Fund for Teachers

If you missed our February newsletter, you missed teachers' stories centered on colonization in Ghana, music history reflecting American history, and the nexus of cultures & communities in Los Angeles post WWII. We know you'll be inspired by their unique pursuits of knowledge that now inform students' perspectives in Ohio, New York and Oregon.

Once upon a time (and every year on February 26th) it's "Tell a Fairy Tale Day." So on that day we shared the tale of FFT Fellow Kelly Walvoord (Edmund, OK). With a $10,000 Fund for Teachers fellowship, Kelly and teammate Hailey Wansick explored the culture, landscape, and history of fairy tales and folklore in England, Germany, and France to create a deeper understanding of their origins and importance, promote excitement for and interest in reading, and enhance library collections. Read an article Kelly wrote about her fellowship AND "followship," which includes a school-wide Fairy Tale Week, at the link. Proud to call you an FFT Fellow Kelly! https://lnkd.in/g68_yabx

We’re publishing this podcast on the final day of Black History Month. The 2025 theme was "African Americans and Labor," focusing on the significant role Black people have played in the workforce – of their own accord or at the mercy and for the benefit of others. The economic aspect of Black history also inspired a Fund for Teachers experience of today’s guest and now informs the perspectives and research projects of Chicago seventh graders. Today we’re learning from Fund for Teachers Fellow Sandra Burgess. After conducting training sessions in Corporate America, then teaching at the collegiate level for 15 years, Sandra took a chance and a job teaching middle schoolers—whom she claims have a lot in common with first-year college students. Sandra is actually a two-time Fellow: first partnering with a colleague at?Morgan Park Academy?in 2022 to gather materials, impressions and insights pertaining to the Holocaust across eight European countries to facilitate a student-led podcast series. Then last summer, with the same colleague but this time a?Fund for Teachers’ Innovation Circle grant, Sandra researched the growth of the slave trade through civil rights resistance in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Washington DC. Her learning, access to primary resources on the road, and artifacts gathered, catalyzed a research project requiring students to focus on mapping how slavery contributed to the economy of the US, which caused those who benefited to oppose its demise. Sandra says both fellowships are rooted in hard history, elevate narratives of those involved, and changed her life…

World Wetlands Day done the FFT Way...

If you didn't receive our January newsletter in your inbox, here's the link for news about a Dallas grant recipient reframing citizenship for elementary students, an Iowa grant recipient who allows cheetah-ing in class, and a Jersey City grant recipient helping a fellow Fellow during the Los Angeles fires...

At the intersection of MLK Day, Inauguration Day and a Fund for Teachers fellowship...

One more day and we'll have our cohort of 2025 Fund for Teachers grant applicants!

One size professional development does not fit all educators -- which led library specialist Matthew Kyer on a search for opportunities to diversify his school's shelves while gathering cultural folktales in Kenya. Watch this FFT Fellow share his own story that now impacts every student at Coventry Grammar School in Coventry Public Schools.

Our final newsletter of 2024 offers great tips for submitting a successful 2025 proposal (in two weeks!), an inspiring FFT Fellow story about confirming his calling to the classroom, and an op-ed by our board chair on the potential closure of the Department of Education. https://lnkd.in/gFXMasRy