31 Hamilton County teachers awarded grants for summer adventures
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Local public school teachers will again make their world their classroom this summer, thanks to nearly $100,000 in travel grants.2013 Fund for Teachers Fellows:
Elisabeth Zacha - Apison ElementaryAnn-Marie Blentlinger and Karen West - CSLAVinnie Taneja - Clifton Hills ElementaryBrittany Harris and Mauriska Munroe - Hardy ElementaryAmanda Lafferty, Beth McCoy, Heather O'Brien and Jennifer Zeigler - Normal Park Museum Magnet LowerJennifer Hartley - Spring Creek ElementaryLeigh Bain - Wallace A. Smith Elementary SchoolChristy Baker, Jessica Carlton, Brenda Holmes, Jill Smith and Jami Standridge - Hunter MiddleAnn Souza - Loftis MiddleTrey Joyner - Normal Park Museum Magnet UpperBryan Phillips - Hamilton County HighMaika Turner - Hixson HighAndrea McGuirt and Heather McIntyre - Ooltewah HighChuck Jones - Red Bank HighNozipho Moyo - Red Bank HighErin Bas, Dan Morgan, Kawanna Potier, Jennifer Raulston, Deb Tucker and Jessica Ulloa Chinchilla - CSAS
Local public school teachers will again make their world their classroom this summer, thanks to nearly $100,000 in travel grants.
PEF granted awards to 31 Hamilton County teachers, who will travel to Africa, Costa Rica and the Mediterranean, among other destinations. The self-designed trips, to be made individually or in groups, are made possible by the national nonprofit Fund for Teachers.
Organizers hope teachers will bring make lessons learned will translate into enriched teaching back at home.
"Returning from their fellowships, we know that these teachers will change the trajectory of learning for their students through their new insights, skills, and experiences," PEF President Dan Challener said in a statement.
Many of the winners are teams of teachers from multiple schools across Hamilton County. Among the proposals:
• Vinnie Taneja of Clifton Hills Elementary and Elisabeth Zachau of Apison Elementary will enroll in Spanish classes at the Centre Panamerican de Idiomas language school in Monteverde, Costa Rica, and experience the region's flora and fauna to understand the native culture of the school's majority population and build bridges between students' prior knowledge and the current curricula.
• Ann-Marie Blentlinger and Karen West of CSLA, in collaboration with International Volunteer Headquarters, will teach English in a Nairobi school for two weeks to deepen two grade-level units on Africa and underscore the responsibility to help others in need.
• Maika Turner of Hixson High and Nozipho Moyo of Red Bank High will engage in an intensive Spanish language course and conduct a research tour of Southern Spain and the North African Spanish territories to document African influences on Spanish language, history and culture and expose students to the diversity of Spanish-speaking cultures.
This is the second year that Hamilton County educators were eligible for the fellowships.