Summer is wrapping up as teachers prepare their classrooms for the new school year and children anxiously await the first day of school. Eighty-two Tulsa area teachers, representing 36 schools, will return to the classroom this fall with far more than your typical teacher supplies. Thanks to Fund For Teachers (FFT) and Tulsa Community Foundation, they will be armed with a renewed passion for teaching and hands-on materials to enrich their students’ classroom experiences. FFT, through their administrative partner Tulsa Community Foundation, awarded grants in May to local teachers, giving them the opportunity to travel abroad and attend seminars and workshops.
FFT awards grants to teachers to pursue independent projects of their own design. Examples of the Tulsa-area teachers’ experiences include a trip to Iceland, an intensive study on the history of the U.S. Space program, immersion in Spanish language on a trip to Mexico, an expedition to Hawaii to actively study volcanoes, and a comprehensive look at the art of Picasso in Europe. Teachers from the Tulsa area traveled as far north as Alaska and as far south as Australia.
Rebecca Garrison and Karen Judkins from Liberty Elementary School traveled to the Amazon for a rainforest exploration workshop, while Betsy Glad and Pam Snodgrass went down under to the Australian outback to study people, culture, landforms, habitats and indigenous animals. Stephanie Fowler journeyed to Alaska and visited remote Eskimo and Native American Indian Villages to survey the styles and methods of oral tradition. Peter Bell said “Aloha” to Hawaii and studied the island’s biology, with an emphasis on the native flora and fauna. Holly Clark and Susan Weavel attended an intensive four-week Spanish immersion course in Mexico.
FFT grants are awarded to teachers who work with students in grades pre-K-12, have a minimum of three years teaching experience and spend at least 50 percent of their schedule in a classroom setting. Tulsa Community Foundation administered the competitive grant making process through a blind, peer-reviewed application process. Participants were selected based on each proposal’s merit— teacher growth and rejuvenation, as well as student, classroom and school impact, being the primary grant objectives.
FFT is a unique public foundation whose mission is to enrich the lives of schoolteachers and students by providing outstanding teachers with recognition and opportunities for renewal. In partnership with Tulsa Community Foundation, a public charity that was organized in 1998 by an esteemed group of business and civic leaders to receive, protect and distribute gifts from individuals and organizations for the improvement of the Tulsa and eastern Oklahoma area, FFT provides funds for direct grants to teachers to support learning opportunities of their own design. FFT impacts teachers, classrooms, schools and students. It is estimated that one grant reaches 3,000 students over the span of a teacher’s career.
