This month, social media feeds will be flooded with memes for teacher appreciation and posts about how vital teachers are to our society. At the same time, Fund for Teachers will hand $1.7 million in checks to 396 teachers for summer fellowships they designed. The contrast between memes & money puts into sharp relief America’s attitude toward those with whom we entrust our children: teacher appreciation not validation.

Meet our new grant recipients and learn about their summer itineraries here.

The Latin word part “val” means strength and worth. Consider other words with that root: value, valor, valiant. Even the sound of these words evokes fortitude. Validation carries that same weight. When one validates something or someone, there’s an active acknowledgement associated with seeing, hearing, and knowing. In this light, appreciating something is tantamount to a thumb’s up emoji.

Fund for Teachers validates teachers by trusting them to design their own professional development in the form of summer fellowships. We put no limits on what or where teachers learn. We simply support their pursuit of new knowledge, insight and experiences – with $36 million in grants since 2001. In doing so, we communicate that teachers are professionals worthy of investment.

What does Teacher Validation Look Like?

For our grant recipients last summer, it ranged from documenting the Six Essential Elements of Geography throughout Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to examining across Alabama various methods of civic engagement utilized in the Civil Rights Movement. It also looks like relying on our Educator Advisory Council for programmatic design to amplify our impact on teachers. And funding Innovation Circles led by Fellows and composed of Fellows to deepen learning around topics in teaching while building community.

But validation doesn’t have to be synonymous with funding. (Our Fellows regularly report simply knowing their ideas merited recognition means as much as the grants.) Validating teachers as professionals can also look like:

• Acknowledging their dedication to assessing and responding to students’ needs, and not just
  the academic ones.
• Affirming their commitment to addressing learning goals in ways that leverage students’
  heritage and lived experiences.
• Applauding their courage to be bodyguards who protect students from bullets. And, yes,
• Advocating for pay increases with your local districts.

And how can we do these things? You’d be amazed at how far an old-fashioned, analog, personalized note can go. Beats a social media meme any day.

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.

Founded in 2001, our organization this year surpassed
$35 million invested in teacher professional learning & leadership.

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.

A complete list of grant recipients is available here.

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.