dec-jan

EXPLORING

DECEMBER 2018–JANUARY 2019 CEA ADVISOR 11

Liz Whiteley Goodwin Elementary School, Mansfield | Azerbaijan

Music teacher Liz Whiteley discovered the Fund for Teachers after hearing about a team of educators who traveled to China last year. She and two colleagues—Julie Frascarelli, of Annie E. Vinton Elementary School, and Katherine Smallidge, of Southeast Elementary School—decided to apply for their own challenge. “We recognized a need in our practice for additional growth in the area of creating authentic listening lessons for our students based on the music of diverse cultures,” Whiteley says. “We also wanted to collaborate with music teachers from other parts of the world. The Mansfield Public Schools are seeking to further develop a set of 21st century skills in our students, which include being able to communicate, collaborate, think creatively, and become citizens of the world. When we considered all these factors, we decided we wanted to attend the 33rd World Conference of the International Society for Music Education (ISME), which took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, this

past July.” The theme of the conference was “Life’s Journey through Music,” which Whiteley and her colleagues wove into a series of videos they filmed demonstrating that music is shared throughout cultures. “We will use these videos to create a bank of listening lessons to foster respectful discourse among our students,” says Whiteley. “Additionally, we hope to extend the option for our students and their families to share authentic musical examples from their own cultures so that every person feels valued. In traveling to a part of the globe that is such a crossroads of eastern and western cultures, we knew that we would be serving as positive role models for our students by stretching ourselves beyond our comfort zones.” Her trip also provided Whiteley with additional insight to connect with her students. “Experiencing a language barrier has made me more empathetic to my students whose first language is not English,” she said. “Also, I was able

to overcome some misconceptions about this area of

the world that I hadn’t realized I carried with me prior to my trip. The fellowship underscored the fact that all of us are

more similar than we are different, and that our differences should be celebrated, not feared.”

Mansfield teachers Julie Frascarelli, Liz Whiteley, and Katherine Smallidge weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty at the mud volcanoes around Azerbaijan’s Gobustan National Park, where they also saw ancient petroglyphs.

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Christian “Bing” Miller Branford High School, Branford | England, Scotland, and Paris

Dorothea Mackey Stamford High School, Stamford | Mozambique and South Africa

Christian Miller found out about the Fund for Teachers after 2016 grant recipients from his school conducted workshops on generating ideas for fellowships and writing grants to fund them. “I was impressed by the

Like many teachers, Dorothea Mackey learned about the Fund for Teachers grant from a peer. An art teacher she knew had traveled to London to study how geometry and meaning are incorporated into Islamic art. After hearing her story, Mackey decided to venture out across the globe in her own pursuit of knowledge—about fair trade and sustainability. She traveled to Mozambique and South Africa. In Mozambique—the third most impoverished country in the world, Mackey says—she visited the Sunshine Nut Company to study what they do. Her goal was to learn about fair trade tourism to inspire entrepreneurship in her students and have them create business plans incorporating sustainability and social responsibility. “Cashews are grown in Mozambique,”

“The only way some of the

people can get food in the townships is by business

opportunities. One of the hotels produces cookies to distribute to all the tourist hotels. Another business is a company that turns old tea bags into coasters, sun art, angels, pocketbooks, and more. This is something I teach my students about entrepreneurship: How do you make your life better? How do you support yourself?” Mackey said the experience is one she won’t forget and hopes others will follow her lead. “It’s eye-opening and life- changing to go out into the world. I established relationships with businesses that I can count on for future lessons in my classroom. I set up opportunities and invited them to talk to my classes, opening up the door for much more learning in the coming years.”

impact their experience had on their teaching.”

Miller’s trip reignited his

passion for teaching literature and gave him a deeper understanding of the inspiration behind the literary works he teaches. “For my grant, I researched European Romantic literature by exploring historical sites, meeting with experts, and experiencing the natural landscapes to learn how different perspectives

At the Louvre, Christian Miller saw famous works such as Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People .

“We will be looking at ways to provide more authentic learning to our students and broaden the use of different types of texts, including artwork, to reach them. In addition, we will explore the possibility of a field trip

inspired American transcendentalism. I traveled to Great Britain and France to see important sites associated with the European Romantic movement: Lake District National Park, Dove Cottage, and Grasmere village in England; Edinburgh and the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Scotland; and finally, Paris, home to a variety of collections of Romantic artwork in the Louvre and other places.” Miller’s interest in Romantic literature, and particularly that of William Wordsworth and the “Lake Poets,” inspired his trip. “Being in the Lake District and walking the woods above Grasmere, along the same landscapes that inspired Wordsworth, helped me better understand his poetry. I wanted to bring that back to my students.” Miller will parlay his new knowledge into the development of higher-level essential questions for the new English Department curriculum for American literature, as well as build a bank of knowledge related to 19th century literature.

to Walden Pond and examine transcendental ideas in modern environmental texts.”

Mackey says. “The Sunshine Nut Company, which was started by a former executive from the Hershey Company, has a factory that employs

He adds, “It was quite an effort to complete the grant application, but I had a lot of support from the teachers in my building. I would encourage any teacher to take advantage of that support from fellow teachers who have done this. Think through how a fellowship could benefit your teaching and the children in your class.” Calling trips such as his “priceless,” Miller says they shake up the traditional learning environment for the better. “In an educational environment that focuses too much on data and impersonal ways to measure learning, the Fund for Teachers helps educators approach their content in new and powerful ways and offers generous help for teachers to pursue once-in-a- lifetime experiences.”

many people and is an ethical business. It was interesting to learn about their sustainability project.” Mackey was struck by the poverty she witnessed in South Africa.