Advertise on podcast: Fund for Teachers - The Podcast

When considering what education looked like for members of Native Tribes of North America, the conversation falls along the timeline of pre- and post-colonization. Prior to Westward Expansion, young children primarily learned by observing elders, through rituals and oral histories and always in community. As we know, however, those communities were decimated or displaced. In the case of the Cherokee Nation, the forcible removal from their homelands in the form of a forced march of more than 1,200 miles, concluded in an unfamiliar landscape, with thousands dead, and survivors facing deep political and social divisions. One shared conviction remained: that education would be essential to building a stable and successful future. The Cherokee Public Schools Act of 1841 established a public school system serving students of all ages. Today many tribes, as sovereign nations, have education departments, laws, codes, standards, language reclamation projects and, in the case of the Navajo, independent curriculum that includes a dual-language program. The Wampanoag Tribe, from which Tisquantum (better known as Squanto) emerged to help settlers from The Mayflower, has occupied the land around Drewicz Elementary School in Lynn, MA, for 12,000 years. Honoring this heritage, and also the heritage of her first-generation third graders, has become a passion of Kaylin Gangi and, consequently, was the focus of her Fund for Teachers fellowship this summer. Today we learn from Kay Gangi, a relatively-new teacher and first time Fund for Teacher grant applicant, fresh from a tour of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in Kayenta, AZ. Kay was in the middle of her cross country road trip -- convening with major Indigenous Nations and experiencing museums and cultural centers. But she was 100 percent energized from her learning to date and excited to share about it why she believes it is her responsibility to curriculum to more authentically teach students about the Indigenous Peoples whose histories have shaped the land and communities in which we live today. Learn more about Darius Coombes, Kay's friend and colleague from the Wapanaog Tribe, here. Fund for Teachers is grateful for the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation which funded this particular fellowship. Learn more about Fund for Teachers on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages and apply for YOUR self-designed fellowship at fundforteachers.org. Music on podcast: Scott Harris: Clear Progress

Today's episode is a break from our normally scheduled podcast. Because today's guest is breaking the mold of how Fund for Teachers Fellows' engage their students from a fellowship.  Today, we are learning from Sabina Sully, middle school teacher at Patterson Park Public Charter School in Baltimore, MD. Sabina used her $5,000 Fund for Teachers grant to collect data, photographs, and interviews across Iceland’s volcanic landscapes, renewable energy sites, and Arctic ecosystems to create a hands-on climate change and interconnections unit that engages middle school students as scientists and stewards. After watching her initial Instagram posts @pppcs_studyabroad, and being somewhat mystified (in the best way) at her energy and engagement with all she’s experiencing and learning, we knew she had to be our next guest. Listen in and you’ll see why… Fund for Teachers is grateful for the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation which funded this particular fellowship. Learn more about Fund for Teachers on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages and apply for YOUR self-designed fellowship at fundforteachers.org. Music on podcast: Scott Harris: Clear Progress

Champion of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, Maximilien Robespierre famously declared, “The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is keeping them ignorant.” Although Robespierre ultimately met the guillotine, his belief in the transformative power of education resonates with Jeff Glikman. Jeff knows that access to education alone doesn't guarantee success, but it does create opportunity—the same kind of opportunity Fund for Teachers gave him this summer to explore the history and legacy of the French Revolution firsthand. Today we're joined by FFT Fellow Jeff Glikman, a teacher at Traverse City High School in Traverse City, MI. We caught up with Jeff shortly after he returned from his fellowship, which took him to France, Belgium, and Spain to experience the art, landmarks, and historical sites connected to the French Revolution. Now, he's beginning to develop an inquiry-based curriculum designed to strengthen high school students' critical thinking, evidence-based reasoning, and understanding of the Revolution's enduring legacy—particularly for learners with diverse needs. But before we talk about what's next, Jeff shared stories from his travels that bring to life the historical and cultural forces behind the French Revolution's rallying cry of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité—and how those ideals continue to shape the questions his students explore today. Learn more about Fund for Teachers on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages and apply for YOUR self-designed fellowship at fundforteachers.org. Music on podcast: Scott Harris: Clear Progress

President Theodore Roosevelt said, "…a special and peculiar debt of gratitude is owing to the men and women who are engaged in teaching, who are engaged in educating the body, mind and soul of the younger generation…” His Presidential Library is opened this month in western North Dakota (fittingly on July the Fourth) and just days after Eric Sullenberger drove though the Badlands, a rugged landscape Roosevelt famously credited with shaping his life, once saying he never would have become president had it not been for his experiences there.  Eric’s experiences were equally formative, although his constituents are every science student in every science subject in a rural Ohio high school. He crafted his fellowship/road trip to study interconnected geological formations and analyze volcanic, tectonic, and erosional processes. And along the way, he encountered the enduring legacy of TR himself. Learn more about Fund for Teachers on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages and apply for YOUR self-designed fellowship at fundforteachers.org. Music on podcast: Scott Harris: Clear Progress

July has been defined by two stories: the World Cup and America’s 250th anniversary. One has reminded us of what unites people across cultures—the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, and, apparently, a shared appreciation for ranch dressing. The other has prompted us to look back in order to move forward. At the intersection of those two moments is the Fund for Teachers fellowship of Chandler Brooks-Davis and Chausie Neal, teachers at The Howard School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Their fellowship took them to Greece and Italy to explore the cultures that shaped democracy, with the goal of helping students understand not only what democracy was intended to be, but how they can strengthen it where that ideal falls short of lived experience. (Apologies for the slight warbling of sound at times. Athenian WiFI tried its best!) You can follow Chan and Cherie's odyssey on Instagram @postcardsfromagora Learn more about Fund for Teachers on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages and apply for YOUR self-designed fellowship at fundforteachers.org. Music on podcast: Scott Harris: Clear Progress

In 2015, United Nations member states adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) designed to end poverty, protect the planet, and create a more prosperous future for all by 2030. Together, these goals address some of humanity’s most urgent challenges, including hunger, poverty, gender equality, health and well-being, and climate change. As then-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon famously stated, “There is no ‘Plan B’ because we do not have a ‘Planet B.’ We have to work and galvanize our action.” Fund for Teachers Fellow Bryan Peters couldn’t agree more. At Mathers High School—the most diverse campus in Chicago Public Schools, where students represent more than 140 nations and speak over 60 languages—Bryan uses the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for teaching recent immigrants and refugees. To deepen this work and empower students to see themselves as changemakers, he designed a Fund for Teachers fellowship exploring social and environmental sustainability initiatives across urban and rural Brazil. Along the way, he sought insights and inspiration to bring back to his classroom—and we caught up with him in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest. Learn more about Fund for Teachers on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages and apply for YOUR self-designed fellowship at fundforteachers.org. Music on podcast: Scott Harris: Clear Progress

Reidsville, Georgia, is a small town covering just 7.7 square miles, about an hour west of Savannah. According to Local Observer Daily, it is best known as a quintessential Southern farming community and as home to the Georgia State Prison. Agriculture—especially the cultivation of Vidalia onions—drives the local economy, and many of Sarah Jacques’ students and their families are part of that workforce. But not many of those students speak English. Which makes Sarah’s task of teaching them sixth grade science a challenge – to say the least. But Sarah’s main priority is to make these young people, and their families, feel seen and safe. And to do that, she needed to learn Spanish so they could be heard.  Today, we kick off our seventh season with one of the first 2026 grant recipients to begin their fellowships. Just one week after school ended, Sarah embarked on a 7-week Spanish immersion program and homestay in San Pedro, Guatemala to strengthen linguistic skills, better support ELL students and foster a greater sense of interconnectedness throughout the school community. Early posts on her Instagram, suggested that Sarah’s one-on-one language lessons were every bit as demanding as the classroom overlooking Lake Atitlán was breathtaking. We invited her to tell us about the experience so far; she agreed; and, thankfully, her Wi-Fi cooperated… for the most part. Follow Sarah's fellowship on Instagram @science.sin.barreras. Learn more about Fund for Teachers on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages and apply for YOUR self-designed fellowship at fundforteachers.org. Music on podcast: Scott Harris: Clear Progress

The theme of Earth Day 2026 is “Our Power. Our Planet.” According to earthday.org, this theme is “not a political statement, but a commitment to stewardship, resilience, and shared accountability — a call for every individual, community, and sector to use their power in service of the planet we all depend on.” For Krissy Ponden, a teacher at The Unquowa School in Fairfield, Connecticut, that sector is middle school students — and that power is art. Last summer, with a $5,000 Fund for Teachers grant, Krissy, participated in the Kokrobitey Institute’s Textile Waste Driven Design Workshop in Accra, Ghana. There, she explored how fast fashion waste impacts the environment — and how art and design can transform discarded textiles into meaningful, sustainable creations. She’s since brought those insights back to her classroom, crafting lessons that inspire students to see both art and environmental responsibility in new ways. And, as with all of our fellows, that journey was just the beginning. Following are links mentioned in the podcast: Krissy's post-fellowship reportingArtist Bubu OgisiOgisi's global brand IAMISIGOConnecticut artist Carlos Bautista BiernnayKrissy's class Instagram - @theartpondLearn more about Fund for Teachers on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages and apply for YOUR self-designed fellowship at fundforteachers.org. Music on podcast: Scott Harris: Clear Progress

Eighty-one years ago, on January 27, 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in occupied Poland—a place where more than one million people were murdered as part of the Nazis’ so-called “Final Solution.” In November 2005, the United Nations designated January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a time to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and the millions of others targeted by Nazi persecution. According to the United Nations, the word remembrance was chosen deliberately—to dignify victims and survivors and to keep alive the memory of the communities, traditions, loved ones, and lives the Nazis sought to erase. But remembrance is impossible without knowledge. We cannot remember what happened if we are never taught about it or taught factually. Last summer, two Fund for Teachers Fellows—educators from different states—found themselves standing side by side at Auschwitz and at multiple sites across the European theater of World War II. Their purpose was not only to deepen their own understanding of history, but to lead inquiry that fosters critical thinking, awareness, and action—both now and in the future. Today, we’re learning from Jody Rohweller-Kocur, a teacher at Highland Park High School in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Jenai Sheffels, a teacher at Tesla STEM High School in Redmond, Washington. Independently, both were awarded Fund for Teachers grants to participate in a program co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas’ and the Humanus Network titled The Power of Place: 2025 European Summer Institute for Holocaust Educators, which took them to Austria, Poland, and Italy. As Jody and I waited for Jenai to join our Zoom call, I asked how she was doing in Saint Paul—where earlier that day, in neighboring Minneapolis, ICE detained a five-year-old boy and his father while they were walking home from preschool. Hearing about the lengths to which Jody and her colleagues go to teach, protect, and care for their students opened the door to a larger conversation about perpetrators, bystanders, and upstanders—a conversation that feels, tragically, more urgent than ever. Learn more about Fund for Teachers on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages and apply for YOUR self-designed fellowship at fundforteachers.org. Music on podcast: Scott Harris: Clear Progress

As the fall semester speeds into winter break, Amanda Hinrichs’ fifth graders at Hebron Avenue School in Glastonbury, CT, are pretty worked up. They’re stamping their feet and making bold hand gestures with eyes bulging and tongues out. And Amanda is loving every second. Her music students are writing and performing their own “haka,” a Maori tradition that Amanda observed all across New Zealand on her Fund for Teachers grant this summer. Amanda is a 25-year veteran teacher of music but recently faced an instrumental issue. The state of Connecticut started mandating play at the kindergarten level and permitting teachers to utilize play-based learning in grades 1-5. This change coincided with a personal shift – the decision to intentionally interject more world cultures into her curriculum. After reprising her initial Fund for Teachers proposal that was not awarded, this past summer she used a $5,000 grant to research New Zealand's Maori culture through museums, cultural performances, and living villages, while also consulting experts in play-based learning. Learn more about Fund for Teachers on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages and apply for YOUR self-designed fellowship at fundforteachers.org. Music on podcast: Scott Harris: Clear Progress

In the midst of the Dust Bowl—an agricultural catastrophe that decimated crops and devastated the livelihoods of thousands of Oklahomans—President Franklin D. Roosevelt warned, “The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.” Fueled by a lack of understanding about sustainable land management and the heightened demand for food during World War I, once-fertile plains were transformed into barren deserts—a tragedy immortalized in Dorothea Lange’s iconic “Migrant Mother” photograph and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Nearly a century later, educators Darci and Seth Reeves are working to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself. At Latta High School in Ada, OK– approximately an hour and a half southeast of Oklahoma City, they’re teaching students how to care for both their land and their health through agricultural science, Family and Consumer Sciences, and the Future Farmers of America program. This summer, their mission gained new momentum through a Fund for Teachers fellowship—becoming part of the ongoing solution to sustainable agriculture and community well-being. (Learn more about Seth and Darci's learning from their post-fellowship reports...) This fellowship was generously funded by the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation, which supports innovative people working in field-based science, art and craft, teaching and protection of the natural world. Learn more about Fund for Teachers on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages and apply for YOUR self-designed fellowship at fundforteachers.org. Music on podcast: Scott Harris: Clear Progress

Rudyard Kipling penned the words, “East is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet.” Except in the case of Fund for Teachers Fellows Natasha Alston and Denise Carter-Mataboge.  Natasha teaches at Mountain Pointe High School in Phoenix, AZ, and Denise teaches at the Neighborhood Charter School: Harlem, NY. They didn’t even know each other a year ago. But they DID know they wanted to teach African American History in a way neither of them experienced as students. Today, we are learning from “Team Sankofa,” the name Denise and Natasha gave their Fund for Teachers partnership that used a $10,000 grant to explore the life of William Tucker, tracing his origin story from the first slave ship landing in North America back to the colonized country of Angola. Sankofa is a word in the Twi language of Ghana that means “to go back and get;” but Natasha and Denise prefer the interpretation used by the Akan people of Ghana which is "it is not wrong to go back for that which has been forgotten.”  Toni Morrison writes in the preface of Beloved, "To render enslavement as a personal experience, language must get out of the way." Denise and Natasha took Morrison’s words to heart, using their grant to push beyond cursory narratives in textbooks and bear witness to enslavement from its starting point in Africa. The following conversation with Team Sankofa centered around their experiences and deepened motivation to reclaim forgotten chapters of history often omitted from American education and ensure that these crucial early stories of our nation are preserved and shared with students. (Click here for more information on The William Tucker 1624 Society and here for the USA Today article Natasha references on the podcast.) Learn more about Fund for Teachers on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages and apply for YOUR self-designed fellowship at fundforteachers.org. Music on podcast: Scott Harris: Clear Progress

The Way of St. James, perhaps more commonly known as the Camino de Santiago, has been since the 9th century an ambulatory avenue for reflection. The ancient path that stretches from the French Pyrenees to Spain’s Santiago de Compestela, was first traversed by Roman tradesmen, then Christians seeking “indulgences” from the Medieval Church. Today, various paths associated with the Camino are walked by more than 200,000 people a year as a form of spiritual, emotional and/or physical exercise. The Camino de Santiago has been a topic in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises,” James Michener’s “Iberia,” Ken Follet’s “Pillars of the Earth,” and the 2010 film “The Way,” written and directed by Emilio Estevez and starring his father, Martin Sheen.  This summer, it was also the subject of Chandler Wilson’s Fund for Teachers fellowship.  In her fourth year of teaching, Chandler also teaches evening art classes to all ages across the greater Oklahoma City area. She previously worked in the child welfare continuum and that work continues to inform how she teaches the power of art in social emotional development and community building. We caught up with Chandler in Santiago de Compestela the day after completing her 406 mile fellowship… Learn more about Fund for Teachers on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages and apply for YOUR self-designed fellowship at fundforteachers.org. Music on podcast: Scott Harris: Clear Progress

Winston Churchill said, “We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which through the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeus Corpus, Trial by Jury and the English Common Law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.” Agreed to by King John on June 15, 1215, the Magna Carta attests that the king is subject to the rule of law and documents the liberties held by “free men.” Eight hundred and ten years later – to the day – Fund for Teachers Fellow John Fehr was in the United Kingdom hunting down the four extant, original copies of the Magna Carta. The same time that multiple “No Kings” protests were held across America.  Pretty timely, I’d say.  Welcome to this July 4th edition of Fund for Teachers – The Podcast. I’m Carrie Caton Smith and the goal of each episode is to elevate teachers as the inspiring architects of their careers, classrooms and school communities. Today, we’re kicking off the 2025 “Fellow Season” as I like to call it, by learning from Jeff Fehr, teacher at Humboldt Middle / High School in Humboldt, Kansas. Jeff teaches Geography, Kansas History and American History and encourages his students to find personal connections to history to find their path forward IN history. But how does one help students find personal connections to an 810-year-old document? For Jeff, the answer was a Fund for Teachers fellowship. We caught up with Jeff in Salisbury, England, after seeing two copies of the Magna Carta in Salisbury and Lincoln, but before seeing the final two copies at the British Library in London. He shared with us his experiences (which includes goosebumps and a few tears) which he plans to incorporate into the development of project-based learning in social studies, with a focus on making historical concepts meaningful and relatable for students by linking the past to current issues around rights, governance, and justice. Learn more about Fund for Teachers on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages and apply for YOUR self-designed fellowship at fundforteachers.org. Music on podcast: Scott Harris: Clear Progress

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… Show Notes: City Project 8th Grade Organization Outline.pdf Primary and Secondary SourcesCity Project 8th Grade.pdf MS The Economic Impact of Slavery on New Orleans Montgomery and Washington DC.pdf Sample Works Cited City Project.pdf Final In Class EssayCity Project 8th Grade.pdf Learn more about Fund for Teachers on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn pages and apply for YOUR self-designed fellowship at fundforteachers.org. Music on podcast: Scott Harris: Clear Progress