Fund For Teachers fellowship.  My intention was to supplement our current World War II unit with experiences from the home front to allow students to draw parallels in today’s climate of cultural bias.  I want my students to draw inspiration my own curiosity and go out and explore the world.  I want them to challenge what they know or think they know and I want them to be acutely aware of how history has a tendency to repeat itself.

Granada Relocation Center memorial

Trip Details: I spent nine days traveling from the Topaz Camp in Delta, Utah to the Moab Isolation Center in Moab, Utah and finally to Granada Relocation Center (Amache) in Granada, Colorado.  In Delta, I was struck by the beautifully curated Topaz Museum which highlighted the blending of traditional Japanese culture with the easily recognizable American identity of the time.  High school yearbooks, recounts of baseball games, and a letterman’s jackets sat side-by-side with instruments of the Japanese tea ceremony and watercolor paintings.  Despite the dramatic civil rights violations perpetrated by the United States government, these proud people still created a sense of normalcy and everyday life.  The message of their resilience is one that I hope will resonate with my students.

Pictured with Mr. Kitajima and Dr. Clark

The highlight of my trip was being able to connect with Denver University at their biennial open house at the Amache site in Colorado.  There, I was introduced to Dr. Bonnie Clark who is the Project Director of the DU Amache Research Project.  I was able to meet several former internees of the camp, including 87 year old, Mr. Ken Kitajima who was a resident of the camp from ages 12-15.  My hope is that I can provide my students with a first hand account of what it was like to be of middle school age in a Relocation Camp.  I plan to connect with Mr. Kitajima virtually to conduct interviews and provide insight into his experience.  Perspective is one of the most important things I can offer to my students.

Middle school is a trying time and although the experiences of my students will be different than those of the past, the challenges will not be unique.  My hope is that my journey will foster a sense of intellectual curiosity as my students create their own world view and tackle the test of growing up in an increasingly demanding world.

The digital world in which we live allows people to instantly access information and make snap decisions based on their own experiences and biases, yet we don’t often slow down to assess all sides of a story. Ultimately, I want my students to be willing to challenge what is accepted by society and greet people from all walks of life with an open mind.

On this day in 1911, Suffragettes stormed Parliament in London. All were arrested and chose prison terms. Their leader was Emmeline Pankhurst – the focus of Eric Reid-St. John‘s fellowship.

Eric, a theatre teacher at Spain Park High School in Hoover, AL, researched Pankhurst and the suffrage movement they incited. While in London, he found in Trafalgar Square the location of the 1908 rally for which Mrs. Pankhurst was also arrested (pictured). He then studied with three avant-garde theatres, laying the groundwork for his students’ creation of a play about Lady Constance Lytton, an English aristocrat who disguised herself as a working woman to support suffragettes.

“Through research, I found that I could relate a lot to Constance,” said Rachel Ponder, who played the lead. “However, most of all, I was so in awe of her dedication towards the suffrage movement. Being a part of this creative process has inspired me both as a woman and as a human being.”

 

Ponder and 23 students representing each grade spent three months researching the suffrage movement in the United States and Britain before collaborating on a script and set. Each performer created a character journal comprised of photos, newspaper articles and other primary resources they uncovered. An Oxford professor who authored a book on Lytton Skyped into class to inform students’ research, as well.

“Current events were on my mind when I began this process and they continue to bring about a sense of urgency surrounding women’s rights,” said Eric. “My students took the history of this topic and explored its correlation with today’s headlines. They created a story that allowed people to see that the expansion of equal rights is the natural progression of a free society.”

Reviews are in, and at a state theatre competition, Ponder won Best Actress, her cast mates won Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Ensemble and Deeds Not Words was named Best in Show.

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Update from Eric:

“Several of our seniors from that year’s show have gone on to study theatre at various universities, including Viterbo in Wisconsin (our lead actress from Deeds Not Words studies musical theatre there), University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa; Samford University and Birmingham-Southern in Birmingham; and Emory in Atlanta.

That ended up being my last year teaching in Alabama, as I took a position at a school in Middlebury, VT, the following year. This marks my second year directing the Addison Repertory Theatre at the Hannaford Career Center teaching ART – a class that allows students from area schools to focus on either technical theatre or performance during the school day.

The techniques of devised theatre that I studied along with the suffragettes while in England that summer still impact the way I teach. The students and I have created two plays using devised methods over the past year; one took fables and folk tales and turned them into a children’s show that we toured to five local elementary schools, while the other challenged students to develop a series of short plays that were presented to sold-out crowds over two nights.

The theatre creation techniques I learned will continue to affect the way I teach for years to come. The research into the suffragettes will always continue to influence the way I view the struggle for equal rights. (I have also since been able to take my mother and daughter to the Women’s Rights National Park in Seneca Falls, NY, and have now attended two Convention Days there, annual celebrations that commemorate the first conference on women’s rights in the US).

Thank again for thinking of Deeds Not Words. I believe that was one of the most immediate and important works I’ve been a part of.”

Program officers are Fund for Teachers’ primary point of contact for grant recipients. These individuals field applicants’ questions; support new Fellows throughout the summer; and continue to encourage them once back in the classroom. Other than living vicariously through the Fellows with whom they work, program officers’ favorite part of the job is meeting those teachers in person — which Alycia Johnston did this month at Reflection events in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Chicago.

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.)

Barbara Walters said, “Most of us have trouble juggling. The woman who says she doesn’t is someone whom I admire but have never met.” FFT Fellow Helen Dole, however, seems to be managing fairly well. Helen teaches sixth grade at Lower Manhattan Community Middle School in New York City. With her teammate Molly Goodell, she and five-month-old daughter Sophie Tilmant set off for Alaska this summer to tour boreal forest, coastal, tundra, and glacial ecosystems and collect first-hand evidence of climate change for a sixth grade unit called Human Impacts. She shares some of her experiences below…

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 congratulations email we got from Fund for Teachers on April 4 about our grant said “This is just the beginning…”  Little did we know how true that sentiment was…”

So began the note from 2019 FFT Fellow Kelly Whitaker. She and team mate Sherry Grogan (Monroe Area High School – Monroe, GA) designed their fellowship to collect data and capture 360 video in the Galapagos Islands to inspire scientific field experiences in Georgia that culminate in student presentations at elementary and middle schools intended to pique student interest in biology. Now, photos from their fellowship will also help fund conservation efforts of the Islands.

“My team member, Sherry Grogan, submitted some photos to the photography competition for the Galapagos Conservancy.  She was notified this weekend that one of her photos of a lava lizard (above) had received an Honorable Mention and will be in the 2020 calendar.”

Read on to see more of “Team Darwin’s” adventures:

What Changed As A Result of Your Fellowship?

Sherry: “I pushed the limits of my comfort zone routinely while in the Galapagos. I learned to snorkel and engaged with land and sea creatures while shooting 360 videos and taking pictures. Learning in this manner has shown me the importance of capturing student interest in every unit and I feel that I am better equipped to make this happen after the fellowship. Students will surely perform higher in the evolution unit with newly designed lessons of 360 VR experiences and having studied Darwin’s work.”

Kelly: “As my teammate said, ‘We showed up as teachers and we are leaving as students. Our ‘I wonder…’ list is a mile long; our confidence has exploded; our friendship bond is rock solid. The emotional impact was more than I could have imagined. I sat in a panga with six other people with tears rolling down my cheeks at my first sighting of a blue footed booby. I found out that I can’t cry and snorkel at the same time, when I was bobbing in water with penguins.”

How Do You See Your Teaching Evolving?

Sherry: “I will be entering my 22nd year of teaching next year. This fellowship has completely overhauled my passion for teaching and finding ways to spark interest in my students. I have already tentatively created a plan for involving some portion of the “Galapagos” in each unit. I think this recurring theme will brilliantly help the students learn about such a fascinating place on earth, while also mastering the standards in Biology.”

Kelly: “Our students are going to see our excitement and come up with their own ‘I wonder…’ lists. Our students will be able to ‘visit’ the Galapagos using our 360 video and still shots. They will have a connection to this material that they didn’t have before. We are already looking at the photos we want to exhibit in the elementary schools and middle schools. Our students will have a different level of engagement due to this connection.”

How will your students learn differently because of your new knowledge or skills?

Sherry: “With all of the footage we shot (i.e., 360 video, photographs, 360 still photos, etc), we have a new approach to many of our units. The photos will come to life in the classroom through the eyes of two very enthusiastic teachers who absolutely cannot stop talking about this trip with friends and family. I learned so much about myself as a teacher, reevaluated my students, and I am prepared to provide a growth opportunity for all students in my room with exciting new material!”

Kelly: “We wrote a grant for mini journals for every student, as well as for field trips to the state park and the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.  Sherry’s winning photograph with the Galapagos Conservancy inspired us to have a photo competition among our students. Our media specialist printed the winning photos and our principal ended up paying to frame them! (That’s the water lily picture below).

We also worked in some interdisciplinary activities. We invited the art teacher in to teach a mini-lesson in nature sketching. Our favorite language arts teacher taught a mini lesson on descriptive writing. And our math teacher did a lesson on data collection and also designed a geometry lesson for a putt putt golf course.

Lastly, while writing our grant proposal, we reached out to our mayor. This connection built a relationship and we felt completely comfortable inviting him in to our class to have a forum with our students about environmental decisions in our town. How cool is that? We presented him with the winning photo from the photo competition and he took it to city hall where it was displayed for a month. All because of the connections made during the development of our grant proposal.”

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Sherry Grogan has taught high school biology for 20 years after spending 8 years as a police officer. Dr. Kelly Whitaker is a special education co-teacher in Biology and Physics. Her previous summer adventures include riding a motorcycle, solo, across thirty states and 16,000 miles; hiking 500 miles across Northern Spain on the Camino de Santiago and climbing Mt. Katahdin. To order the Galapagos Conservatory’s 2020 calendar featuring Sherry’s photographs from her fellowship, click here.

On this day in 1945, an atomic bomb flattened Hiroshima – one of two bombings that induced the Japanese to surrender and end World War II. FFT Fellow Kelly Loubier (Orville H. Platt High School-Meriden, CT) participated in the anniversary ceremonies at the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park, where she also delivered to the Children’s Memorial paper cranes folded by her students in keeping with the novel Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.

Kelly designed this fellowship to document the nuclear legacy in Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Osaka and Fukushima and demonstrate how these events continue to impact citizens and the greater world community in relation to policy decisions regarding war, nuclear weapons, nuclear energy, peace and disaster relief.

She continues to share experiences on her Instagram and we’re honored to include a portion of her learning below in recognition of this momentous day in history…

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[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]I[/minti_dropcap] headed to the memorial service this morning around 7:30 and I joined crowds of people who I thought were just going to work. I was so wrong about that. They were all headed to the cenotaph and the ceremony at 8 am. I read online afterwards that 70% of all citizens of Hiroshima have attended a memorial service for the atomic bomb victims. It’s not a recognized day off, so kids still have school, men and women still go to work. The ceremony took place from about 8-8:45 and it included adding names to the cenotaph, a moment of silence at 8:15, an address from the mayor renewing calls for peace and decrying nationalism and addresses from students. They also sang a song of peace and released doves. After, people lined up to deliver flowers and offer a prayer. It’s 2pm and there is still a line. There have been groups promoting peace and youth groups, high schools and universities teaching people about the atomic bombs and interviewing others about peace in the park. More cranes are being brought to various monuments and people are purchasing lanterns for later. The sense of community is unreal, even 74 years later.

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]O[/minti_dropcap]ne of my major take aways from Hiroshima is that the knowledge about the atomic bomb is so ingrained in the fabric of the city that it isn’t something that just happened in the past and that’s it. It’s something that the people of Hiroshima must learn about and teach others about so that we as a global community don’t let it happen again. There were so many people in the park today, but what really amazed me was the amount of students involved. The Boy Scouts handed out programs and cold towels before the ceremony. Sixth graders gave the children’s address during the ceremony and other students sang or played music. A group of fourteen year old girls gave me a peace declaration their high school drafted. University students interviewed me about peace. Other kids were involved in music, tours, tea ceremonies, peace demonstrations, delivering cranes, reading Sadako’s story (in English and Japanese) and presenting their art. So many families were out with their young children tonight helping them to send out lanterns, color wax candles and present flowers and prayers to the cenotaph. My mind has constantly been thinking of the Margaret Mead quote, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” The people of Hiroshima are leading the charge to a more peaceful world.

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]T[/minti_dropcap]he face you make when a small Japanese woman grips you by the hand, puts you in a line of other confused foreigners, and puts a necklace of paper cranes around your neck. Turns out, I was given a Croatian flag to wave and lead the crowd in a prayer for peace for Croatia. All countries were represented. The artwork pictured represents 193 countries, their flags and a message of peace in their language.

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]I[/minti_dropcap]want to give thanks to Yuji @fellanandez_tokugiwa and Holly @hiroshimayasuko from @magicaltripcom for a wonderful tour of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the pictures. I learned quite a bit during the Heiwa Walking Tour that I’m looking forward to bringing back to my classroom and the Meriden community. I learned a lot today and I’m still trying to process everything and put it into words. I did go to the Children’s Peace Monument this afternoon to drop off the cranes. They’re in the second cabinet at the monument and I filled out a sheet so they will be recorded.

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]I[/minti_dropcap]n Japan, the atomic bomb is taught with the stories of the people who were affected through their clothing, their pictures, their art and their stories. I learned that many of the victims were school aged children between the ages of 12-14. They had been reporting to school on August 6 at 8:15 am to clear buildings to create buffer zones in case of an air raid to prevent fires from spreading. Many of their stories are told in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, allowing visitors to bear witness and connect with the human aspect of this terrible tragedy. It is not until the end of the museum when you learn about the science of the atomic bomb, the reason it was used and what the global community did with nuclear weapons after World War 2. We need to teach these stories in the United States.

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]T[/minti_dropcap]here is a rumor that persists that claims nothing would grow in Hiroshima for 75 years after the atomic bomb. I heard the rumor as a student and I still hear it from my students today. Hiroshima is actually very green and there are trees everywhere. This is because during the recovery period, citizens and organizations from Japan and the global community and governments around the world donated trees. There are also 170 Hibakujumoku (survivor trees) in various locations around Hiroshima that are marked with plaques. The organization, Green Legacy Hiroshima works to spread saplings from these trees around the world. I’d love to talk to @ctca19 in September more about this organization.

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Thank you, Katie, for the exemplary job you’ve done in designing, pursuing and sharing your learning with us. You can follow her entire fellowship on Instagram @kcloubier. Katie teaches 9th grade world history and 11 and 12th grade human rights at O.H. Platt High School in Meriden, Connecticut. As a third year teacher, she believes that students should walk away from her classroom with a greater understanding of the world around them. She has worked with exchange students from around the world and traveled to places such as Egypt, El Salvador and Iceland, bringing her experiences with her into the classroom.

Fund for Teachers invites PreK-12 educators to design learning adventures wherever their imaginations can take them, which is the same thing author Mary Pope Osborne does for young readers through her Magic Tree House series. These award-winning books transport main characters Jack and Annie on quests that pursue people and topics they previously only read about.

This summer, librarian Riley Grant (Pelzer, SC) is writing her own learning adventure and is bringing Jack and Annie along.  We caught up with her (and Jack and Annie) as she’s investigating European settings found in the book series to produce springboard book trailers and book talks for project-based learning that helps students identify ways to explore and improve their community…

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So, I am half way through with the travel part of my Fund for Teachers Fellowship…it has been nothing short of incredible!!

It truly is all about relationships —

Planning her itinerary this spring

I have spent my adult life building relationships in my personal and professional life and I claim to know some of the best people in the world…honestly!! But, most of my relationships are contained in my small southern state. And, while that is very wonderful, I’m so glad to have this opportunity to build relationships around the world! It is through these relationships that I learn history, geography, cultural similarities and differences and most of all, how to be a good and kind friend.

I am a librarian in a rather rural elementary school but it is close to an up and coming large city. My dream is that by using literature, Project-Based/International Baccalaureate Learning projects, and videos from this fellowship, I can inspire my young students to build meaningful relationships in their small community, our large city, our beautiful state and the world!

To be honest, I’ve also learned a lot about myself. Last fall my principal asked to think of a word for our school year and I chose “execute”… as in “to make things happen.” I had heard about the Fund for Teachers program and decided I wanted to make that fellowship happen. I was nervous and after I pushed the submit button, I did nothing put doubt myself. And, the day the grants were announced, it was late in the afternoon before I received my acceptance email. But getting the fellowship was only the beginning! I overcame my anxiety about going to a country where I did not speak the language, getting lost in a foreign country, meeting total strangers, riding trains between countries and generally “executing” this project. I am truly humbled and proud to be a part of the Fund for Teachers Fellowship program.

Meanwhile I am living my dream of exploring Europe and meeting amazing people from Paris, London, and look forward to building relationships in Edinburgh, Belfast and Dublin.

Thank you, FFT!!

“I love teaching,” said Mary Pope Osborne. “It’s a job that lasts forever. Whatever you teach children today travels with them far into the future.” We agree and can’t wait to see where Riley, Jack and Annie take the students of Fork Shoals Elementary!

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Follow the rest of Riley’s Magical Mystery Tour on Instagram @graceorileysreadingclubhouse.

Alexander Graham Bell’s most well-known accomplishment is the invention of the telephone; however, his first job was as a teacher. In fact, he was teaching at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes when he began creating a machine that changed the way we communicate forever.

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.

Monday begins World Refugee Awareness Week, an extension of the United Nation’s annual World Refugee Day on Wednesday, June 20th. In solidarity with those forced to flee as a result of resettlement, poverty, unemployment, stigmatization, and bias, we share one day in the fellowship of two teachers from Naperville, IL. Christine Halblander and Jenn Nekolny are currently exploring physical and societal divisions in historical and contemporary Poland, Czechia, Austria and Germany.

They designed this experience to supplement Social Studies and Language Arts curricula that enhances junior high students’ interest in human rights, migration and refugees. In order to strengthen their teaching practices, their fellowship goals are to:

1. Explore causes and effects of forced migration;
2. Investigate the treatment of human rights in varying government systems, countries, and time periods; and
3. Gather evidence of “what next” in the life of refugees who have arrived in a new country in order to show students how struggles can be overcome.

Below is a day in the life of their fellowship, after visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau but before helping teach refugees English in a Berlin cafe…

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“Do you remember the floor of your childhood home? Can you recall playing outside with your siblings? Rushing up the stairs with good news? Your grandmother’s “good plates” pattern?

As we were checking in to our Air BnB flat in Krakow, our host asked if we wanted a little history of the place. Of course. . .we’re teachers and learners and, to be honest, the outside of the building left a bit to be desired with all its graffiti and crumbling exterior walls. It would be nice to hear some history of this building that had clearly seen better days.

He told us that just as they were finishing the interior renovations of the flat last year, he came to check on the progress. As he was walking in, he noticed “an old grandma” at the entrance with someone who appeared to be her daughter. He asked if they needed to be let in, but the woman’s Polish was weak and she responded in English that this used to be her building. Switching to English, he asked her which flat was theirs, as there had been many changes and divisions over the years. As they turned onto the first landing, tears began to well in her eyes as she recognized the tile floors in the hallway.

It turned out that the apartment he hosts was her family’s home for years before the Nazis took power and forced them out. The walls are re-plastered, the interior courtyard is filled in with the back sides of restaurants, the stairs have lost their shine (and have a pleasant rounded edge where thousands and thousands of footfalls have happened), but the heart of the place is the same. He unlocked the door to her old apartment and she began to cry when she saw the preserved floor. This beautiful wood herringbone-patterned floor where she played as a seven year old girl. This floor where she would help her mother clean up crumbs that fell from the table. This floor where she would place her shoes after coming up the flight of stairs at the end of the school day. This floor where her suitcase lay waiting next to the door in case they had to flee. This floor opened the gates of memory. This woman was 94 years old and wanted to first see her family’s home and then find the families that gave her refuge when she was forced to flee to thank them. For 87 years, she’d imagined these floors, these stairs, this place. She’s imagined the faces and clothing and sweet smells of dinner in this kitchen where I’m sitting typing this now.

Interactive map at the Woody Guthrie Museum

The primary distinction of Fund for Teachers grants is the freedom we give teachers to design fellowships THEY consider most vital to students’ learning. That can be across the world or across the state, which is the case for Nathalie Lee and Janet DeMarco, teachers at Cedar Ridge Elementary School in Tulsa, OK. They are currently embarking on day trips (collecting video, pictures, and artifacts at historic and cultural sites) to re-prioritize the intellectual art of social studies and help students understand and analyze the state’s history and government. We checked in with them on the road…

On Why They Designed This Fellowship

Social Studies provides a context in which to fit all other learning, but we believe the intellectual art of social studies has been de-prioritized in the wake of No Child Left Behind and its great emphasis on reading and math. Because Social Studies isn’t an academic priority, teachers don’t receive
as much professional development on the subject — so we used a Fund for Teachers grant to create our own.

Together, we represent generations of native Oklahomans, and one of us is a member of two Native American tribes. We are proud of the people and the history of Oklahoma and want our students to be as well. For two weeks, we’re acquiring resources and insight that will give students a chance to identify with their history as Oklahomans and also provide opportunities to analyze what good citizenship looks like.

What’s On the Itinerary?

The Oklahoma Standards direct us to “Describe the connection between the historic significance of past events and people and the symbols of Oklahoma’s history” and “Describe relationships between people and events of the past.”  To do that, we’re experiencing:

• The Great Salt Plains
  The Great Salt Plains is one of Oklahoma’s major land forms that students need to be able to identify on a physical map. We will teach that, in the early 1800s, whichever tribe controlled the Great Salt Plains knew that it would have to fight to protect this valuable resource (salt).
• Pioneer Woman Museum & Conoco Museum
  The former will help demonstrate to how pioneers  adapted to and modified their environment including sod houses, windmills, and crops.  The latter displays the growth of a company from the “early days of a kerosene distributor and the wildcat days of the Cherokee Outlet, to an international energy empire.”
• Nellie Johnstone No. 1 and The Woolaroc Museum
  Nellie Johnstone No. 1 was the first commercially productive oil well in Oklahoma, opening oil exploration and development in Oklahoma.  The Woolaroc Museum relates the story of Oklahoman’s cultural development in the New World.
• Tahlequah’s Cherokee Heritage Centerand Muskogee’s Five Tribes Museum
  The Cherokee Heritage Center is a historical society and museum that has preserved the historical and cultural artifacts, language, and traditional crafts of the Cherokee.  The Five Civilized Tribes Museum  houses the art, history and culture of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, and Seminole tribes.
• Oklahoma City’s History Center, Oklahoma City Memorial, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum & State Capitol
• The Woody Guthrie Museum – for learning about the Dust Bowl, Woody Guthrie, and the meaning of song lyrics such as “This Land is My Land.”
• The Creek Council Oak Tree – the landmark that showed the Creek Indians where to stop after a journey to their new home along the Arkansas River). We will also visit the Muscogee (Creek Nation) Cultural Center in Okmulgee where we will learn from a Creek tribe member to hear tales of the tree’s significance and stories from Creek heritage.
• Tulsa’s Gilcrease Museum (which houses authentic Oklahoman art, artifacts from the American West, and collections of Native American art and materials); Philbrook Museum and, finally,
• The Will Rogers Museum to learn about Oklahoma’s favorite son.

What Hasn’t Been on the Itinerary?

Nathalie and Janet at the Philbrook Museum

While the Great Salt Plains used to be an ocean millions of years ago, it’s now a five-mile, sandy ocean bed in the middle of Oklahoma. Except when it rains! The area received 10 inches of rain in the past 30 days, making one of the state’s most valuable natural resources unreachable by car. After learning to maneuver a drone, we captured footage of the area that historically was an important asset — not only for salt’s preservation purposes, but also as a hunting ground for animals. We also learned that the salt bed is the only place in the world where selenite crystals with an embedded hourglass formation are found.”

“I know we’re not pursuing fellowships in Italy or France, but we love Oklahoma and our educational standards are based here,” Janet and Nathalie said during their phone call. “We really get excited about teaching our students who our people are! We are all Oklahomans — with wonders of nature, the beauty of architecture, and profound culture history and heritage all around us. We want students to realize they don’t have to travel across an ocean or even across the country to learn rich history about the people and places that came before us. It’s right under our feet in what we Okies like to call ‘our stomping grounds.'”

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You can follow the remainder of Nathalie and Janet’s fellowship on Instagram @okiesteachfft.

Today marks the 76th anniversary of D-Day, when 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. We share below the remarkable experience of FFT Fellow Dan Lundak. He designed an experience to retrace the steps of the US soldiers (specifically his grandfather’s) from England to the shores of France during the invasion to lead students’ debate of the essential question, “At what point does the United States become involved in another country’s affairs?” The American History teacher planned to use his research to help eighth graders at Chicago’s Sauganash Elementary School personally connect with World War II. The pilgrimage grew more personal than expected, however, upon discovering his grandfather’s photograph hanging in a wartime museum.

“When applying for the Fund for Teachers grant, I researched my grandfather’s military service and his path from Nebraska to Normandy,” said Dan. “On D-Day, he flew the Boeing B-17 with the USAF 94th squadron from the RAF base in Bury St. Edmonds, England — so that was my first stop. Townspeople converted his squadron’s control tower into a museum, which was dark and locked when I arrived.

A museum volunteer repairing the roof saw me walking away and offered to let me in. As I made my way around the artifacts, I suddenly came face-to-face with a framed, yellowed photograph of Lt. Col. E.E. Lundak – my grandfather.”

The volunteer explained that displays included “random photos of pilots” found when creating the museum. He could offer no definitive explanation why the photo of Dan’s grandfather, never seen by his family, hung there to greet Dan 70 years after the war.

Lt. Col. Lundak flew 47 missions while stationed at Bury St. Edmonds. He crash landed twice (once, the only surviving crew member) and again escaped death after trading places with a co-pilot subsequently shot by enemy fire. The night before D-Day, Lundak bombed the beaches of Normandy; the day after the invasion, he delivered gasoline to Allied forces and returned US casualties to England. Lundak remained in the Air Force for years before becoming a US diplomat in China and the US liaison with President Chiang Kai-shek. Upon retirement, he returned to Nebraska to teach school, serve as a superintendent and, eventually, Dean of Admissions for the University of Nebraska.

Inspired by the discovery, Dan continued his WWII odyssey at London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral and American Memorial Chapel, seeing the honor roll of more than 28,000 Americans who died in WWII while stationed in England. He also followed the London Blitz Bomb Site Interactive Map to visit areas affected by bombings and, afterwards, the Imperial War Museum. Before taking a ferry across the English Channel, Dan stopped at General Eisenhower’s headquarters in Porstmouth to research the planning and preparation of Operation Overlord, the final meeting that resulted in the D-Day command, “Let’s go!”

Bayeux served as home base for Lundak in France, where Dan toured Omaha and Utah beaches, visited the D-Day Museum and experienced the flag lowering ceremony at the American Cemetery. His ten-day fellowship concluded in Paris, where he followed the movement of General Patton’s Third Army and its role in the Liberation of Paris.

Armed with fellowship experiences and research, Dan now encourages his students to “dive deeper” in their study of World War II – a requirement of the new Common Core State Standards. Lt. Col. Lundak serves as a case study for students’ exploration of the questions, “At what point do people get involved with the affairs of others?” and “What makes someone brave?” Dan believes these questions are particularly relevant as students prepare to face diverse socio-economics, cultures and traditions represented in a large public high school. Students also write letters of appreciation to veterans, which Dan delivers to the local American Legion post.

“Retracing my grandfather’s service during the D-Day invasion gave me personal insight into what each person has to ask themselves in a time a crisis; the experience also gives my students a personal story they can relate to when facing similar decisions about personal sacrifice,” said Dan. “Understanding history through the close examination of my grandfather’s service – rather than a textbook – interjects real-life perspective into the curriculum and helps students arrive at their own conclusions.”

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Two 2020 Fellows will pursue experiential learning around the European theatre of World War II:

Patrick McCarney (Stonington High School – Stonington, CT) will experience World War II landmarks, museums, and monuments, gathering the stories of those on the battlefront and home front–young soldiers, women and minorities–to make the diversity of the American war experience more visible for students; and,

Bret Godfrey (American Indian Magnet – Saint Paul, MN) will research and document in France, Belgium and Luxembourg contributions made by American Indians during World War II to create engaging lessons that incorporate these contributions for preK-8 students sharing this heritage.

Each Friday throughout the summer, we are highlighting one of our 2019 Fellows — their inspiration, itinerary, and plan for transforming student learning going forward. Today, we highlight our first team, which named themselves “Spainward Bound.” Erin Strack, Andrew Murphy, Juan Carlos Lara and Pato Cabral will use their $10,000 Fund for Teachers grant to attend the International Colloquium on Languages, Culture, and Identity in Schools and Society in Soria, Spain, this summer. Because they work at a dual language school in Kansas City, they designed this fellowship to address topics in the forefront of dual language educational practices and inform a new Spanish/English poetry unit inspired by Spanish architecture and landscapes.

Why This Experience?

We’re an urban elementary school (grades K-6) with a population of about 80% Latino students, the remaining 20% being mainly comprised of African American students. While being part of such a unique form of education is engaging and rewarding, it can also be frustrating and confusing at times:

• We say frustrating because our student population has very different needs than the typical student population of a monolingual school, yet we’re expected to instruct, assess, and perform according to the same rigid guidelines put in place for those monolingual programs, and our students’ test scores are measured by the same district-wide metric used for their monolingual peers.
• We say confusing because there aren’t a whole lot of schools like ours out there, especially given our geographical location. We’re one of only a handful in our state, so finding relevant professional development opportunities, appropriate classroom resources, and effective instructional practices can be extremely challenging.

There simply aren’t enough teacher education agencies in the US that can appropriately train and prepare teachers how to competently teach both English and Spanish literacy simultaneously.

1. Having the opportunity to attend sessions on effective bilingual teaching practices presented by people who have more knowledge and experience in dual language education than anyone we could find in the US will be immensely beneficial to our program, our teachers, and most importantly our students.
2. There are also many sessions on identifying culturally as a bilingual child in society and how “living in two worlds” can be as equally enlightening as it is alienating. We hope to learn how to better support our students with this unique cultural identification.
3. Finally, we anticipate networking with authors and booksellers at the conference and around the city, in order to obtain authentic Spanish literacy resources to take back to our classrooms.

The Planned Itinerary

The Colloquium will highlight topics that are in the forefront of dual language educational practices. When not in sessions, we’ll scour the city of Soria for natively written literature for both children and adults. There is a huge need for Spanish books in content areas such as science, as well as fiction books and comics. Most of our Spanish teachers have to create much of their content area resources themselves, as it’s next to impossible to find this variety of resources in the US.

Upon completion of the Colloquium, we’ll explore the Casa de los Poetas, which describes the lives and works of three famous Spanish poets. We also plan to visit the nearby village of Calatanazor, which was a location for Orson Wells’ Chimes at Midnight, and Agreda,
the village of three cultures: Arabic, Jewish, and Christian. In visiting these local points of interest, we can enliven our classroom teaching with vivid descriptions of Spain’s history, architecture, and natural beauty.

Panoramic view of Calatanazor (courtesy of sorianitelaimaginas.com)

Plans for Students

Our team consists of a 5th/6th grade Spanish math teacher, a 4th grade Spanish literacy teacher, a 3rd grade English literacy teacher and literacy coach, and an ESL teacher that co-teaches in 3rd and 4th grade. Working collaboratively, we’ll use our newly learned strategies and newly acquired resources to create a Spanish/English poetry unit. This would include author studies, poetry reading and writing, and shared presentations of written poetry. Both 3rd and 4th grade have poetry standards that have been notoriously
tricky to cover in Spanish. None of the nuances of poetry that make it so beautiful (rhythm, imagery, descriptive language, word play) can be translated well, so finding famous poems written in English and then translating them is not an option. This fellowship would provide our students with this brilliant new learning opportunity, to engage in a linguistically balanced poetry study unit.

Closing Thoughts

We’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity to attend the colloquium on dual language education in Spain. The knowledge, experiences, and resources we expect to return with are beyond measure. Our colleagues are equally excited, as we’re all well aware of the positive and direct impact this fellowship will have on our students and school community as a whole. We’re deeply honored, and of course, more than a little excited!

Back in the ’80s, when Saturday Night Live was funny, Jon Lovitz did a skit called “Get to Know Me!” espousing how people (i.e. Steve Martin) benefited from knowing him. We believe the same is true of our 2019 Fellows and are, therefore, continuing a blog series throughout the summer to introduce you to many of our grant recipients.

Today, in celebration of Ramadan, we highlight a teacher pursuing learning about the Arabic language and Muslim culture. Karina Escajeda (Cony Middle and High School – Augusta, ME) will complete Arabic language & cultural immersion at The Arabic Language School in Dahab, Egypt, to improve family partnerships and refugee student engagement; create community workshops; and increase student understanding of the value peers emigrating from Iraq and Syria add to the school culture.

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On Why Karina Designed This Fellowship

Two years ago, in the midst of a national debate regarding refugees, I resigned from my teaching position at a nearby private boarding school in order to take a position in my hometown, at my former high school. I was deeply aware that my English teaching skills and interest in community development were needed here. In the past seven years, Arabic speakers have become our community’s second-largest demographic, numbering over 1000 residents and making up 5% of the population. With this shift, there has been some divisive rhetoric in our community about refugees.

Our students need to develop an understanding of how to best honor differences. It is imperative that we connect with our new residents and educate our long-term residents about Arabic culture and language to grow stronger as a blended community. I am dedicated to showing our students from Iraq and Syria that we in our small town value who they are and where they come from.

On Her Itinerary

St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mt. Sinai

At The Arabic Language School in Dahab, Egypt, I will be placed in a class that is appropriate to my level of Arabic. There are no in-person Arabic classes within 72 miles of my community, so I have begun formal Arabic study online; however, this particular school focuses on one-on-one attention. The  include ten hours a week of individualized; one-on-one lessons in the afternoons; and cultural outings in the town so that students are exposed to spoken Arabic.  On one weekend, I will go to Mt. Sinai and St. Catherine’s Monastery (included by the Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in its world heritage and culture list). I’ll also embark on a desert hike and overnight at a Bedouin camp to understand the rural, conservative experience of many of our district’s language learners. When the course ends, I will fly from Sharm to Cairo to join a four-day cultural and historical tour of Cairo, Luxor, and Giza.

On How Her Students and Their Families Feel About Her Fellowship

My students and their parents are so excited about my immersion experience. They know that I will have a Weebly site for them to follow, and they are excited for my videos, interviews, and pictures that I will post. All of my Arabic-speaking students are from Syria and Iraq. Their spoken Arabic dialects are mutually understandable, but very different from each other. Syrians speak the Shaami dialect and some Iraqis, my students included, speak the Gulf dialect. I will be learning the Egyptian dialect, which they think is wonderfully hilarious.  It’s a bit like American, Australian, and British English. They can’t wait until I come back and start talking.

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Karina is a K-12 English Language Learner Specialist and the only teacher in the district who has begun to dedicate time to the study of Arabic language and culture. For more than 20 years, she has lived, taught, and administrated programs at public and private schools in California, Maine, Honduras, Mexico, and Japan. She believes in collaboration, authentic tasks, and honoring the achievements of each individual language learner. She has been awarded a 2020 Fulbright DA Teacher Fellowship in Greece, studying refugee integration and teacher training.

Brown’s demonstration of trendacis mosaics

Tammy Friedman believes the link between art and its history can help build bridges among different cultures, including the culture of a school. Cloonan Middle School in Stamford, CT, is experiencing a sharp increase in English Language Learners who speak Spanish at home. Realizing the lack of relationship between herself and students’ parents, Tammy turned to art (and a Fund for Teachers fellowship) to bridge the gap.

Last summer, Tammy developed under Barcelona artist Martin Brown skills to create “trencadis” mosaics popularized by Antoni Gaudi. Trendacis literally means “chopped,” referring to the fragmented shards and recycled materials pieced together to form images and/or patterns. When not in Brown’s class, Tammy embarked on daily field trips across Barcelona, exploring Gaudi’s masterpieces, such as those at Park Güell.

Tammy’s goals for this fellowship were:

1. to develop a bond with families,
2. teach students something they may not know about themselves and their culture, and
3. make them proud of their heritage.

With her new expertise, Tammy led 100 art students (40% of whom are Hispanic) in the creation of four 30 x 56 murals, which were installed around the school last week.

“The four mosaics represent Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, and Antoni Gaudi, including inspirational quotes from the artists,” said Tammy. “In addition, students painted cubist self-portraits, personal cultural art, surreal collages, surreal hands, and street art. This fellowship inspired me with new creative ideas to share with my students, not for just one year, but for years to come.”

“Tammy is one of three teachers at our school who have received Fund for Teachers fellowships and I can’t say enough about how they return re-energized and with experiences that are relevant to kids, which has a huge impact on how they respond,” said David Tate, principal at Cloonan Middle School. “Tammy’s project is particularly relevant, as our school’s single largest demographic is students from Latino homes, so for them to see this aspect of their culture on permanent display is huge.”

A group photo of students who created each mosaic is mounted alongside their artworks, which were praised by the mayor and the superintendent during a special showing.

Tammy chose for one mosaic Dali’s quote, “Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” We love how Tammy embodies this quote as a role model for her students — taking her belief in the power of art from her classroom to Barcelona and back again to foster cultural pride and community relationships.

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Tammy has taught for 29 years, first with special education, then third grade, middle school Language Arts, and now Fine Arts. Recently she received a Spotlight Award for Teachers, one of 20 recipients nominated by peers and awarded from across the Stamford Public School district.

…not a drop to drink. That’s what Richard Lebowitz discovered on his Fund for Teachers fellowship last summer in Indonesia. For two weeks, he collaborated with Balinese municipalities, scholars, citizens and tourists to research the country’s inability to overcome its water shortage crisis. Richard’s inspiration came from observing water waste at The SEEALL Academy in Brooklyn, NY, where his students are now implementing sustainability practices as a result of his research.

“An environmental sustainability practice that my school fails to address is our overconsumption of freshwater,” said Richard. “Our sinks and water fountains often break, and excess water pours out of these faucets while they are not in use. They are eventually fixed, but only after wasting potable water. The school’s sinks and toilets are outdated and overconsume freshwater because they lack modern water saving technology, like reduced water volume sinks and toilets.  I am committed to transforming our school culture, first by transforming the way my students view their roles as environmental stewards within our school and community.”

The most effective way to do that, he decided, was to show students what happens when a community fails to advocate for its environment.

Throughout his fellowship, Richard witnessed and documented the implications of a freshwater shortage crisis:

• More than 60% of the country’s waterways have dried up;
• Densely populated areas along the coastline have lowered the water table level, causing saltwater to leach into aquifers;
• Agricultural runoff pollutes bodies of water; and,
• Tourism creates an increased demand for freshwater.

Back at school, Richard introduced students to the topic of Bali’s water crisis through his fellowship pictures, videos and interviews. Then the students got to work, proposing solutions to four primary challenges listed above. The process included creating visual representations of their solutions through a classroom model, as well as science fair tri-folds.

This project sparked further student activism around the school, including elimination of single-use plastics and a new recycling program.

“Before the fellowship, my professional obligation as a science teacher was to inspire students to develop a love for learning while aiding their growth and development,” said Richard. “Now, my job continues to be what it was plus to inspire students to become positive contributors to society, the community, and the world within areas of science such as environment conservation. I have an obligation to share my experiences with others. I am grateful that I was able to have this opportunity to learn.”

We’re proud to share Richard’s story in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Watch this blog and our social media sites this summer for more teachers’ odysseys in Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Maldives, Nepal, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

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Richard is a middle school science teacher, sustainability coordinator, and science department chairperson in Brooklyn, New York. Currently, Richard is leading an effort that would bring recycling into his middle school. He spearheaded the construction of a greenhouse with a roof rainwater collection system. Next year, he plans to bring a reusable water bottle filtered refill station into his school. He is a Math for America Master Teacher and Greentree Foundation member.

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]B[/minti_dropcap]ack in the ’80s, when Saturday Night Live was funny, Jon Lovitz did a skit called “Get to Know Me!” espousing how people (i.e. Steve Martin) benefited from knowing him. We believe the same is true of our 2019 Fellows and are, therefore, continuing a blog series throughout the summer to introduce you to many of our grant recipients.

Today, we meet the teaching team of Kaellagh Cassidy and Katie Hollerbach, teachers at Chicago’s Robert Lindblom Math and Science Academy High School. FFT fellowships designed around language/cultural immersion are a favorite among our grant recipients; this particular one, however, has an interesting component: collaborating with indigenous communities in Mexico to inspire our own civic action projects.

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On why they designed this fellowship…

Our student population is predominantly African American (70%), but the Latnix population is rapidly growing. Our school actively works to foster an inclusive environment that celebrates all cultures and backgrounds: we provide mirrors for students to see themselves in historic and academic texts; we do case students on racial inequality in Brazil; and address trauma in Haiti and youth homelessness in Morocco. However, we wanted to expand and diversity the examples we include from Latin America.

Thus, we designed this fellowship to study Mexico’s indigenous cultures and establish a partnership with a community school in Chiapas to design a unit on the fight for land and education rights.

We believe that a unit on indigenous activism and historical memory of indigenous contributions will affirm to our Latinx students that their history matters.

On their itinerary…

We plan to travel through central and southern Mexico, exploring museums and cultural sites that highlight indigenous culture and speaking to local experts to better understand the relationship between national identity, indigenous history and culture. Our itinerary includes:

• touring the National Museum of Anthropology and interviewing its director of education outreach
• experiencing Chichen Itza, one of the most significant and well preserved sites of Maya and Toltec acculturation,
• exploring Teotihuacan, one of the largest pre-Hispanic cities in the Americas, the Frida Kahlo Museum, Museum of the Palace of Fine Arts and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe,
• working alongside and learning from teachers and community members involved with the NGO Escalera to learn more about access to education in indigenous communities,
• visiting important sites associated with the Zapatista movement, including San Cristobal de las Casas, and
• interviewing local experts, community members, and journalists who are involved with indigenous activism and education, including indigenous experiences with employment and integration into Mexico City and other urban environments.

On plans for students…

The Zapatista mentality (emphasis on direct democracy, valuing all voices, and inclusivity) will be an engaging topic to begin the school year with, and will also create an opportunity for students to structure our own classroom community and goals. Throughout the fall, we will more effectively validate our Latinx students through new learning, as well as connections with other courses and organizations at school, including the Latino Culture Club, Black Student Union and the Step Team. Additionally:

• A unit in our Gender & Ethnic Studies course current connects the work of the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo to the actions of female activists against gun violence in Chicago. We plan to add connections to the female Zapatistas and activists we meet to enrich this unit.
• The AP World curriculum will incorporate Mexican revolutions more thoroughly by emphasizing how the Zapatistas continue to advocate for autonomy and freedom.
• Our Human Geography course, which examines urbanization and the migration of people to cities, will include knowledge about indigenous groups moving to Mexico City because of a lack of employment opportunities in more rural areas. And,
• In the culminating project, students will plan and execute civic action projects of their own in response to issues facing our Chicago community.

As white teachers instructing on indigenous cultures, we want to ensure we’re not simply relaying the simplistic narrative often found in textbooks, but allowing the experts in the field to inform our instruction. Rather than be instructors with a monopoly on knowledge and information, we want to build a unit that authentically connects students with the course content in a way that puts students in the position of power.

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Kaellagh Cassidy has taught history and civics in Chicago for eight years. She aims to put her students in the shoes of historians and activists by re-examining historical truths through documents and simulations and student-driven civic action projects. Kaellagh is also a coach of Cross Country and Track and believes that high school should be a community that fosters student curiosity and empowerment.

 Katie Hollerbach has taught high school social science at Lindblom Math and Science Academy in Chicago for the past eight years. She is passionate about including a global mindset into each of her classes, which currently include Global Civics and Gender & Ethnic Studies. In 2017, she traveled to Morocco as part of the Koldyke Global Teacher Program. She also is a teaching assistant in the MSEd Program at Northwestern University.

[minti_dropcap style=”circle”]B[/minti_dropcap]ack in the ’80s, when Saturday Night Live was funny, Jon Lovitz did a skit called “Get to Know Me!” espousing how the lives of people (i.e. Steve Martin) benefited from knowing him. We believe the same is true of our 2019 Fellows and are, therefore, beginning a blog series to introduce many of our grant recipients throughout the summer.

For our first installment, we introduce you to a Fellow whose fellowship ranks among the most unique we’ve funded in almost twenty years. Get to know Mick Posner of Conrad High School in West Hartford, CT.

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On why he designed this fellowship…

I am now in my 10th year of teaching American Sign Language (ASL), which was actually the first language I learned as a child because I was born deaf. As a faculty member of my high school’s World Languages department, I work with students in 9th through 12th grade. Students take my class to fulfill their World Language credit and to learn about the deaf community. More than 90% of my students have not been exposed to a sign language system until they take my class. I believe that students enjoy my class because they are being introduced to an entirely different culture that, in a sense, intertwined globally and for many of them, the challenge of communicating in different environments and situations is mutual.

Many people do not know that there are 200+ sign language systems around the world, each with their own grammar, vocabulary, influences and origins. Twice a year, my students complete a survey in order to share their feedback about my ASL classes. Consistently I receive the same inquiries — students have a strong interest in learning about unique deaf communities in other countries, particularly those shaped by linguistic and geographical barriers (such as the fact that deaf people in Cuba who are not allowed to drive and work full-time, among other government imposed restrictions.

(photo courtesy of Nunatsiaq News)

After conducting extensive research, I found very little exists regarding the Greenland Deaf Community (and deaf Inuits), thus leading me to the following learning experience that I wish to pursue: understanding how such an unique population survive in such a remote part of the world, despite their deafness, by becoming a student of Inuit Sign Language (ISL), which is the official sign language system of the Greenland Deaf Community. This fellowshipwill deepen students’ understanding of the human spirit’s resiliency and the importance of continuing learning and pursuing knowledge in sign language systems.

ISL is a dialect that is centralized around vocations (a large percentage of their vocabulary is focused on being able to communicate related to hunting and fishing) and survival skills.  It is a language based purely on livelihood and survival in a very remote section of the world and would be a strong evidence of sign language’s relevance to a community that depends so much on a particular dialect to survive. There’s not many other languages like this, particularly in the form of a sign language system.

Celebrating the news with Principal Julio Duarte (left) and Superintendent of Schools Tom Moore

From this FFT experience I will have my students actively involved in the creation of online resources regarding different deaf communities around the world. In this project, students will include locations of community, what makes them unique, how they interact with the rest of their community at large, and the identification of unique signs necessary for survival.

On learning he is a 2019 Fellow…

When I first found out I was an FFT Fellow, I was overcome with an extraordinary sense of relief. The grant was something I had worked diligently on for four months, stemming from an idea I had from over a year ago based on articles I read the previous summer — quickly, that feeling turned into so much joy. My students were really excited for me — after it was announced, I asked if I could have a few minutes to call my wife. My 5th period class (that was when it was announced) voiced their support and understanding.

The impact on students already exists — I received several congratulatory and well-wishes emails from parents who shared that their students came home and told them about the FFT award. Along with a few additional parents who contacted me via social media, some of my seniors shared that they wish they could stay in high school for another year so they could hear about the experience (of course, I will see if I can extend an invitation to them when the time comes.)

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Mick is the only member of his family who was deaf, yet his parents believed in having ASL as his first language, which he learned before English. You can learn more about his life experiences and his own family from the A&E documentary “Born this Way Presents: Deaf Out Loud.” He and his wife also own Posner Inclusion, a consulting firm that creates bridges between businesses and unique markets, such as the deaf population.