BTU is a proud local partner of Fund for Teachers, a national organization dedicated to enriching the personal and professional growth of teachers by recognizing and supporting them as they identify and pursue opportunities around the globe that will have the greatest impact:
- on their practice
- the academic lives of their students and
- on their school communities.
2019 Boston Teachers Union-Fund for Teachers Fellows
Congratulations to BTU’s 2019 Fund for Teachers Fellows, a diverse group of 19 educators from 13 schools who will travel to 15 countries on five continents this summer. We wish them happy and safe travels filled with learning that will reinvigorate their professional practice and have important impacts on their students and schools. We can’t wait to learn from all of them next fall!
Fellow(s) | School | Destination | Project Description |
---|---|---|---|
Danielle Murray | Another Course To College | Ireland | Document how Ireland has undergone a radical social change in the way LGBTQ people are viewed, both socially and legally, to understand how a country embraces a community it once persecuted and model those actions to make the school community more affirming, inclusive, and proud. |
Rebecca Mulligan | Boston International Newcomers Academy | Dominican Republic, Haiti | Complete immersive language programs in the Dominican Republic and Haiti to compare how the islands' intertwined histories and cultures are lived and facilitate conversations between recently-arrived immigrant students in an effort to create a unified school community. |
Enkeleda Gjoni | Boston International Newcomers Academy | Greece | Investigate the connection between math, history, and art through research of the Parthenon, Acropolis, theaters, and churches in Greece to deepen knowledge of Greek mathematicians and founders of math (such as Euclid, Pythagoras, and Archimedes) and create hands-on, multidisciplinary projects for students and the wider educational community. |
Matthew Grimes | Charlestown High | Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam | Gather in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia artifacts about the human costs of the Vietnam War to engage students in thinking about when, if ever, it is acceptable for the US to use military force. |
Caroline Ballou | East Boston High | Pennsylvania and Virginia | Deepen restorative justice facilitation skills through courses at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, PA, and the International Institute for Restorative Practices in Bethlehem, PA, to provide students suffering from Adverse Childhood Experiences the strategies, time and space to navigate challenges and actively find resolutions to problems. |
Samuel Texeira | Henderson K-12 Inclusion School | Brazil | Explore in the America's largest black city - Salvador da Bahia, Brazil - the broader impacts of racial identity through African and colonial influence on the formation of culture for a unit on African diaspora outside of the United States and a reading unit plan for boys of color based on the novel "Capitães da Areia." |
Jennifer Mohr | Hurley K-8 | Mexico | Volunteer at El Rancho Ecológico El Refugio in San Dioniso, Baja California, to gain a deeper understanding of sustainable living and help dual-language kindergarten students learn the importance of protecting natural resources through the design and construction of a school garden. |
Laura Rosenfield | John D. O'Bryant | Greece | Explore Greece’s role in the European and international response to the Syrian and African refugee crises to create lesson plans and a student-centered project that delves into current events in the broader world. |
Shanae Paulino | Madison Park | Panama | Learn methodologies for language acquisition and instruction through an immersion program in Panama to better understand nuances of the language and transfer learning into a more culturally-reflective ESL curriculum. |
Jenna Hadley Gross, Cleata Brown, Megan Walker, and Daniel Flannery | Mission Hill K-8 | China | Research the history and culture of China through its most iconic landmarks to inform a three-month, school-wide study of Ancient China that addresses how past inventions and accomplishments impact our present lives. |
Joshua Benjamin | Russell Elementary | England | Observe across England four primary schools that prioritize oral language and classroom conversation to illuminate instructional strategies that support discourse skills of English Language Learners with low levels of English proficiency. |
Seth Peterson and John Abbott | Snowden International | Colombia | Attend intensive Spanish classes in Medellin, Columbia, while also researching the country's literary, musical, and political traditions to better meet needs of the school's growing population of Colombian students and their families. |
Sean Hudson | Snowden International | Brazil | Attend the International Conference on Science and Technology in Rio de Janeiro and afterwards observe schools and ecologically-significant sites in northern Brazil to expose to students the salient issue of climate change and the international policy needed to address it on a national and global scale. |
Jorgelina Abbate-Vaughn | Tobin K-8 | Tunisia | Learn basic Standard Arabic in a language/cultural immersion program at the Center Sidi Bou Said for Languages in Tunisia to make curricular connections with and for young Arabic speakers and model for students of non-Arabic backgrounds how to value difference as an asset. |
Ashley Clerge | UP Academy Holland | Dominican Republic | Refresh language proficiency at the Don Quijote Language School in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, while also observing the culture from which an increasing number of students arrive, to more clearly understand the strengths and knowledge they bring to the classroom as Newcomer English language learners. |