In celebration of Teacher Appreciation Week, we want to share our own appreciation for this thank you note from 2023 FFT Fellow David Cruickshank.
With his grant, David plans to research the Japanese culture that has no widespread access to firearms and has built a $2.6 billion flood protection system described as a modern marvel. Then, he’ll build and teach a criminal justice and disaster management trade curriculum for the State of Connecticut Technical High School System’s Criminal Justice and Protective Services program.
Upon returning from his fellowship, David proposed a unique implementation plan.
“I have a very exciting idea that I hope to develop and implement in our pilot program’s Emergency Operations Center, the emergency management curriculum, and push out to other programs — running a simulated disaster in the US with the emergency management procedures of Japan rather than those of FEMA.
I would like to develop a lesson that follows what my students have learned about US disaster management with the way Japan handles disaster management and then compare the two styles with a fictitious disaster and compare and contrast them. I envision the lesson lasting close to two weeks with first learning about the disaster management system and response structure in place in Japan, then simulating a response, and then using it as a springboard to compare and contrast the two systems before the ultimate assignment of challenging the students to design their own “perfect” disaster response framework. I think that encouraging students to not only learn about other cultures but then use that learning to see there are other ways of doing what they thought there was no other way to do, and then create something even different from that, will be mind-bending for them.”
The service-learning aspect of this fellowship, as well as its potential to create a state- and nation-wide emergency response system powered by students, is mind-bending for us, as well! We look forward to seeing the impact made by this FFT Fellow and his students.
Just in time for Teacher Appreciation Week, Fund for Teachers announced the names of 600+ public, private and charter school teachers awarded millions in grants for self-designed summer fellowships. By pushing beyond their classrooms to pursue new knowledge and insights, these teacher leaders return to impact classrooms, colleagues, and school communities.
Fund for Teachers is nationally unique in that it gives educators the freedom to explore topics related to specific learning gaps and goals; consequently, no two fellowships are the same. This year’s fellowships range from circumventing Iceland with a team of scientists to facilitate students’ understanding of geological processes to attending a conference on fostering safe social and emotional environments in which students can thrive.
The 2022 FFT Fellows who received $1.19 million in grants will be joined by grant recipients from 2019 and 2020 who deferred their grants due to the pandemic.
“Fund for Teachers strives to value, not just appreciate, educators,” said Karen Eckhoff, FFT executive director. “Value connotes merit, courage and virtue, traits evidenced in our Fellows’ grant proposals, then demonstrated on fellowships and, ultimately, applied in the classroom. Now more than ever, it is imperative we validate and invest in this caliber of teacher.”
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Fund for Teachers (FFT) is a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to strengthening instruction by investing in outstanding teachers’ self-determined professional growth and development. Since 2001, FFT has invested $35 million in more than 9,100 educators, transforming grants into growth for teachers and their students. In 2021, FFT introduced a follow-up grant for Fellows to collaborate through Innovation Circles focused on topics that facilitate further student impact. Over the past two decades, FFT Fellows have chosen to learn in 170 countries on every continent, with the majority remaining in North America. Visit www.fundforteachers.org for more information.