First, let’s start by noting that our teachers in rural Western Massachusetts generally knock themselves out for their students. Certainly, the best ones do.
Some, like recipients of Pioneer Valley Excellence in Teaching Awards of the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation, are recognized as outstanding educators.
Other nonprofits directly support self-motivated teachers to expand their horizons and their knowledge, so that, like honey bees, they can bring something sweet and nutritious back to their students.
One such program, the Fund for Teachers, underwrites nearly 500 learning expeditions of pre-kindergarten through Grade 12 teachers through self-designed fellowships.
This summer, Allison White, a Warwick Community School teacher, is receiving one of those fellowships for up to $5,000 to spend the summer learning about the flora and fauna of our national parks.
“I can’t wait to challenge myself to grow and learn in an environment unfamiliar to me, and bring back what I learn to connect my students, school and community,” White said about her fellowship, which is for teachers who model a passion for life-long learning and inspire the same in their students.
The Fund for Teachers makes the point that the “best professional learning combines passion, a deep understanding of students’ strengths and needs, compelling purpose and challenge.”
The Fund rightly observes that teachers are the “catalysts of their students’ future, sparking curiosity by creating learning experiences that provide something important to think about, time to experiment, time to make sense of new learning, and opportunities to apply learning to new situations.”
The Fund will support trips by the 487 selected teachers in 89 countries on six continents this summer.
White will use her grant to conduct a bio-blitz at each site with the iNaturalist.org app, to observe the connection between cultural stories and the science of trees, and lead students in the creation of cultural stories with visual storytelling.
This is the teacher whose elementary school pupils put together audio-visual tales about their research on local wildlife for the school’s website.
Because Fund for Teachers trusts teachers to propose learning experiences that will best affect their students and school communities, its says its fellowships range from history, language through cultural immersion, literature, math, science, social justice, special education, technology and the visual and performing arts.
“When teachers are excited about their own learning, they engage their students as problem-solvers and inspire their colleagues to push outside their comfort zone,” said Karen Webb, Fund for Teachers executive director. “Their impact reaches far beyond their classrooms.”
That’s certainly true whether teachers are lucky enough to win a fellowship or not. So while Warwick’s elementary school is fortunate to have a teacher whose own professional growth will be underwritten this summer, we would observe that our rural schools are filled with such highly motivated and motivating teachers.
We wish they could all win Grinspoon honors or summer fellowships, but the reality, that every teacher comes to learn, is that the real rewards and honors are bestowed by the students themselves and the growth they undergo.