Thanks to FFT Fellow Tim Barry for his reflection on his two Fund for Teachers fellowships inspired by students’ curiosity and focused on elevating the experiences of Native Americans during World War II.

I am in my sixteenth year as a Special Education Teacher and have spent fifteen of those years teaching middle
school. Based on students’ needs, much of my time is spent teaching and supporting students in English and social studies classes. Our 7th-grade students read Code Talkers, by Joseph Bruchac and Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Houston as part of our English curriculum that explores the importance and impact of identity. In 8th grade, we read All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque. The beauty of this subject matter is that it fosters intellectual curiosity in our students. They want to know more, they want to ask questions, and oftentimes, these questions create dialogue and a spirit of inquiry that extends into authentic, teachable moments.

As a student of history, I am very familiar with the Pacific and European Theaters of World War II. Admittedly, the story of the Navajo was one that I was aware of, but not well-versed in. When reading Code Talkers, the idea that is most foreign and confusing to our students revolves around “why?”

Why would the Navajo be so loyal to a country that attempted to erase their culture? Why would these people be willing to save the country, with nothing in return?

As Code Talkers is our students’ first introduction to the World War I & II subject matter, it is the ideal opportunity to take an anchor text and extend the discussion beyond the pages of a book. This is not just a story of what the Navajo did, but an introduction to WHO the Navajo are. This fellowship provided me with an opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of how their culture and identity impacted their role in World War II and bring back an authentic experience to the students.

Having previously completed a Fund for Teachers fellowship to Manzanar in 2018 to examine life in and around Japanese Relocation Camps in Utah and Colorado, I was awarded a second grant last summer to engage with the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico. I examined the importance of cultural identity and explored how that identity empowered them to overcome marginalization by the U.S. Government and embrace the role as Code Talkers in World War II.

Read more about Tim’s 2023 fellowship here.

The highlight of my fellowship was hearing Peter MacDonald speak at the National Code Talkers Day event. Mr. MacDonald, at 94, is the youngest of the three living Code Talkers. He told the story of his enlistment at the age of 15 and the pride he felt in being Navajo and wearing the Marine Corps uniform. During his speech, he implored the Navajo youth to continue learning, protecting, and using the Navajo language despite its challenges because language is the key to sovereignty.

As I spoke to members of the Navajo Nation, I began to question my qualifications to teach about the Code Talkers’ story. This was not due to any unfavorable reception of my fellowship; quite the opposite, everyone I interacted with was welcoming and willing to share their knowledge. My concern revolved around doing justice to their culture, community, and the Code Talkers. Ultimately, it will drive me to deepen my learning and seek experts to share their stories.

The experiences I returned with have allowed me to provide authentic insight and perspectives to increase and enhance my students’ comprehension within our Code Talker unit. I gathered a variety of vetted, leveled texts to enrich academic discussions among students of varying ability levels. Most importantly, I have created relationships with people who can offer a cultural background vastly different from my students and foster a climate of understanding.

My Fund for Teachers fellowship reinforced the importance of self-discovery and lessons presenting themselves. My experience initially concentrated on enhancing my understanding of Code Talkers, which evolved into a story of the preservation of language, culture, and identity that is still challenging today.

When experiencing new cultures, we cannot rely solely on academics studying from a distance. It is critical to interact with communities directly to ensure that shared knowledge is culturally relevant.

Additionally, the fellowship enhanced my desire to explore and foster a sense of intellectual curiosity with my colleagues. The opportunity it provides for teachers to enrich their learning and share the inspiration of self-study rekindles much of the excitement that brought many of us into teaching.

Navajo Code Talker statue with Window Rock in the background

Established in 1854, Norwich Free Academy includes in its mission: “[to] study all that is beautiful in nature and art, and [be] prepared for the highest usefulness and the purest happiness.” Fund for Teachers Fellow Sarah Lefrancois fulfilled that mission and more with her 2022 fellowship.

After retracing the footsteps/work of Ansel Adams in and around Yosemite Park to learn about landscape photography and advocacy, she planned on inspiring a student art show documenting their local landscapes. But her community and colleagues envisioned greater vistas.

See Sarah’s post-fellowship report and photos here.

Sarah writes:

After completing my fellowship to Yosemite, I sat down with the head of the Norwich Free Academy Foundation, Kathy McCarthy, who is an amazing support of our students and teachers. She mentioned that the Class of 1968 donated money to establish a small gallery called “The Cube” in the Atrium located near the entrance of our on-campus museum and that my project fit well into their original vision for that space.

I began to think about what to put in there – because 2D work just isn’t shown well in the space – and started to reach out to local museums and agencies to see if they had any taxidermy that they could share. I started thinking about the Museum of Natural History dioramas but realized that creating something that looked realistic would be time consuming and stressful.

In talking with my can-do colleagues at lunch one day, we started to throw around the idea of how we could work together to produce such a display. They jumped right in, excited to be part of such a project. These women are amazing, and it felt so good to include three other people in with my fellowship project.

My photo of our local park was printed and attached to the wall in the background. The unified clay class, in partner with my photography class, worked to make pinch pot mushrooms and giant mushrooms, rocks, and a stump out of plaster of paris. The unified arts class worked on making blades of grass out of cardboard and birds.

The Advanced Jewelry and Metals class worked on making whatever their hearts desired when they saw the display put together! One student donated a pin tailed duck mount to be hung, and my boyfriend, who is a graduate of NFA and a Environmental Conservation Officer with the State of Connecticut loaned us his coyote mount to be the central focus. I worked on the birch trees and vines as well as collecting leaves and brush 🙂

The display in The Cube is bright, eye catching, and engaging. Students ask so many questions about what is inside of it and who made everything. It is a wonderful welcome to our gymnasiums and the museum. It helps guide people to view the series of photographs on display in the upper level of the building!

Thank you so much. This opportunity afforded to me [through Fund for Teachers] has been not only transformative to my teaching practice, but also the lives of my students as we learned together about the importance of publicly held lands for our wellbeing and our civic duty to protect them!

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.

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.

Fund for Teachers announced today the names of 396 teachers to receive $1.7 million in grants to experience learning they proposed as vital to their particular students’ success. Because the nonprofit places no limits on what is learned – or where – these teachers will pursue topics as diverse as cacao farming and Yiddish music in locales as far flung as Penland, North Carolina and the fragile Alpine ecosystem of Andorra. Fellowships designed around social emotional learning and culturally sustaining teaching remain among the more common themes.

A complete list of 2023 Fund for Teachers Fellows can be found here.

“Teachers are the backbone of our society,” said Karen Eckhoff, executive director. “They educate, encourage, and empower the children who will shape our future. And in our post-pandemic, school shooting society, their role is even more amplified. There can be no better investment.” 

At a time when large numbers of teachers are leaving the profession due to a myriad of factors, Fund for Teachers grants represent trust in teachers’ professionalism and capacity for meeting the diverse needs of each classroom and student.

Students celebrate with Ben Scudde, teacher at High School in the Community in New Haven, CT. Ben will use his grant to explore how sustainable societies in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland minimize their environmental impact by utilizing renewable energy sources, lowering energy consumption, and lessening waste production to support interdisciplinary student learning about clean energy options and sustainable development.

“The Fund for Teachers fellowship made me feel like I was good at my job, that I was capable of growth, and that I was willing to go the extra mile (or 7,468 miles) to get better at what I do,” said Sarah Slack, teacher at The Montauk School in Brooklyn, NY. With her grant, Sarah researched physical and behavioral traits of gray wolves in natural and artificial settings to support the development of a Genetics, Heredity, and Evolution unit plan that uses the study of wild and domestic canines to anchor the curriculum and promote student engagement.

Since 2001, Fund for Teachers has invested $36 million in more than 9,500 educators, transforming grants into growth for teachers and their students. In addition to its summer fellowships, the organization also re-invests in its Fellows by awarding Innovation Circle Grants to deepen learning around a topic (this year “Centering Students”) — first independently during the summer, then throughout the fall with other Fellows and led by a Fellow. Over the past two decades, FFT Fellows have pursued new knowledge and insights in 170 different countries on all seven continents, with the majority remaining in North America. Visit www.fundforteachers.org for more information or on our organization’s Facebook, Instagram or Twitter accounts.

Today marks the final Friday in August, the end of summer and the conclusion of most of our our 2022 grant recipients’ fellowships. We’ve proudly introduced you to many of these deserving educators through this Fellow Friday series by grouping them in similar categories (math, literacy, music, world cultures, etc.) But some of our Fellows’ plans defy being pigeonholed. To close out the summer, we share a few of those below…

Click here for a complete list of grant recipients.

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Thomas Houston | Sturgis Charter Public School West – Cape Cod, MA
Gather resources and learning about the historiography of the Irish Independence movement in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to create a model International Baccalaureate paper 2 for the Independent Movements unit.

“As a student and teacher of history I have learned with increasing clarity that the memory of history is almost as important as the actual events themselves. This historical memory; how we teach students about the past, and how that changes – the historiography – is fascinating to explore with students. The Irish Independence movement carries a lot of historical memory in Ireland and informs actions that people take today. It played a huge role in the Troubles in Northern Ireland and is now being reassessed again in Ireland due to the centenary anniversaries of the events of the Independence struggle and the discussions over what Brexit will mean for Northern Ireland and the border with the Republic. “

Darlene Martino | Wayne Primary – Ontario Center, NY
Participate in puppetry workshops for teachers in San Francisco, CA and Eugene, OR to introduce puppets as tools for students to build social skills, experience other perspectives, tackle difficult conversations, express opinions, and resolve conflicts.

“Compared to previous youngsters I have worked with over the past two decades of my career, many of my current students are profoundly more emotionally needy. My students are hungry for conversation, they ask for opportunities to work with peers, and they are eager to find connection with others. I see a need to nurture resilience, develop active listening skills, and grow empathy among students and am optimistic that I have found a solution in puppetry. I believe that this highly engaging medium will help students build civic skills, experience other perspectives, tackle difficult conversations, express opinions, reduce prejudice, and resolve conflicts.”

Rachel McMinn | Success High School – Meriden, CT
Bryce McMinn | Orville H. Platt High School | Meriden, CT
Research notorious crimes of the 19th and 20th century in the United Kingdom to create cross-curricular learning through the lens of technology in the field of forensics and the role of investigative journalism in solving crime.

“Our fellowship focuses on real-life examples of crimes that were investigated by pioneers of forensic science and journalism in England. We will visit, photograph and 3D survey the the crime scenes for the late 1800 serial killers of London. We will also visit crime labs, and interview historians, detectives and newspapers to discuss crime scene evaluation, handling of suspects, and collection and analysis of evidence collected from the crime scenes. We will learn the role of the media reporting to determine how this helped/hindered identifying and apprehending suspect(s). This will be high interest content that will be used to engage students and teach to the appropriate level of rigor in our classrooms.”

Amare McPherson & StaceyAnn Palma
New Beginnings Family Academy | Bridgeport, CT
Document best practices associated with the Reggio Emilia experienced-based pedagogy where it was founded in Italy to implement its progressive, student-led and focused learning experiences with PK-8 students at an urban charter school.

“Reggio Emilia has a long history of progressive, student-led and focused learning experiences that we as educators can learn from. Reggio Emilia encourages students of all ages to express themselves through their hundred languages, giving voice to the social, and emotional needs and challenges that are particular to students in our urban charter school community. Giving students the power to authentically and constructively express their thoughts, fears, joys and concerns can generate meaningful discussions, observations, ideas, and possible solutions to personal, familial, communal and global issues of impact.”

Krista Peltier | Mohegan Elementary School – Montville, CT
Investigate the differences in Italian, French, British, and Dutch fashion culture — past and present — to inspire self expression, self reflection, and creativity amongst students in their own fashion designs during makerspace.

“Fashion is a method of self expression and who we are as individuals, while also being a creative outlet. Through examination of fashion in France, Italy, England and the Netherlands, I can bring back historical perspectives and cultural differences amongst fashion in different countries to my classroom. I want to inspire my students to create their own pieces of fashion during Makerspace that express who they are as individuals, but also promote self-reflection and their cultural identities to intermix our academic and social emotional learning.”

Michelle She | District of Columbia Public Schools – Washington, DC
Learn to repair broken braillewriters through Perkins’ Braillewriter Repair Workshops; study non-visual and adaptive techniques for personal care through CN Vision Image Consulting, and improve fluency while learning healthy cooking skills in Oaxaca, Mexico, to enrich the personal and educational experience of students with visual impairments.

“One of the biggest problems facing our vision team today is the lack of fully functioning braillewriters. We currently have approximately 30 broken braillewriters in our inventory. As a result, one of my main goals for this professional development project is to learn about the inner workings of a braillewriter and how to repair broken ones. My second goal is to learn adaptive hygiene, grooming, and self-care techniques to teach my students so that they can be more aware of how others perceive them while in public. People who are visually impaired often feel very ‘other,’ and learning some skills to make sure they look their best will help boost their confidence and self-esteem.”

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“Now more than ever, it is imperative that we invest in the most important component of any classroom — the teacher,” said Karen Eckhoff, Executive Director of FFT. “Educators are facing countless challenges every day, and Fund for Teachers is dedicated to further diversifying the ways that we can support them. Our grants represent trust in teachers’ professionalism, creativity, and vision, offering flexibility to meet the unique needs of each classroom, with the students remaining the ultimate beneficiaries as they continue to grow and learn in today’s ever-changing world.”

If you missed any of this summer series, take the time look back and meet many of the other educators whom we highlighted on Fellow Fridays. Their courage, curiosity and creativity could be just the thing to propel you into another schoolyear. We are proud to call these and ALL of our 9,000+ grant recipients Fund for Teachers Fellows.

I teach three levels of English Learners:

• those emerging from the Newcomer program
• those who have been in the country 4-7 years, and
• those who have not reached English fluency after more than seven years of American schooling.

Students in that last group — known as Long Term English Learners (LTELs) — may have been born in this country, but they have hit a plateau in academic English language acquisition. These students need robust, rigorous and culturally relevant curriculum and instruction to help them catch up to their “English Only” peers. Without it, they remain the most likely to drop out and least likely to go to college of any of the subgroups at our Title 1 school.

I used my Innovation Circle Grant to work on to finding innovative ways of blending language development with the arts in order to start closing gaps and opening opportunities for these students.

With a $1,000 grant and alongside peers in the Art & Equity Innovation Circle, I participated in the “Clay: The Remix” workshop at Penland School of Craft in Penland, NC, to learn how to use simple tools in the creation of poetry, street art and prints, then transfer those images to clay, to empower students with a new platform for public voice.

Lugo’s teapot of Ralph Ellison

I had no idea that my teacher in my learning experience would be a prominent artist who would transform me and my students. Potter Roberto Lugo shared his slides and the story of his trajectoy as an artist, he spoke about the worth of every person, about putting hidden heroes onto fine porcelain, about “ghetto” being another word for “resourcefulness” and about the need for people from different backgrounds to come together for conversation. At this moment, I knew Roberto Lugo would resonate with my students. I took his ideas, expressed in a 60 second documentary called Meet Roberto Lugo: the Hip-Hop Potter and ran with them. In doing so, I learned to be more resourceful, which included getting ideas from my Circle Members on how to convert my project from ceramics to 2-D posters.

I first taught students about Roberto Lugo and exposed them to his elaborate pottery. Then, students designed 2-D teapots, vases, teacups and sneakers in his style but with their own “hidden heroes” highlighting their heritage as they developed their academic English skills. Students chose the winning art after listening to classmates give “elevator pitches” for their submissions. The pieces tell counter-narratives of  grandparents, sisters, brothers, aunties. uncles and cultural celebrities. They honor those who have passed and those who are still alive. To my delight, some student “winners” were previously among the most disengaged students.

Students’ final exam was to write a letter to Lugo. Those letters, along with sample essays and artwork impressed Lugo so much that he highlighted them on his Instagram page. He is also planning to set up a Zoom meeting with the students.

Last week, Robert Lugo himself acknowledged students’ work on his Instagram site, sharing this video with the words:

Y’all if you need some inspiration today look at the work of these young artists lead by their teacher @fer_sha_fer_sha. I just can’t believe I’m an inspiration for these kids. All we tend to think about ourselves is our faults and not our contributions. Thank you for reminding me that I am somebody and I want to remind you that you are too.

As part of the Innovation Circle Grant program, participants create learning units based on their independent research and collaborative ideation. Download Lisa’s “Who Deserves to be in a Museum” curriculum here.

Lisa Shafer is an English Language Development teacher at Skyline High School in Oakland, CA. She also has taught journalism, the graduate capstone course and English at other high schools. She is a three-time Fund for Teacher Fellow and is a former participant in the Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program (JET). She loves incorporating journalism, storytelling and civic engagement into her lessons for English Learners.

Day of the Dead is actually a two-day holiday in Mexico when families celebrate life and death simultaneously. From October 31 – November 2, people create ofrendas (or offerings) adorned with items such as foods, photos and items once enjoyed by family members who have died. This year, in the wake of COVID and also their Fund for Teachers fellowship, Rebecca Gauna and Sasha Villagrana decided to host a community-wide Day of the Dead Celebration at Chicago’s Robert Lindblom Math and Science Academy High School.

With their $10,000 FFT grant last summer, Becci and Sasha researched in Nayarit, Oaxaca, and Chiapas, Mexico, indigenous history, traditions, and folklore to inform learning for a Latino culture course, facilitate collaborations with English Language Learners in the special education program, and engage Spanish speaking parents. (Learn more about their experiences at Becci and Sasha‘s post-fellowship reporting.)

This fall, they began implementing their own learning with their students by creating a religious syncretism curriculum for their Latino Culture Colloquium. They also created an advisory lesson that was used school wide to talk about cultural identity. The community-wide Day of the Dead Family Night last week featured an ofrenda (above), performances by the Latino Dance Crew, and five craft stations in which students and their families created sugar skulls, made marigold flowers, and had their faces painted. Students led each activity and explained the significance and symbolism at each station.

“Many Mexican Americans who were born in the United States (including our students) often have a deep sense of feeling connected to Mexico yet have only visited a handful of times,” said Sasha. “The variety of the culture and languages we experienced within each state of Mexico really is so diverse that it is often hard for many Mexican Americans to comprehend or even understand how different it can be. This experience opened my eyes to how diverse the culture and language of Mexico really is and how little many of our students may even know about their family origins.”

“Indigenous groups in Mexico have been oppressed for centuries and this is clear when looking at poverty, access to healthcare, levels of education etc. in highly indigenous areas in Oaxaca and Chiapas,” Becci added. “Their stories too often go unheard when examining the history and culture of Mexico. We want to highlight the importance of indigenous subcultures within the dominant culture of Mexico and bring back inspiration for how marginalized communities maintain their culture and identity.”

Going forward, Sasha and Becci plan to create an interdisciplinary project between the school’s Latino Culture Colloquium, students in the school’s special education program, the art department and the library through a bilingual story time.  The teachers also established contacts with a nonprofit in Chiapas called Sueninos and a nonprofit in the Puerto Vallarta region called Entre Amigos through which will participate in language exchanges and cultural “intercambios,” as well as topics around dual identities and immigrant rights. We will also pursue our relationship with the Mexican Museum of Art in order to conduct an art and identity workshop.

“Our fellowship provided us with pictures, anecdotes, and most importantly, local perspectives and insights into our course units which will help students feel pride and connection with their heritage and engage with the material,” said Becci.

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Becci Gauna has taught Global Civics, Honors Psychology, Honors Sociology, US History, and World History. She has also helped design and develop her school’s Latino Culture program and sponsors the school’s Latino Dance team. Sasha Villagrana has been a New York City public alternative high school teacher for six years — two of which were in prison to a range of incarcerated youth populations facing the most severe challenges. She has also served Lindbom’s bilingual coordinator, foreign language department chair, and has taught the Latino Culture Colloquium, as well as Chinese.

Sixty-six years ago today, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was lynched and shot for allegedly flirting with a young white woman at her family’s store in Money, MS. His body was recovered from the bottom of the Tallahatchie River three days later. Brandon Barr‘s students in Chicago are the same age as Till was when he died. Brandon felt that similarity would resonate with his English students in a powerful way. This FFT Fellow plans to add anecdotes and artifacts gathered from his exploration of sites associated with Till’s murder, as well as Civil Rights sites in Memphis, to develop a unit focused on his life and the legacy of his death. Brandon shared his motivation and plans for students below…

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As a veteran middle school teacher, a lot has changed over the course of my career, including learning standards, forms of standardized testing and the novel uses of emerging technology. For the most part, I have been able to navigate these changes well. One change that I have not been as quick to adapt to is creating curricular opportunities for students to think about why advocating for equity is important in history and in the present day.

The Civil Rights Movement is rife with historical moments that are sad and unfortunate. I have seen a number of my colleagues, and I include myself in this, who have taught in a way that victimize African Americans. While it is true that many African Americans were victims of living in segregated and oppressive societies, the Civil Rights Movement is also rife with examples of individuals asserting their collective power and resistance in fighting oppression. I am looking to reframe how I have taught history from the this time period to focus more on empowerment while also improving the accessibility of learning materials and increasing engagement for all learners. My students need to see examples of what it means to fight for justice in order to be ready to engage in “good trouble” when they encounter injustices and inequity in the future.

To that end, every year I try to teach about Emmett Till because his death has a significant legacy; it is often evoked when injustices happen in the present. I want to make the case study that I do with students more robust and highlight the actions of both Till’s mother and uncle. Both acted in ways that demonstrate agency and upstander behaviors, and my goal is to highlight their actions rather than leave my students focusing solely on the brutality of Till’s death. I think I can teach this history in a deeper way that shows the impact that direct confrontation of inequity and injustice can have when deployed in a strategic fashion. That’s why I designed this particular fellowship and joined Fund for Teachers’ Equity cohort with an Innovation Circle Grant. Next week, I will visit the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis and the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, MS, to strengthen my instructional approach to this period of his history using an equitable lens for how the information is shared and presented to my students.

In thinking specifically about equity, there is the principle of direct confrontation that dictates that there is no path to equity that does not involve a direct confrontation with inequity. When we think about the historical legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, we see the power of individuals actively confronting inequity. The actions of individuals created real change because of their engagement and advocacy. I want my students to understand that African Americans lived (and in many instances still live) in environments that sought to diminish their collective power and privilege. I want students to see the creativity that many individuals demonstrated in finding solutions that fought inequity and dramatically improved the quality of life that African Americans can have in the United States because of their direct action. By extension, I want students to think about problems in the world today that stem from inequity and reflect on how they may use their collective voices and actions to induce change.

In 2010, Brandon received a Fund For Teachers grant to explore Holocaust and WWII sites, meet with survivors, and build a relationship with a partner school in Berlin, Germany. From that experience, he became a regional consultant for IWitness and was present for the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Read more about that experience on his blog published by Facing History & Ourselves. (Photo of Brandon courtesy of the USC Shoah Foundation.Top photo of Emmett Till courtesy of the Southern Poverty Law Center.)

When the pandemic grounded our 2020 grant recipients’ plans, we wrestled with ways to continue honoring their passion and professionalism. The spaces normally filled with updates from teachers actively pursuing self-designed fellowships fell silent. That is, until we handed our Fellows a microphone.

Even prior to the pandemic, experts widely acknowledged that America’s students were experiencing a mental health crisis. A 2017 CDC report showed that suicide was the second-leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds. Add incidents of self-harm into the equation and the outlook is even more bleak. The average age a student begins self-harming habits is 13 and 45% of people use cutting as their method of self-injury. And who has the most exposure to students during these years? Ostensibly, its teachers.

Earlier this year, the Brookings Institution published an article titled “Educators are key in protecting student mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Cassi Clausen, teacher and founder of The Open School in Mission Viejo, CA, realized she was not equipped for this challenge. In 2018 Cassi received a Fund for Teachers grant to Attend the annual Sudbury Schools Conference in Kingston, NY, to learn best practices for supporting at-risk students. Using one of Fund for Teachers’ new Innovation Grants, she spent the summer in dialogue with psychology Dr. Thomas D’Angelo, an expert in pre-teen and teen mental health and self-harm practices, to shift her personal understanding of self-harm and learn how to create safe spaces for struggling students.

After our 2020 grant recipients’ plans stalled due to the global pandemic, our organization faced an interesting situation. No Fellows pursing learning beyond the classroom or applying their experiences inside them. And we didn’t know if 2021 grants would even happen. Entering our twentieth year of supporting teachers, what did that look like when teachers couldn’t leave their homes or hometowns?

Fund for Teachers created a new grant that provides the space for teachers to support each other. Beginning in May, select FFT Fellows will meet virtually in Innovation Circles focused on four topics: Social-Emotional Learning, Equity, Art & Design, and Accessibility. A summer of pursuing individual experiences with a $1,000 grant will be bookended with community building, brainstorming, reflection and application — together with and led by the following Fellows:

Social-Emotional Learning

2009 Fellow Beth Mowry (Brooklyn) will co-lead this Innovation Circle alongside 2021 Fellow Megan McCall (Daphne, AL). “I recognize and honor the power inherent in being able to guide a learner to deeper understanding through experiences, a well-timed question or a probing reflection question,” said Beth. “This Circle structure is designed to give learners the Goldilocks amount of support and structure that will lead to incredible innovation. 

Equity

2003 Fellow Mekiva Callahan (Houston) is not only a FFT grant recipient, but also a college professor and administrator. In a variety of classrooms, she’s witnessed the impact a “decentralized” classroom can make. “My classrooms are more participant centered, and that’s what excites me about this format,” she said. “The Circle Structure removes the burden from me to carry the cognitive load shifting to participant centered work. This pedagogical style is ideal, even for a classroom setting, as we will co-construct the learning and reform the curriculum together. We will learn from one another, and that is the most exciting part–what we all take away from the experience.”

Mekiva will co-lead with 2018 Fellow Josh Frost (Brooklyn). “It will be an invaluable learning experience to be able to discuss and help develop projects rooted in these same themes with educators/Fellows outside of New York that teach in diverse communities from around the country,” he said.

Art & Design

2019 Fellow Mia Corvino (Madison, CT) and 2015 Fellow Adam Burns (Troy, MI) brings experience from teaching at Columbia Teachers College and Adam from participating in our Innovation Circle pilot program last fall. “What I really liked was being exposed to so many different ideas. I could try them out, tinker, adapt, ignore, whatever,” he said. “What I love about the circles is they capture that idea of always questioning why you are doing what you are doing, of knowing that things don’t always have to be the way they are.” Mia added, “I am always happiest when I can be a facilitator rather than a lecturer, guiding and helping others to build and brainstorm, to be more creative and think outside the box, and to reflect back to the group what I am hearing and seeing so that they can reach their own conclusions.”

Accessibility

2013 April Chamberlain (Trussville, AL) is stepping up to this cohort. “The community aspect is key for me as I have had the opportunity to be a part of communities that I have taught me, challenged me, and supported my growth,” April said. “I wish to facilitate this experience for others and “coach” rather that lead the educators in the design and implementation of their learning plans.”

“Seeing teachers’ response to this opportunity for collaboration with other Fellows has been so encouraging,” said Liza Eaton, director of Fund for Teachers’ Ramsden Project, a new initiative focused on grant recipients post-fellowship. “Synergizing teachers’ collective years of experience and passion for a topic will result in authentic engagement for all of their students.”

Check back on April 30 for the names of FFT Fellows awarded $1,000 grants to participate in our first season of Innovation Circles.

Happy International Women’s Day! This year’s theme is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world” and pay equity is certainly a large part of that equation. After his 2019 fellowship attending Stanford University’s Mindset Mathematics workshop to create a positive math culture that encourages problem solving, Nate Moore (Santa Fe School for the Arts & Sciences) is using his learning and the topic of women’s pay disparity to teach math with an equitable lens. He shares his story below:

Through my original Fund for Teachers fellowship, I learned the importance of rich tasks in math class for increasing student engagement and enjoyment of math. I have extended that fellowship by participating in groups like #ClearTheAir on Twitter and the NCTM 100 webinar series. Through these professional development opportunities, I have seen that there are many great math tasks available, and even some wonderful tasks incorporating social justice; however, one of my goals as a teacher is to create more tasks that connect with issues my students and I care about.

Through last fall’s Equity Innovation Circle, I had the chance to create some rich tasks that I think are important for kids at my school to know about and that they will also care about. I am lucky to work at an amazing school where I have total control over my curriculum, and I work with incredible students every year.

I know middle schoolers are deeply aware of what’s fair and not fair. I chose to focus in on some of the specific math lessons that I teach and see if I could incorporate more issues of social justice into these lessons.

I have to say, I’m a beginner at this. I also am a believer that change can start slowly. So I decided to focus on creating a few interesting tasks involving these issues of social justice, with the goal of building up a library of these sorts of activities over time.

The first lesson I created had to do with the gender pay gap. In algebra, we often talk about “one step equations” and this topic got me thinking about how we could model and quantify the gender pay gap. I did a bunch of research and because I knew some of my students were interested in soccer, I focused some of my research on soccer; this had also been a prominent example of the gender pay gap recently. So then I had my students, over a couple of lessons, investigate some of the research with me. Using algebra, we were able to learn things about salaries that had not been directly written in the articles. We modeled the pay gap in different ways and looked at more data around gender pay gaps in other fields. I’ll reiterate that I’m a beginner at this and I’m trying to incorporate change in a way that is manageable to me as a teacher, and one area where I still have a lot to learn is in facilitating the reflection and debrief of activities like this.

Especially in math class, it is so easy to see the worksheets, the textbooks, and the standardized test questions and to think that is what math is. This fellowship showed me (and continues to show me) that math is beautiful, free, creative, interesting, useful, fun, visual, and powerful beyond my expectations. Now, I get to figure out how to share that with my students in ways that are relevant and memorable to them.

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Nate Moore is a math and science teacher at the Santa Fe School for the Arts & Sciences. He loves learning along with his students. For the past 11 years, he has strived to create engaging learning experiences for middle schoolers. Nate is especially proud of the River Warriors project, through which students have collected data and engaged in ecological restoration at the Santa Fe River since 2010.You can follow Nate’s teaching on his blog and Twitter.

In celebration of  International Women’s Day, we share the teaching of Neha Singhal (Montgomery County Public Schools, MD). In one of our more unique fellowships, Neha conducted mini-ethnographic research on the experiences of doulas and other birth workers in New Delhi, India, to increase IB Anthropology students’ understanding of fieldwork and data analysis, and to spark interest in maternal health justice in the United States. Neha exemplifies what can happen when teachers are given the trust to design experiential learning. She combined her educational background (an undergraduate degree in international business, international development and conflict management and a master’s in social justice), previous experience (work with a non-profit on the Texas/Mexico border), and a passion for women’s health to create in-depth, project based learning for students.

My high school was only the second school in our district (the largest in the state) to offer IB Social & Cultural Anthropology and has become one of the few schools in the country to offer such a course. This study, aimed at deciphering the complexities of what makes us the same and different from one another, is extremely relevant for my students who come from 30 countries and speak multiple languages. The subject also corresponds to my commitment as a teacher to develop students’ analysis of history, oppression, power, and social justice to help equip them with the tools necessary to transform themselves and their communities.

In addition to being a social studies teacher, I am also a full-spectrum doula who is trained in providing nonjudgmental support to pregnant people in all decisions and phases of their journey. I became trained in this role after watching a documentary and doing my own research on the experiences of women giving birth at hospitals. It is unacceptable that the U.S. has a steadily increasing maternal mortality rate, which is also the highest in the developed world. There is a clear need for more attention to the issue and community-based solutions, and I used my Fund for Teachers grant to accomplish both.

For one month in 2019, I conducted mini-ethnographic research on the experiences of doulas and other birth workers in New Delhi, India, to understand what challenges and opportunities they see in lowering maternal mortality rates. I chose India partly because it holds significance to me as my birthplace and because the maternal mortality rate has decreased by 22% in the country from 2011 to 2016 according to recent data. I met with individuals in hospitals and nonprofits such as Birth India to collect data through a mixed-methods approach, using both participant observation and interviews, which are two popular methods in cultural anthropology.

Conducting this fieldwork gathering and analyzing data equipped me with new primary resources that now model and support my students’ research inquiries for their IB Anthropology projects. And, undertaking fieldwork helped me become a better teacher because I intimately understand the challenges and excitement that comes with “doing anthropology.” Now that I did the work I ask of my students, I can better explain the process of collecting data and articulating analysis about social phenomena.

Students benefit tremendously when their teachers are given the time to become energized and gain new ideas and perspectives. Teachers who have been invested in, invest in their students in return! The type of learning Fund for Teachers affords allows us to engage in creative experiences that enhance our connections with ourselves and our subject areas. It is also great role-modeling for students to see that teachers are lifelong learners and continue to have passions and goals. As a result of my fellowship, I am now waiting to hear about my acceptance in a PhD program in Cultural Anthropology!

While my fellowship helps me most readily with my 11th and 12th grade IB Anthropology students, with whom I piloted a new Medical Anthropology unit introducing the subfield focused on the impact of social, cultural, and historical forces on health and illness, how illness is experienced by various communities, prevention measures, and the process of healing. However, my experiences in India also benefit my 10th grade students in my U.S. Government class, as well as my Latin American Studies elective course. In my government class we have a unit on domestic policy where I implemented a research project that allows students to pick an issue, such as maternal health, and propose a policy-based solution. Our high school also hosts a medical careers program, which trains a sizable amount of our student population to explore careers in the healthcare industry and my students now present their new learning about birth, public health, and combating maternal mortality to students in the medical careers program.

Learning about issues women face in India regarding birth and realizing how similar those are to what we see in America made me even more confident in creating a unit on maternal health justice. At some point in their lives, it is very likely that students will either know someone pregnant, be the person giving birth, and/or be the partner of someone giving birth. Being in any of these three positions warrants the knowledge of pregnancy and birth as one way to tackle the crisis of maternal mortality in the United States (as well as many other countries). This fellowship is leading to learning outcomes that:

• Help students understand a specific situation (maternal health and birth) both in a global context and in their country of residence and
• Teach the practice of using research to solve real-world problems.

By directing my Fund for Teachers grant to confronting the problem of maternal mortality, I’m positioning my students as the solutionaries of the present and future.

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Neha Singhal is a high school teacher in Maryland who has taught students in several courses: IB Anthropology, Government, U.S. History, Latin American Studies, and College/Career Prep. She has also taught various courses in Asian American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park and University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Prior to becoming an educator, Neha worked with La Union del Pueblo Entero, a grassroots immigrant justice organization at the Texas-Mexico border, where she supported organizing efforts to fight for neighborhood development, immigration reform legislation, and workers’ rights.

As Naima Hall tells it, she had a hard time finding her way in the world of work. For a while she did construction work, then bartended. Only after a few more minutes into our conversation did she mention that this phase of her career came after she worked for the International Trade Division of Tiffany & Co. and directed New York City’s Sister City Program through the United Nations. These roles, while high-profile, left her empty.

“I felt like my life wasn’t real,” she said. “I had titles and positions that sounded interesting. And I felt like a blank slate. My family was proud, but I couldn’t get through the cognitive dissonance of achieving but feeling empty.”

Her next step came from an unlikely source – Craig’s List.

“The Helen Keller School for the Blind placed an ad for volunteers,” Naima said. “When I arrived, the social connectedness was there, the good cause, the good mission. “I think I knew I was on the brink of an aha moment, but had questions about vocational sustainability and  next steps.”

Her answer came quickly. After a few weeks, the principal of Helen Keller saw Naima’s potential and volunteered to write her recommendation for the master’s program in deaf and hard of hearing education at Hunter College. She eventually added this degree to her bachelor’s degree in communications and master’s degree in urban policy and planning to become an itinerant service provider for New York City’s Department of Education. As a teacher in the largest education program in the world serving students who are blind and visually impaired from preschool to 21 years of age, Naima goes onsite to provide braille and advocacy work for students who integrated into a general population setting. She turns print material into braille, either by hand or electronically, and makes tactile models of concepts using embossing tools and haptic construction materials to help students comprehend teachers’ instruction. She also teaches students how to advocate for themselves and ensures that schools are compliant in their educational delivery to this specialized population.

“I make stuff, teach stuff and get out of the way,” she laughed.

To expand the state’s core curriculum and further support her students, Naima used a 2018 Fund for Teachers grant to explore French historic sites attributed to the inventor Louis Braille and investigate French-inspired multisensory, experiential learning opportunities.

Read more about Naima’s fellowship here.

“Not a day that goes by that my students and I are not in proximity to the embossed system of writing Louis created during his life,” said Naima. “This fellowship was a career apex and reaffirmed my passion and sense of purpose within my own vocation.”

This experience, especially a teary eyed moment at Louis Braille’s grave, provided the inspiration to push through a difficult career aspiration – earning certification as a Library of Congress Certified Braille transcriber last fall. Fewer people pass this accreditation than the CPA or the bar percentagewise, making it one of the most difficult certifications to earn in the world.

The moral to Naima’s story? Don’t settle and don’t sell out.

“Sometimes young people jump in and stick in it for too long. I just kept leaving,” she said. “People looked at me like I was bananas when I left Tiffany & Co. and the United Nations. I couldn’t tell them why I left, but I knew I couldn’t stay, but I thought, “If I am dying on a long arc, I don’t want to go out with this being it. There’s a difference between quitting and reclaiming your life.”

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Naima invites everyone to follow virtually the New York City Braille Challenge, on March 8-10, 2021. This annual, city-wide event has four components: the academic competition, a braille experience, parent workshops and interactive activities.

For two decades, Fund for Teachers has respected the power of teachers to determine their own learning and, subsequently that of their students. For each of those twenty years, that respect came in the form of grants – more than $30 million – to fuel fellowships in the United States and around the world. As Fund for Teachers enters our third decade, we are pleased to continue supporting our cohort of Fellows and adding to our programming portfolio.

We are excited to announce Innovation Circles, a new $1,000 grant opportunity specifically for any FFT Fellow who received a fellowship grant prior to 2021.

Each Circle is organized around one of three topics: Social Emotional Learning, Equity or Art & Design. Fellows who are accepted will join a Circle with their self-identified learning goal or problem of practice.  Each meeting will be used to help Fellows navigate the process of devising solutions.  Participants will meet virtually, twice early in the summer and then go on to pursue individual learning experiences before reconvening with their Circle colleagues once every two weeks between August and November.  Some meetings will be with small working groups and some as a larger cohort. It is our hope that self-designed learning, paired with Fellow collaboration, will inspire teachers to continue to refine and reimagine teaching and learning in their schools. If you have something you want to learn, and you know that an experience with other Fellows will allow you to navigate the complexities of implementation, apply to be part of an Innovation Circle.  Grants must be used for teacher learning and implementation.

FFT Fellows can apply here.

The application for Innovation Circle Grants opened March 1 and closes April 1^st. To be considered for the role of lead Fellow for a particular Circle, send a resume and short cover letter, including the name of the Circle and why you are interested in taking the lead, to liza@fundforteachers.org. Circle participants and leads will be informed by April 29th.

This fall, Fund for Teachers introduced a new Circles program bringing Fellows together around various topics. This effort coincided with teachers’ return to school in the midst of a pandemic, so we were uncertain about interest and participation level. What we discovered, however, is that our grant recipients remain life-long learners despite the circumstances and the result has been life-giving for them and inspiring for us.

Members of Fund for Teachers’ Equity and Justice Circle began their final meeting of the semester by watching a Ted Talk inspired by a Martin Luther King, Jr.’s quote: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” Reading critically, writing consciously, speaking clearly and telling your truth, according to the speaker/teacher/poet Clint Smith, are the four core principles posted in his classroom. These same principles could summarize the first collaborative learning experience undertaken by eight FFT Fellows around a timely topic.

Last summer, Fund for Teachers selected from applications a cohort of ten Fellows to attend a three-day Teaching for Equity and Justice webinar presented by Facing History and Ourselves, an organization dedicated to fighting bigotry and hate with lessons from history. Then, after full days of teaching virtually, the educators returned to Zoom for dialogue about race and culture with the goal of crafting an action plan to impact their students and school community.

Read more about Fund for Teachers Circles here.

“I did a lot of work on social justice fifteen years ago and I thought, ‘I’ve done the work! Good job!” shared 2019 Fellow Tim Flannagan, teacher at Stonington Middle School in Mystic, CT. “But after the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, I wanted something more tangible than reading books and discussing with all white peers. I knew Fund for Teachers would do this well, and the resources and reflections, check ins and follow ups have increased discourse and equipped us to take informed action.”

Tim recently launched the Family Anti-Racist Circle in which students and their caregivers (or a member of the staff) read, discuss and identify ways to remedy racism in their community. He secured funding from local foundations obtain 5 copies of 15 books from which students can choose. After the read, Tim will then lead the group in brainstorming and researching ways to address an issue of equity and justice to develop a plan that to implement in the spring.

“I’ve attended several Fund for Teachers events since my fellowship in 2018, and one of the first questions asked during these meetings is Where did you travel on your fellowship? It occurred to me that no one asked that question in the Equity and Justice Circle. It’s not that we’re not interested, it’s just that our work has a sense of urgency and every minute of our sessions is so purposefully planned so that we leave one step closer to accomplishing our goals. Thank you to Fund for Teachers and Facing History and Ourselves for connecting me with this professional learning community and empowering me to create a more equitable and just classroom and school.”

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In 2018, Tim used his Fund for Teachers grant to join a photography tour in Cuba with professional artist and documentarian Louis Alarcon to create learning that combines insights about the island nation with photography and digital literacy skills. In addition to his Fund for Teachers grant, Tim also completed a Fulbright fellowship in Vietnam and received additional grants to learn in Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Germany. Tim has also taught in Brazil and Bolivia. Read about his fellowship here and learn more about his practice on his website, The Alternate Route.

Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December — the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR is a milestone document that proclaims the inalienable rights which everyone is entitled to as a human being – regardless of race, color, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Last summer, Jenn Nekolny and Christine Halblander (Jefferson Junior High School – Naperville, IL) used a Fund for Teachers grant to explore how physical and societal divisions in historical and contemporary Poland, Czechia, Austria and Germany impact human rights. They now supplement Social Studies and Language Arts curricula with their insight and experiences to enhance students’ knowledge around migration and refugee issues. In honor of all those striving for human rights, we share this reflection of “Team Mending Fences” and how their fellowship is impacting students’ awareness of humans’ rights. 

Helping a refugee learn to ride a bike in Berlin through the nonprofit Bikeygees.

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Our fellowship allowed us to look at forced movement of targeted groups in Krakow and Warsaw and the ghettos and camps that swallowed once peaceful lives. Museums and cultural centers in former East and West Germany allowed us to trace the lives of individuals and families. We then met today’s refugees and NGOs who work with them in Vienna and Berlin. Finally, we stayed with Jenn’s host parents and explored how small towns are welcoming asylum seekers.

It was very important for us to share our Fund for Teachers experiences with our students and school community. We were able to speak genuinely about the places we visited. When we shared our interviews and work with asylees, NGOs and individuals who are helping refugees, we spoke of them like they are true friends. Our students felt included in our FFT experience from the beginning; this enabled us to encourage even the most reluctant readers to read Refugee and create an Open House event for our community. 

Our Open House was a great success! Each character/ time period/ journey of the novel Refugee, had a room with student-driven projects, maps, activities, and a food item that represented the culture. We were even able to expand the learning with a graphic novel, Illegal, and mini research boards that gave a refugee. migrant, or internally displaced person a personalized story.

As guests entered the main entrance of our school, they were greeted by one of our School Board members who explained the reason for our event and the passport. As guests visited each of the four themed rooms, they earned a stamp in their passport for trying an activity, sampling a food item, or participating in a learning experience. After visiting all four rooms, completed passports were entered into a drawing to win gift cards to a local bookshop. Parents and kids had a great time with a little friendly competition to see who could earn their stamps!

To add to our theme of learning about refugees, we collected school supplies to be donated to our local World Relief organization. Binders, backpacks, pencils, notebooks and folders were dropped off by families attending our event and will be given to newly- arrived school-aged children who need them.

Our entrance lobby was full of activity! This is where guests picked up and dropped off their passports, and also where our 8th grade students held a bake sale. Families donated baked goods and student volunteers were there to receive them, price them, and tell people about BikeyGees, an NGO that teaches refugee (and other women) how to ride bikes in order for them to have more freedom. BikeyGees is located in Berlin, Germany, and we were fortunate to work with them on our fellowship. We had a large poster explaining their mission, including photos taken while volunteering there. It was important for students (and families) to see where their donations of effort, time and money were going.

Our lobby was also the location for our one-of-a-kind bracelets. Each bracelet had a hand-stamped message (like HOPE or JOURNEY or our school mascot, PATRIOTS) and hand-tied strings. Students worked during lunch periods to create them and then asked for donations and talked with guests about the mission of BikeyGees and what is being done to assist refugees and asylees in other parts of the world. 

Things were a little quieter in our focus rooms. Students spent weeks reading, discussing and organizing their work based on a character in the novel Refugee. Here are some scenes from Josef’s room (Nazi Germany, 1939). A poster asked “What’s in the family’s suitcase?” and the packed items chosen by students were labeled with detailed notes about a party dress that Josef’s mother might have worn, a Torah that Josef needed for his Bar Mitzvah, a stuffed bear for Josef’s little sister, Ruth, and a shawl for covering heads and shoulders for religious activities. Students practiced research and writing as they worked together on this, then guided guests in Josef’s journey. Staying in the heart of Kazimierz and visiting Auschwitz- Birkenau allowed us to discuss some of the connected historical events. Next to the suitcase, visitors use Post-its to write something they would take if they suddenly had to leave home.

Mahmoud’s room (Syria, 2015) welcomed visitors with a summary of his story and the “official” flag of Syria and “rebel” flag of Syria. Students explained the symbols on a poster and students sewed the flags with fabric and felt, guided by our Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) teacher. Here, students and one of our EL teachers get the room ready for guests. Students designed the room as if guests were following Mahmoud’s journey on land and sea. Chapter highlights explained where he went and why with maps, photographs, and research. The tension of his journey built as each station was reached by visitors. Students learned how to make hummus in their FACS classes and paired it with vegetables for guests to enjoy. Each plate is divided into fourths, with the name of each country written on one fourth of the plate. This helped us to cut down on waste and allowed guests to start in any room and travel “around the world” with their plates and passports.

We met several Syrian refugees on our fellowship–a car mechanic, a dentist, a student, a mother–all had such a love for their country and a desire to help others. We were able to show students that a country might have issues with politics and war, but the individuals each have a story that isn’t what’s portrayed on the news.

In Isabel’s room (Cuba, 1994), students wanted to mimic the sights, sounds and tastes of Cuba so guests would feel a little of the island on our cold February Open House night. There was a selfie station with a “wet foot/ dry foot” beach theme to represent Isabel’s goal of taking the boat to “El Norte” (the United States). Students used bright colors as a tablecloth for the pineapple and mango skewers dusted with Tajin fruit spice. They did a great job encouraging people to try the Tajin! Our population of families from Mexico and the Caribbean were happy to taste something familiar to their culture.

The entry to Isabel’s room included a game of chance (after all, that’s what we saw over and over in our fellowship) that directed guests to different experiences, including a station with QR codes that linked to videos that taught the rhythm of the clave. Our music teachers worked with students to create short videos at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels and provided the clave percussion instruments to try. 

To enhance our learning, we added the graphic novel Illegal, by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin. Families were introduced to the story of Ebo, a Ghanian boy who leaves his village in search of his brother and sister, who had led before him. Ebo must travel by land and sea, across lonely deserts and through huge cities, always alone. The people he meets along his journey help to guide him as he learns about his own strength. We were able to connect the idea of the “helpers” in his fiction story with what we had learned from Mohammad, Bahar, Tarik and Mo, asylum seekers we had met in Vienna, Berlin, Puchenstuben, and Leipzig. As students read Ebo’s story in Language Arts, we were also talking about cocoa farming and labor practices in Social Studies. As we researched, students found that the Lindt chocolate company had made significant changes to their practices and their cocoa harvesting. Because of this, students chose Lindt chocolate as the snack to represent Ghana (and families were very happy to have this sweet treat at the end of their passport tours through the rooms!).

In addition to reading the novels, students had a unique opportunity to design a complete experience for our Open House guests. From designing the room layouts to determining who would greet guests, explain stops in the rooms, and take care of set up and clean up, students worked together to create something to be proud of! Originally, we had planned to work with 7th grade Language Arts and our EL teachers and students, but as our project was building, many other staff and students became part of the event. Our FACS teacher worked with students to design and sew the Syrian flags and to make the hummus, our band and chorus teachers volunteered to teach students the clave rhythm and how to use the percussion instruments, our library staff offered a selection of books that went along with our theme and 8th grade students provided book reviews to encourage others to read them, the families of our 8th graders made goodies to be sold at the bake sale, a School Board member volunteered to work with World Relief to collect school items and greet guests in the lobby, and countless others offered support to our students for our event.

In Social Studies, students selected a photo from #everydayrefugees and did further research on the reasons why that particular person or group would flee their country. They then added an enhanced caption and a map to show the refugee as an individual and not just a statistic. Students in our Dual Language Spanish classes practiced their reading and writing in the target language of Spanish with the same activity.                

The 8th grade students read connected fiction books and wrote reviews of them to encourage further reading. These were the students who helped with the idea of our fellowship last year as 7th graders; it was very special to have them as part of the Open House, too.

FFT granted us the opportunity to be students and explore the world in a unique way together. We asked a question and designed a plan to answer it. We wondered and through the journey learned about a global challenge and what other countries are doing to help. Our professional perspective changed because we are a team committed to creating a welcoming school community where we model and teach others to open our minds and hearts to the world and all it has to offer.

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Learn more about Jenn and Christine’s learning by reading their post-fellowship report here and accessing the Facebook page they made for students and families to follow.

Middle school language arts teacher Amy Taylor designed her Fund for Teachers fellowship to accompany Holocaust survivor Eva Kor back to Auschwitz to learn about her subjection to Mengele’s twin experiments, her liberation from the camp in 1945, and her ability to forgive. It would be the last such tour Ms. Kor hosted. She died in her hotel room in Krakow, Poland, the day after taking Amy and others on a tour of the death camp she survived with her twin sister, Miriam.

Amy is now back home in New London, CT, processing all she learned, including being told by Ms. Kor’s son that his mother had passed away during the night. Amy generously shares details of Ms. Kor’s final days spent fulfilling her calling: telling her story “to create an empowered community of critical thinkers who will illuminate the world with hope, healing, respect, and responsibility.”

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I would be honored to talk about Eva. When I discovered this trip through her museum, CANDLES, [Children of Auschwitz – Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments] I knew that I had to go. I felt it in my heart. This experience was the driving force for me to apply for this fellowship and to go through the rigorous application process. I am so glad that I followed my gut instinct and went on this trip. I used her book, Surviving the Angel of Death and her newest documentary Eva A-7063 in my classroom this past spring. I knew from my research about her that she was a remarkable human being. Meeting her in person confirmed that.

From the moment I met her that first night at dinner, (Monday, July 1) I adored her. She was real with us. She was willing to be an open book. She wanted us to ask her anything, to take as many pictures and videos as we wanted, so that when we go home we would share with others our experiences with her and our experiences at the camps. We were there to bear witness to what the Nazis did to Eva and the millions of others.

On Tuesday, July 2nd, we were with Eva again at dinner and after dinner we had a viewing of her documentary. She was there throughout the whole viewing. Some of us were surprised that she was there to watch with us because she has seen it numerous times, but she wanted to be there.  It was rather late (10:30-10:45) when the documentary was over, but Eva was still willing to take a few questions from us. The documentary does a really great job of documenting Eva’s story. You can see how angry and misunderstood she was when she came to America. But once she discovered the idea of forgiveness, you can see the change and the impact that one act had on her entire life. A weight was lifted off of her and she wasn’t angry anymore. Many other survivors do not understand how she could forgive the Nazis for what they had done to her. They think she’s crazy for doing that. But Eva has found a peace within herself and that is all that matters.

Wednesday, July 3rd was a big day. Nothing really prepares you for seeing the tracks leading up to the guardhouse of Birkenau. It was a powerful moment for me. Knowing that millions of people went down those tracks in cattle cars packed beyond capacity never to come out again, hit me like a ton of bricks. I had tears in my eyes before I even got off the bus. Walking up to the gate from the parking lot was surreal. We toured Birkenau with our guides in the morning and after lunch, Eva would be joining us to talk about her experiences there in Birkenau.

When we were coming back to the camp from lunch, Eva was surrounded by a group of young men from the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus Young Men’s Ensemble. They had sung three songs for Eva. I missed the performance, as I was busy buying just about every book in the book store! When she heard there was a group of young men that wanted to sing for her, she immediately asked for Sherman (which is what her purse is called: Sherman tank, because it is so big!) so that she could get her lipstick and put some on! That little side note really cracked me up. She loved talking with those boys and that fact that she needed to get “dolled up” to do it was pretty funny.

People were drawn to Eva. When other visitors to the camp heard that she was a survivor, they stopped and joined our group to listen to her talk. Eva talked about her experiences at three different locations around the camp. It was an incredibly moving experience that I will never forget. I recorded everything she said to us that day and I am forever grateful that I did that. Little did I know what the next day would bring.

Eva’s first stop was at the selection platform in front of the cattle car. Here she described the conditions she experienced in the cattle car as well as the last time that she saw her parents and her older sisters on that same selection platform. She described being on the cattle car for four days. They had asked for water and were told by the train’s guard to hand over five gold watches. They passed the watches through the barbed wire of the window and in return the guard threw a bucket of water into the car. Eva recalls putting her cup on her head to try and catch water, but never caught enough water to drink, just enough to wet her lips. She also described her arrival into the camp as the craziest place she had ever been in her life, everything happened very quickly and without explanation. She also went on to explain the moment that her mother was taken to the right, away from Miriam (her twin sister) and herself, which meant she was going to the gas chamber. She described the pain in her mother’s eyes as well as her outstretched arms.

She went on to read two letters to us. One she wrote to her father and another she wrote to her mother. These letters were brutally honest and heartfelt. She forgave her father for his harshness toward her because she was a girl. She forgave him for not taking the family to Romania to try to escape. She said that his disappointment in her made her strong, strong enough to survive Auschwitz. Her letter to her mother was so sad. She loved her mother so much and never had the opportunity to say goodbye. She took the opportunity to tell her mother that she was strong for Miriam and herself and that she was proud of the mother that she was for the ten years that she had her. This letter hit me hard. I had done a pretty good job of keeping it together for the majority of the day, but listening to her read that letter on the same selection platform in which she was ripped away from her mother added another layer to the meaning. It gave me a perspective that I would never have had if I were not sitting in the exact place that it had occurred. I really don’t think there was a dry eye in the group at that point and after she read the letters she noticed people crying.

She asked, “Why are you crying? It’s a happy story. I survived.” (We all then laughed.) She said, “Look at it this way, I sometimes joke about it, but it’s true. I beat Hitler, I beat Mengele, I beat the Nazis, I beat the Communists, and I am here to tell my story.”

She doesn’t like when people cry. She doesn’t think we should cry, but her staff tried to get her to understand that she has had many years to come to terms with what she has experienced in her life. We need to be allowed to process what she shares with us and sometimes that involves tears. She somewhat understands that.

The second stop of the day with Eva was in front of the remains of Crematorium II and III. Here she talked about wanting to find the other twins that had also survived. She guessed that there would be about 180-200 of them out in the world somewhere. She tried for six years to get the news organizations to help her and no one responded. She decided that if she created her own organization and made herself president then maybe someone would pay attention to her. Thus her organization CANDLES was born. (Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors) After locating about 80 twins, the media then wanted to talk with Eva and she started getting the attention she was looking for. She went back to Auschwitz with six twins for the 40th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in January of 1985. She also talked about her interactions with Mengele. She talked about how they were like little soldiers and that he would raise hell if a child had died. She also talked about how she didn’t like him. She said his eyes were very evil and they were penetrating and so she tried not to look at him.

The final place Eva spoke at was in front of where her barrack was located. Her barrack is no longer standing. All that remains is the foundation where it once stood. Here she talked about what life was like in the barrack. Her treatment was a little better because she was one of Mengele’s twins. She and Miriam had a bunk to themselves. They were in the bottom bunk on the right hand side of the barrack. They didn’t have to share it with four or five other people like most prisoners did. They were able to go to the bathroom whenever they wanted, while other prisoners were generally relegated to one bathroom break in the morning and one in the evening. Eva talked about one of the supervisors of her barrack, she called her Snake. She hated this particular supervisor because she was mean. She would make the kids play games that she liked and the kids hated just for her entertainment. She also talked about how she learned to knit from an older twin using pieces of barbed wire. She knitted hats for Miriam and herself to help keep warm. She also talked about the routine of daily life, like roll call. She remembers waiting for hours outside if someone was missing. She also recalled seeing planes flying overhead and the air raids. She really liked the air raids because the Nazis would go crazy when they happened and it meant that the Nazis were getting closer to being defeated.

Thursday, July 4th: We knew something was not right this morning. Normally, the CANDLES staff and her son, Alex, join us on the bus. This morning, only two of the five staff members were with us. They told us that Eva had a difficult night and that she wouldn’t be joining us today. They said that we would get an update at dinner. We continued on with our day touring Auschwitz. I was sitting with Michelle on the bus and I remember sharing a look of concern with her. We had hoped that she would be okay. We knew that she had some medical issues over the last six months or so and was currently battling an upper respiratory infection. We figured that maybe she did a little too much yesterday. Eva was very headstrong and did not want to cut back her time and interactions with us. She was going to do what she wanted to do.

When we were on the bus heading back to the hotel, CANDLES director, Leah, broke the news to us that Eva had passed away that morning. I was shocked. I was hoping against all hope that I misheard what she said, but I didn’t. I buried my head in my hands and cried. I could believe that the person I had just spent the day with yesterday was now gone. Never in a million years did I think that would ever happen. The staff and our guides knew that Eva was gone, but they wanted us to be able to experience Auschwitz without the cloud of her death over us. I am thankful for that. I was able to focus on the exhibits and my guide’s wisdom, rather than feeling her loss. I spent most of the rest of the day in tears. Every time I thought about her and the happiness I felt being around her, I would cry. We have truly lost an incredible soul. We were told that her son and staff were with her when she passed. Every effort was made to try and save her, but her passing was fairly quick and peaceful. I firmly believe she has been reunited with her family.

We came together as a group and comforted each other. We were the only ones who could understand what we were going through and we needed to come together as a family to support each other. Even today, I still can’t believe she is gone.

I am forever grateful for the three days that I had with her. In that short time, I was able to see her passion for educating others, her fiesty and funny side, and her strength and willingness to be so open about everything she has experienced in her life.

We had two opportunities to honor and remember Eva. When we returned to Birkenau on Saturday, we had a candle lighting ceremony where we lit candles at the memorial in honor of Eva and anyone else we whose memory we wanted to honor. We also placed a beautiful wreath at the memorial in honor of Eva. Alex and the staff spoke at the ceremony. It broke my heart to listen to Alex break down as he talked about his mother. He shared that one of his mother’s favorite songs was, “The Impossible Dream,” from the Man of La Mancha. He read the lyrics out loud and then played the song. While he played it, the group spontaneously started to sing along. It was a beautiful moment.

We ended the ceremony by reciting Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.  It was somewhat awkward to be back at Birkenau. This was one of the last places we spent time with Eva. Walking by the selection platform where we sat and listened to her just three days earlier, felt really weird. On Sunday morning, there was a memorial service at the hotel. A rabbi was there to lead us in the memorial. It was another opportunity for us to honor Eva and remember all of the lessons she has taught us. It is our charge to carry on her legacy and message. I will forever remember my time with her and will help to teach her message and her life lessons the best that I can to my students:

1. Never give up. Eva always believed that she would make it out of the camp and because of that positivity she survived.
2. Be kind to and respect each other. The Holocaust was born out of hatred toward others.
3. Forgiveness. Be able to forgive your enemy and yourself. It will free your soul.
4. Wake up every day with the intention to do good things. Make a difference in your world for the better.

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Amy teaches 7th grade language arts at the Interdistrict School for Arts and Communications in New London, CT, where she also serves as team leader. She is eager to incorporate her time with Ms. Kor, as well as her tours of additional museums and death camps in Germany and the Czech Republic, to strengthen a Holocaust unit about hope, survival, empathy and voice. You can see more images and descriptions Amy’s fellowship on her Instagram.