FUND FOR TEACHERS

Believing the teacher knows best how they can make a better impact in their classroom, Fund for Teachers awards fellowships for self-designed professional growth to PreK-12 teachers who recognize the value of inquiry, the power of knowledge, and their ability to make a difference.
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“When teaching, I often push scientific field work as an employment opportunity and a way to make a difference. This fellowship makes me walk the talk,” said an Oakland teacher, leaving today on a Fund for Teachers fellowship to enhance elementary science lessons on marine debris. For three weeks, she will tour the Bocas Del Toro Turtle hatchery in Panama, join the Turneffe Sea Turtle Research project in Belize and visit Glover’s Reef, aslo in Belize, to explore the sea turtle habitat and dialogue with leading world experts on sea turtles and marine preservation efforts. Throughout her fellowship, she will document, film, sketch, photograph, research and write about the experience to author a narrative journal and short video for her students at Peralta Elementary in Oakland, CA. “This fellowship is an opportunity for me to have the luxury of studying with top scientists who are passionate about an environmental issue that is close to my heart — marine debris. I will acquire a great deal of specific information in a few short weeks. This knowledge and experience will enrich a program that I’ve worked very hard to establish concerning debris in the San Francisco Bay. Moreover, it will help me answer the questions with students: Why are sea turtles important to sustaining healthy marine ecosystems? How does the health of the sea turtle impact marine ecosystems? What does the sea turtle mean to our global ecosystem? What is happening to protect sea turtles? What pollutants are particularly detrimental to sea turtles? What local/international actions are being taken concerning marine debris? The parent of a student in this teacher’s class said, “Teachers teach best when they know their subject deeply. This scientific study will deeplly enhance your knowledge, allowing you to bring back first-hand information on the devastation caused by marine debris — and more importantly, what students can do to help. Sea turtles are a perfect subject because they are compelling animals that students really relate to. Having a teacher who is an expert will allow this class of students to adopt this issue as its own, for in-depth study and action.”

“When teaching, I often push scientific field work as an employment opportunity and a way to make a difference. This fellowship makes me walk the talk,” said an Oakland teacher, leaving today on a Fund for Teachers fellowship to enhance elementary science lessons on marine debris. For three weeks, she will tour the Bocas Del Toro Turtle hatchery in Panama, join the Turneffe Sea Turtle Research project in Belize and visit Glover’s Reef, aslo in Belize, to explore the sea turtle habitat and dialogue with leading world experts on sea turtles and marine preservation efforts. Throughout her fellowship, she will document, film, sketch, photograph, research and write about the experience to author a narrative journal and short video for her students at Peralta Elementary in Oakland, CA.

“This fellowship is an opportunity for me to have the luxury of studying with top scientists who are passionate about an environmental issue that is close to my heart — marine debris. I will acquire a great deal of specific information in a few short weeks. This knowledge and experience will enrich a program that I’ve worked very hard to establish concerning debris in the San Francisco Bay. Moreover, it will help me answer the questions with students:

  1. Why are sea turtles important to sustaining healthy marine ecosystems?
  2. How does the health of the sea turtle impact marine ecosystems?
  3. What does the sea turtle mean to our global ecosystem?
  4. What is happening to protect sea turtles?
  5. What pollutants are particularly detrimental to sea turtles?
  6. What local/international actions are being taken concerning marine debris?

The parent of a student in this teacher’s class said, “Teachers teach best when they know their subject deeply. This scientific study will deeplly enhance your knowledge, allowing you to bring back first-hand information on the devastation caused by marine debris — and more importantly, what students can do to help. Sea turtles are a perfect subject because they are compelling animals that students really relate to. Having a teacher who is an expert will allow this class of students to adopt this issue as its own, for in-depth study and action.”

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A teacher at Houston’s Northbrook Middle School begins an emotional Fund for Teachers fellowship today researching the Holocaust in France and Germany. Her mother, a Holocaust survivor, serves as her guide. In her grant application, she shared her inspiration and itinerary: “The passion that inspires my Fund for Teachers fellowship is that I am a second generation Holocaust survivor, having lost my grandparents in the camps. My mom is a concentration camp survivor and my dad a victim of the ghettos. This fellowship offers me the amazing opportunity to accompany my mother on what will likely be her final trip back to Europe to retrace her childhood as she escaped the Nazis by staying one step ahead of them. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make this journey with her and learn from her experiences. “I want to learn first-hand about the Holocaust because I teach 8th grade students about the subject. I started teaching it eight years ago and, to my surprise, my students had never heard about it. I want to be able to show the students where I came from and how this subject impacts all of us. “I tell my students how my grandmother put her daughter on a school bus after hearing the soldiers were coming. (A church sent a bus to pick up children and hid them in a convent.) My mother told me that her mother put her on the bus, kissed her and watched the bus leave. They waved goodbye, never to see one another again. Years later, my mother found out that her mom and dad were sent to Aushwitz. Upon hearing this story, my students get emotional and amazing conversations ensue. Three years ago, when my mother came to school and share her experiences, students became more engaged in her talk than anything I’ve seen in my 25 years of teaching. When the majority of 300 students left the room, eight normally troublesome boys came up to my mom and asked, ‘Miss, may we hug you?’ I will never forget these tough, street-smart boys asking for a hug. It was then I knew I had to continue to be the one at my school to teach students about one of the worst periods in history, the Holocaust.” The mother/daughter team begins their research in France: reviewing artifacts at the Oruvre de Secours in Paris; visiting the convent that hid her mother in Pau; and touring the concentration camp where her mother and grandparents were held in Gurs before her grandparents were sent to Drancy and, ultimately, Auschwitz. The French leg of the fellowship continues at the Tour de Pin farm belonging to the family that sheltered her mother, saving her life. After meeting the family’s descendants for the first time, the teacher and her mom then plan to revisit a castle in Gueret, where her mother also was kept. Their final stop is the town of Oradour, where her mother and aunt hid and the site of a church where Jews were slaughtered. In Germany, the Houston teacher and her mother visit Hameln and Joshbach, cities in which her father lived as a child, as well as the ghetto where he lived before escaping to New York. The fellowship concludes in Ladenburg, where her mother and grandparents were born. She will tour the town on her mother’s arm and read the registry with names of those killed in the Holocaust. “My students will benefit by learning these lessons of the past as warnings for the present and future. Many times, my students feel they are the only race that’s experienced prejudice and injustice,” said the Fellow. “As we start learning about the Holocaust, their whole attitude changes. I see compassion and understanding. This fellowship experienced with my mother will strengthen my ability to implement the Holocaust unit, especially as time goes on and the survivors die. My mom is 80 years old and tells me it is up to me to be the generation that never lets anyone forget. Being a teacher is the greatest way of doing this.”

A teacher at Houston’s Northbrook Middle School begins an emotional Fund for Teachers fellowship today researching the Holocaust in France and Germany. Her mother, a Holocaust survivor, serves as her guide. In her grant application, she shared her inspiration and itinerary:

“The passion that inspires my Fund for Teachers fellowship is that I am a second generation Holocaust survivor, having lost my grandparents in the camps. My mom is a concentration camp survivor and my dad a victim of the ghettos. This fellowship offers me the amazing opportunity to accompany my mother on what will likely be her final trip back to Europe to retrace her childhood as she escaped the Nazis by staying one step ahead of them. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make this journey with her and learn from her experiences.

“I want to learn first-hand about the Holocaust because I teach 8th grade students about the subject. I started teaching it eight years ago and, to my surprise, my students had never heard about it. I want to be able to show the students where I came from and how this subject impacts all of us.

“I tell my students how my grandmother put her daughter on a school bus after hearing the soldiers were coming. (A church sent a bus to pick up children and hid them in a convent.) My mother told me that her mother put her on the bus, kissed her and watched the bus leave. They waved goodbye, never to see one another again. Years later, my mother found out that her mom and dad were sent to Aushwitz. Upon hearing this story, my students get emotional and amazing conversations ensue. Three years ago, when my mother came to school and share her experiences, students became more engaged in her talk than anything I’ve seen in my 25 years of teaching. When the majority of 300 students left the room, eight normally troublesome boys came up to my mom and asked, ‘Miss, may we hug you?’ I will never forget these tough, street-smart boys asking for a hug. It was then I knew I had to continue to be the one at my school to teach students about one of the worst periods in history, the Holocaust.”

The mother/daughter team begins their research in France: reviewing artifacts at the Oruvre de Secours in Paris; visiting the convent that hid her mother in Pau; and touring the concentration camp where her mother and grandparents were held in Gurs before her grandparents were sent to Drancy and, ultimately, Auschwitz.

The French leg of the fellowship continues at the Tour de Pin farm belonging to the family that sheltered her mother, saving her life. After meeting the family’s descendants for the first time, the teacher and her mom then plan to revisit a castle in Gueret, where her mother also was kept. Their final stop is the town of Oradour, where her mother and aunt hid and the site of a church where Jews were slaughtered.

In Germany, the Houston teacher and her mother visit Hameln and Joshbach, cities in which her father lived as a child, as well as the ghetto where he lived before escaping to New York. The fellowship concludes in Ladenburg, where her mother and grandparents were born. She will tour the town on her mother’s arm and read the registry with names of those killed in the Holocaust.

“My students will benefit by learning these lessons of the past as warnings for the present and future. Many times, my students feel they are the only race that’s experienced prejudice and injustice,” said the Fellow. “As we start learning about the Holocaust, their whole attitude changes. I see compassion and understanding. This fellowship experienced with my mother will strengthen my ability to implement the Holocaust unit, especially as time goes on and the survivors die. My mom is 80 years old and tells me it is up to me to be the generation that never lets anyone forget. Being a teacher is the greatest way of doing this.”

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A teaching team from Baton Rouge, LA, embarks today on a three-week odyssey in the footsteps of Leonardo Da Vinci, researching primary texts, artwork, and inventions of the era in an attempt to discern how the political climate of the time influenced the literary and cultural movement in Italy. Armed with new knowledge, they plan to create a Da Vinci engineering project and culture lab that headline Catholic High School’s Real Renaissance Fair. “Our students find it difficult to really understand a figure like Da Vinci beyond his textbook persona. Traveling abroad and literally walking in his footsteps immediately dilutes the icon of Da Vinci the luminary into a more tangibly inspirational man. Seeing Da Vinci in this practical light will give us the opportunity to absorb his story more readily and to present him to our students accessibly. His inspiration grows more profound as his creativity becomes more attainable. Da Vinci, even with the limited resources of his time period and his shifting patrons, was able to accomplish some of the most lasting feats of art, engineering, and science. With limited resources in our home state, we hope to channel da Vinci’s propensity for creating depth from scarcity. This fellowship also gives us the opportunity to work outside of our own comfort zones by collaborating with departments like science, more academically distant from our own. Also, this project increasingly entwines our school and colleagues with the community at large through activities like our Renaissance Fair. And finally, this fellowship provides the rejuvenating power of travel to invigorate the mind, tantalize the eye, and satiate the soul.”

A teaching team from Baton Rouge, LA, embarks today on a three-week odyssey in the footsteps of Leonardo Da Vinci, researching primary texts, artwork, and inventions of the era in an attempt to discern how the political climate of the time influenced the literary and cultural movement in Italy. Armed with new knowledge, they plan to create a Da Vinci engineering project and culture lab that headline Catholic High School’s Real Renaissance Fair.

“Our students find it difficult to really understand a figure like Da Vinci beyond his textbook persona. Traveling abroad and literally walking in his footsteps immediately dilutes the icon of Da Vinci the luminary into a more tangibly inspirational man. Seeing Da Vinci in this practical light will give us the opportunity to absorb his story more readily and to present him to our students accessibly. His inspiration grows more profound as his creativity becomes more attainable. Da Vinci, even with the limited resources of his time period and his shifting patrons, was able to accomplish some of the most lasting feats of art, engineering, and science.

With limited resources in our home state, we hope to channel da Vinci’s propensity for creating depth from scarcity. This fellowship also gives us the opportunity to work outside of our own comfort zones by collaborating with departments like science, more academically distant from our own. Also, this project increasingly entwines our school and colleagues with the community at large through activities like our Renaissance Fair. And finally, this fellowship provides the rejuvenating power of travel to invigorate the mind, tantalize the eye, and satiate the soul.”

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Mandarin Chinese is a hard sell in the Deep South. But that’s not deterring a Fund for Teachers Fellow from Montgomery, AL, who leaves today for China. He will participate in a six-week teacher training program at Nanjing University, focusing on Chinese language pedagogy, classical Chinese and Chinese calligraphy. The goal of his learning is to build a non-Western language program in a conservative region of the United States and incorporate authentic materials into a Mandarin Chinese curriculum that sparks students’ natural curiosity about the Chinese language and culture. “My Fund for Teachers fellowship actually addresses two distinct areas. The first area is my ongoing professional development to become a more skilled and effective Chinese educator. The second area is to enrich the curriculum I am using in the classroom by introducing more authentic materials for my students to learn Mandarin Chinese and about Chinese civilization. The passion that inspires my proposed fellowship is the desire to be an outstanding Mandarin Chinese teacher and continue building a model Mandarin Chinese language program at one of America’s elite public high schools. “I also hope to further inspire my students to work towards understanding this fascinating, challenging, rich language and culture, particularly by incorporating authentic materials into my teaching, that spark students natural curiosity about the world. “It is challenging to build a non- western language program where the community has very limited knowledge of world affairs, but I believe this work is critically important in providing capable students with the global perspective and understanding they need to function competitively in and be productive members of society in their future. There is still a tremendous amount of work to be done to strengthen our program and one key way to do this is to continue strengthening my own content knowledge and practice.”

Mandarin Chinese is a hard sell in the Deep South. But that’s not deterring a Fund for Teachers Fellow from Montgomery, AL, who leaves today for China. He will participate in a six-week teacher training program at Nanjing University, focusing on Chinese language pedagogy, classical Chinese and Chinese calligraphy. The goal of his learning is to build a non-Western language program in a conservative region of the United States and incorporate authentic materials into a Mandarin Chinese curriculum that sparks students’ natural curiosity about the Chinese language and culture.

“My Fund for Teachers fellowship actually addresses two distinct areas. The first area is my ongoing professional development to become a more skilled and effective Chinese educator. The second area is to enrich the curriculum I am using in the classroom by introducing more authentic materials for my students to learn Mandarin Chinese and about Chinese civilization. The passion that inspires my proposed fellowship is the desire to be an outstanding Mandarin Chinese teacher and continue building a model Mandarin Chinese language program at one of America’s elite public high schools.

“I also hope to further inspire my students to work towards understanding this fascinating, challenging, rich language and culture, particularly by incorporating authentic materials into my teaching, that spark students natural curiosity about the world.

“It is challenging to build a non- western language program where the community has very limited knowledge of world affairs, but I believe this work is critically important in providing capable students with the global perspective and understanding they need to function competitively in and be productive members of society in their future. There is still a tremendous amount of work to be done to strengthen our program and one key way to do this is to continue strengthening my own content knowledge and practice.”

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A teacher at Northpoint Expeditionary Learning School hopes to bridge the cultural gap between Northern/Eastern India and Prescott, AZ with his FFT fellowship. He leaves today to connect with musicians, artists, and NGOs in North and East India to research Indian culture and develop a semester-long curriculum culminating in a two-week student travel experience in India. His goal is three-fold: “Ever since I lived in Cambodia, I have wanted to travel to India and research East Indian music and culture, because Indian culture has so greatly impacted Cambodian culture. During the first century A.D., Indian influences revolutionized Cambodian culture, as natives assimilated foreign elements and made them their own. By living and studying with East Indian musicians, I hope to answer the question of whether the Cambodian kse diev and the East Indian tuila share a common ancestry, with a potential progenitor of both carved into the Vaikuntha Perumal Temple in Kanchipuram. A broader piece of learning is documenting which specific ways Indian and Cambodian cultures have interacted and are similar. I will accomplish this by learning songs on the tuila, comparing and notating songs played on the two instruments, and interviewing the musicians and instrument-makers. Interviews with historians and scholars will also be instrumental. Finally, the main goal of my Fellowship—developing a semester-long expedition on Indian culture—will provide a great amount of personal gratification. Simply put, my Watson Fellowship in Cambodia was the most satisfying experience of my professional career. The opportunity to broaden my own horizons, immerse myself in a new culture, and bring that work full circle again—by writing a new curriculum and leading an student trip to India—is an immensely exciting prospect. I passionately believe in the importance of traditional cultures. This has led to my commitment to multicultural education, with a primary goal of mine being the development of a global awareness, knowledge, and commitment to traditional cultures in my students. During this fellowship, I will investigate one of the most important interests of my life, and I will broaden the horizons of one of the driving forces behind my career in education.”

A teacher at Northpoint Expeditionary Learning School hopes to bridge the cultural gap between Northern/Eastern India and Prescott, AZ with his FFT fellowship. He leaves today to connect with musicians, artists, and NGOs in North and East India to research Indian culture and develop a semester-long curriculum culminating in a two-week student travel experience in India. His goal is three-fold:

“Ever since I lived in Cambodia, I have wanted to travel to India and research East Indian music and culture, because Indian culture has so greatly impacted Cambodian culture. During the first century A.D., Indian influences revolutionized Cambodian culture, as natives assimilated foreign elements and made them their own. By living and studying with East Indian musicians, I hope to answer the question of whether the Cambodian kse diev and the East Indian tuila share a common ancestry, with a potential progenitor of both carved into the Vaikuntha Perumal Temple in Kanchipuram.

A broader piece of learning is documenting which specific ways Indian and Cambodian cultures have interacted and are similar. I will accomplish this by learning songs on the tuila, comparing and notating songs played on the two instruments, and interviewing the musicians and instrument-makers. Interviews with historians and scholars will also be instrumental.

Finally, the main goal of my Fellowship—developing a semester-long expedition on Indian culture—will provide a great amount of personal gratification. Simply put, my Watson Fellowship in Cambodia was the most satisfying experience of my professional career. The opportunity to broaden my own horizons, immerse myself in a new culture, and bring that work full circle again—by writing a new curriculum and leading an student trip to India—is an immensely exciting prospect.

I passionately believe in the importance of traditional cultures. This has led to my commitment to multicultural education, with a primary goal of mine being the development of a global awareness, knowledge, and commitment to traditional cultures in my students. During this fellowship, I will investigate one of the most important interests of my life, and I will broaden the horizons of one of the driving forces behind my career in education.”

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Charles Darwin was a middle schooler once, too, you know. A Louisiana teacher leaves today for her fellowship in England to provide seventh graders at the LSU Lab School a relevant introduction to the topic of evolution. For ten days, she will photograph and video the environs of Darwin’s childhood and young adulthood and walk in his footsteps in the countryside of England, Wales, and Cambridge University. “Darwin was not always the bearded man that my students say looks like Santa Claus. He is a fascinating character and not at all what my students consider a stereotypical scientist. I have literally seen my students sit up in their seats and lean forward when I begin to tell stories of his childhood and teenage adventures. Darwin was unsuccessful at much of his schooling because he always preferred to be outside hunting, fishing, and collecting insects. His father worried he would become one of the “idle rich” and packed him off to school in Scotland. My students can relate to this indecisive youth who struggles against parental pressure. He had a very interesting love life and courted a young woman named Fanny Owen. However Fanny did not want to play second fiddle to his beetle-collecting obsession. After she broke off their relationship, Darwin married his first cousin, Emma, and fathered ten children. Stories like this about Darwin’s personal life are a wonderful hook for my students’ interest. Once hooked on Darwin’s life, it is much easier for them to start thinking about his ideas. Darwin’s personal biography makes him very approachable and shows how much he struggled with the social effects of his ideas even within his own family. Putting him in his time and context also enlightens students about change in cultures over time. Because they already know the story ends with Darwin becoming one of the most famous scientists of all time, they are immediately hooked.”

Charles Darwin was a middle schooler once, too, you know. A Louisiana teacher leaves today for her fellowship in England to provide seventh graders at the LSU Lab School a relevant introduction to the topic of evolution. For ten days, she will photograph and video the environs of Darwin’s childhood and young adulthood and walk in his footsteps in the countryside of England, Wales, and Cambridge University.

“Darwin was not always the bearded man that my students say looks like Santa Claus. He is a fascinating character and not at all what my students consider a stereotypical scientist. I have literally seen my students sit up in their seats and lean forward when I begin to tell stories of his childhood and teenage adventures. Darwin was unsuccessful at much of his schooling because he always preferred to be outside hunting, fishing, and collecting insects. His father worried he would become one of the “idle rich” and packed him off to school in Scotland. My students can relate to this indecisive youth who struggles against parental pressure. He had a very interesting love life and courted a young woman named Fanny Owen. However Fanny did not want to play second fiddle to his beetle-collecting obsession. After she broke off their relationship, Darwin married his first cousin, Emma, and fathered ten children. Stories like this about Darwin’s personal life are a wonderful hook for my students’ interest. Once hooked on Darwin’s life, it is much easier for them to start thinking about his ideas. Darwin’s personal biography makes him very approachable and shows how much he struggled with the social effects of his ideas even within his own family. Putting him in his time and context also enlightens students about change in cultures over time. Because they already know the story ends with Darwin becoming one of the most famous scientists of all time, they are immediately hooked.”

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With her Fund for Teachers grant, a Washington DC preK teacher is traveling…across town…to obtain obtain Level 1 yoga instruction certification & incorporate new knowledge into attention-focusing activities with her students at Marie Reed Elementary School. “A major objective for the development and learning of young children is the progression of their physical and social-emotional dimensions, both of which cannot be considered in a vacuum but rather in constant interaction with their language and cognitive development. My preschool classroom necessarily involves movement and fun, but at the same time attention, focus and structured routines. I plan to learn ways to use movement consciously to improve the community-building and attention focusing group activities I plan for my students. To do so, I will deepen my knowledge of anatomy, yoga postures (asanas), breathing techniques and how to implement these through music and games with young children.” “Another key to the appropriateness of this course is that I teach in a dual language classroom. In this context, kinesthetic support is vital for students to improve their understanding of the language content when being exposed to a foreign language for the first time.”

With her Fund for Teachers grant, a Washington DC preK teacher is traveling…across town…to obtain obtain Level 1 yoga instruction certification & incorporate new knowledge into attention-focusing activities with her students at Marie Reed Elementary School.

“A major objective for the development and learning of young children is the progression of their physical and social-emotional dimensions, both of which cannot be considered in a vacuum but rather in constant interaction with their language and cognitive development. My preschool classroom necessarily involves movement and fun, but at the same time attention, focus and structured routines. I plan to learn ways to use movement consciously to improve the community-building and attention focusing group activities I plan for my students. To do so, I will deepen my knowledge of anatomy, yoga postures (asanas), breathing techniques and how to implement these through music and games with young children.”

“Another key to the appropriateness of this course is that I teach in a dual language classroom. In this context, kinesthetic support is vital for students to improve their understanding of the language content when being exposed to a foreign language for the first time.”

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A teaching team from Norman, OK, proves that a Fund for Teachers fellowship doesn’t require travel to distant lands. Crossing the Red River and heading south, three teachers representing Eisenhower Elementary will meet up in San Antonio, TX, to participate in Eric Jensen’s Teaching With the Brain in Mind workshop. They designed this fellowship to learn effective strategies for increasing student engagement, motivation and achievement through research- and brain-based teaching techniques. “New research in cognition and development suggests promising new strategies that we can share with fellow teachers and administrators through modeling, mentoring and presentation. These research-based strategies have incredible promise for dealing with a wide variety of learners that we encounter at the elementary level.  “Eric Jensen is a leading researcher in the neuroscience of learning and offers proven insights into ways that teachers and students can work smarter, not harder. As we aproach the challenge of implementing Common Core, this is an excellent opportunity to reconsider our teaching practices and techniques. Brain-based learning promises to enhance student engagement and achievement, both of which are critical in our standards-based classrooms.”

A teaching team from Norman, OK, proves that a Fund for Teachers fellowship doesn’t require travel to distant lands. Crossing the Red River and heading south, three teachers representing Eisenhower Elementary will meet up in San Antonio, TX, to participate in Eric Jensen’s Teaching With the Brain in Mind workshop. They designed this fellowship to learn effective strategies for increasing student engagement, motivation and achievement through research- and brain-based teaching techniques.

“New research in cognition and development suggests promising new strategies that we can share with fellow teachers and administrators through modeling, mentoring and presentation. These research-based strategies have incredible promise for dealing with a wide variety of learners that we encounter at the elementary level. 

“Eric Jensen is a leading researcher in the neuroscience of learning and offers proven insights into ways that teachers and students can work smarter, not harder. As we aproach the challenge of implementing Common Core, this is an excellent opportunity to reconsider our teaching practices and techniques. Brain-based learning promises to enhance student engagement and achievement, both of which are critical in our standards-based classrooms.”

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An Owasso, OK, teacher is about to get her kicks on Route 66 - meaning, she will, with her Fund for Teachers grant, travel the western portion of the historic stretch to: explore fossils at the National Petrified Wood Forest, unravel the geological history revealed through rock layers at the Grand Canyon, and investigage the use of hydroelectric power at Hoover Dam. She designed this fellowship to increase her Earth Science knowledge and enhance elementary school lessons with anecdotes and artifacts. To make the most of her experience, she’ll be EarthCaching using a GPS device.  “The key questions I plan to explore are: How can land formations and fossils reveal the earth’s history?  In what ways do scientists study earth landforms and fossils? How can water be used to shape land formations and create energy? I am passionate about our earth’s history. After completing my fellowship and amassing photos, rocks, pencil rubbings and video, my students will have scientific evidence about the earth’s history in their classroom and a teacher with a new wealth of knowledge!”

An Owasso, OK, teacher is about to get her kicks on Route 66 - meaning, she will, with her Fund for Teachers grant, travel the western portion of the historic stretch to: explore fossils at the National Petrified Wood Forest, unravel the geological history revealed through rock layers at the Grand Canyon, and investigage the use of hydroelectric power at Hoover Dam. She designed this fellowship to increase her Earth Science knowledge and enhance elementary school lessons with anecdotes and artifacts. To make the most of her experience, she’ll be EarthCaching using a GPS device. 

“The key questions I plan to explore are:

  1. How can land formations and fossils reveal the earth’s history? 
  2. In what ways do scientists study earth landforms and fossils?
  3. How can water be used to shape land formations and create energy?

I am passionate about our earth’s history. After completing my fellowship and amassing photos, rocks, pencil rubbings and video, my students will have scientific evidence about the earth’s history in their classroom and a teacher with a new wealth of knowledge!”

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A teacher from the Academy for Science and Agriculture in Vadnais Heights, MN, will walk with the elephants for the next two weeks on her Fund for Teachers fellowship. Joining a conservation effort in Namibia led by the Elephant Human Relations Aid, she will build water points for the mammals, help teach farmers skills of cohabitation, and research elephant movements. Her experiences will help develop students’ understanding of the relationship between humans and their surroundings and create a service learning aspect of an environmental reading/writing unit. “A priority at my school is to connect students with their surroundings; as part of that initiative, I devote four weeks to an environmental unit. We currently study regional authors and conservation efforts, as well as classic naturalist writers such as Thoreau and Emerson. For the final project, students write letters to a local politician, business or agency about an environmental issue. I’ve observed that most students sense feel they don’t have the power to make a difference and some don’t even send their letter. I want to prevent this perception of powerlessness and connect students with the larger world around them. “Througout my time in Namibia, I will form relationships with people of different cultures, learn about conservation efforts in a foreign country and form an understanding of the subtleties that lead to a peaceful cohabitation between humans and their wild surroundings. I can then share my experiences with students and infuse my first-hand global experience, making learning more relevant, personal and passionate. I plan to use this fellowships as a model service-learning project to inspire students with a shared sense of global connectedness, responsibility, and activism.”

A teacher from the Academy for Science and Agriculture in Vadnais Heights, MN, will walk with the elephants for the next two weeks on her Fund for Teachers fellowship. Joining a conservation effort in Namibia led by the Elephant Human Relations Aid, she will build water points for the mammals, help teach farmers skills of cohabitation, and research elephant movements. Her experiences will help develop students’ understanding of the relationship between humans and their surroundings and create a service learning aspect of an environmental reading/writing unit.

“A priority at my school is to connect students with their surroundings; as part of that initiative, I devote four weeks to an environmental unit. We currently study regional authors and conservation efforts, as well as classic naturalist writers such as Thoreau and Emerson. For the final project, students write letters to a local politician, business or agency about an environmental issue. I’ve observed that most students sense feel they don’t have the power to make a difference and some don’t even send their letter. I want to prevent this perception of powerlessness and connect students with the larger world around them.

“Througout my time in Namibia, I will form relationships with people of different cultures, learn about conservation efforts in a foreign country and form an understanding of the subtleties that lead to a peaceful cohabitation between humans and their wild surroundings. I can then share my experiences with students and infuse my first-hand global experience, making learning more relevant, personal and passionate. I plan to use this fellowships as a model service-learning project to inspire students with a shared sense of global connectedness, responsibility, and activism.”

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