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What Works in Public Education

Travelers' Checks: Teacher-Tested Travel Grants

by Lisa Morehouse

Teachers who travel bring back to their classrooms all of the experiences they had and passions they felt to inspire students and make global content come alive. By applying for grants, teachers can get these unique globe-trotting learning opportunities partially or fully funded. Edutopia has gathered stories and snapshots from teachers who have received such grants to travel.

After each teacher's tale, you'll find the details for how you can apply to the Fund for Teachers, the Earthwatch Institute's Education Fellowships, the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program, the Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad program, the English-Speaking Union of the United States's British Universities Summer School Program, and others. (Keep in mind that some deadlines for this year may have passed, so take note of the application procedure to prepare for next year.)

Happy trails!

The Fund for Teachers

At Manzanita Community School, in Oakland, California, third-grade teacher Allison Bibbler says many of her students' families fled Laos and stayed in refugee camps in Thailand while they waited to come to the United States. So Bibbler visited Thailand and Laos, where she trekked through mountains, visited villages and temples, and traveled down the Mekong River on a summer sabbatical paid for by the nonprofit foundation Fund for Teachers.

Bibbler's classroom is now filled with Thai welcome flags, little wooden turtles, and indigenous instruments so students can, as she says, "get their hands on Thailand." And at her school's Passport Day, where classrooms are transformed into countries, Bibbler re-creates the Loy Krathong festival, which celebrates renewal. "Students make lotus flowers with cardboard leaves and put pennies in the open leaves," Bibbler notes. "I made a paper river and full moon and have candles and Thai music -- actually music made by elephants."

Bibbler explains that as a teacher, "you're juggling twenty balls in the air, and you're constantly overworked and stressed. This kind of travel gives me the space to reflect, and also reflect with the idea that this is where my kids are from." Learning about her students' cultures also focuses her thinking on the ethnic balance in her classroom, which includes many energetic students. "I just keep thinking about how to influence students, combining a Buddhist, calmer way of being with their vivacious personalities," she says. "How do I blend together cultures that are so diverse into a comfortable, safe, warm setting?"

Fund for Teachers encourages educators to travel the world on summer sabbaticals and to create their own proposals for professional growth.

Who sponsors the fellowship? The nonprofit foundation Fund for Teachers, started in 2001 by businessman Raymond Plank.

What is the fellowship for? As individuals or in teams, teachers design summer sabbaticals they feel will have a positive impact on their teaching. The organization says educators know best what they need for professional development, so it encourages them to travel the world and get out of their comfort zones, expand their experiences, and ultimately inspire their students.

Who can apply? Teachers in grades P-12 who work in select areas and have three years of teaching experience.

What does the fellowship pay for? Everything, if you budget well. Fund for Teachers offers individuals up to $5,000 and teams of two or more up to $10,000.

How many teachers get the fellowship? In 2007, 553 teachers got fellowships -- 284 as individuals.

Are there any additional requirements? Teachers attend preparatory and follow-up meetings and provide documentation of how their summer sabbaticals influenced their teaching. Some requirements vary among school districts.

When are applications due? January 31. Grant-writing tips for teachers are available on the site -- as well as a scoring rubric, so applicants can see how proposals are evaluated.

Who do I contact? the Fund for Teachers.

The Earthwatch Institute: Education Fellowships and Alternative Expedition Funding

Regina Allen, an elementary school librarian in Columbia, Mississippi, has gone on two trips through the Earthwatch Institute. In 2006, she visited Mallorca, Spain, as a member of an international team on an archaeological dig. Last summer, she joined Vietnamese scientists studying the butterfly population in a diminishing jungle outside of Hanoi. Earthwatch covered costs for housing, food, and transportation in Vietnam as well as funding for research equipment needed during the expedition up to $2,500.

Back at school, Allen's trips have helped inform her lessons on extinction, metamorphosis, folklore, and career options; expand the school's butterfly garden; and diversify the library's collection. Allen recommends Earthwatch trips for teachers who want first-hand experiences and who want to see ecological and environmental efforts that are working. "You're with the local people and get all kinds of opportunities to mix with professionals in all sorts of scientific endeavors from those places," she says. "I wanted to have a trip in which I knew I would make a difference, and I did. I did work that added to their research."

Scientists all over the world run Earthwatch research trips.

Who sponsors the fellowship? The Earthwatch Institute, an international nonprofit organization founded in 1971, which recruits volunteers from many fields every year to join research teams around the globe.

What is the fellowship for? Travel to work with scientists on research projects, such as monitoring the zebra population in Kenya or excavating sites related to Peru's Wari Empire, in the Andes.

Who can apply? All educators. (You don't have to be a scientist!)

What does the fellowship pay for? Earthwatch covers all the costs of research, food, and accommodations; the fellow pays for travel to and from the site, but most receive some reimbursement.

How many teachers get the fellowship? There were more than 200 fellows in 2007.

Are there any additional requirements? Fellows keep journals, compile a final report, and submit lesson plans they use in class after the trip.

When are applications due? February 15, 2008.

Who do I contact? Earthwatch Institute Education Fellowships and Alternative Expedition Funding.

Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program

"As teachers, you don't get many great professional-development opportunities unless you pay for them yourself," points out Baltimore reading teacher Virginia Richard, who was a Japan Fulbright participant in 2003. "This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Over the course of three weeks, Richard and other teachers from all over the United States visited Tokyo, stayed with Japanese families for a weekend, and toured sites ranging from museums to green tea factories.

Richard found it fascinating to spend whole days in schools in the town of Okazaki. "I had preconceived notions that school here was very rigorous, very academic," Richard admits. "But it wasn't as tech bound as I thought. There was so much emphasis on art and music, especially in elementary grades. The focus was on the whole child." Students often ate in their classrooms, brushed their teeth after lunch, and cleaned the school at the end of the day.

"There was so much ownership over the school," Richard states. Seeing the intimacy found at Japanese schools has informed her work at her small school back in Baltimore. "It made me start thinking about how to make schools more home-like than school-like."

The Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program is a fully planned, scheduled, and funded three weeks.

Who sponsors the fellowship? The Japanese government.

What is the fellowship for? To build understanding between the people of Japan and the United States, fellows spend three weeks learning about Japanese history and culture and the education system.

Who can apply? K-12 teachers and administrators, including librarians and curriculum coordinators.

What does the fellowship pay for? Everything.

How many teachers get the fellowship? About 400 educators will be fellows in 2008.

Are there any additional requirements? Fellows design a project to share their experiences with students and colleagues.

When are applications due? Early December for the following summer.

Who do I contact? The Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund.

Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad Program

Kate Cook and her many students have reaped the benefits of her summer with the Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad Program. Many years back, Cook, who teaches Spanish and human rights, went to Venezuela with the program. Her group went on an intense five-week tour of the whole country, from the Andes to the Amazon rain forest, and took three weeks of classes while living with Venezuelan families.

Cook, who was interested in learning more about Afro-Latinos, visited an isolated beach village in which almost every resident was descended from fugitive slaves. "I interviewed people there and took lots of photos," she reports. "It was very powerful." Cook was teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area at the time, and she created a unit for her Spanish classes introducing Afro-Latino history and culture. "I used it every year I was in San Francisco," Cook says. "My students did projects on it, and it was very eye opening for them."

Topics and host countries for the Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad Program vary from year to year.

Who sponsors the fellowship? The U.S. Department of Education’s International Education Programs Service.

What is the fellowship for? Four- to six-week summer seminars help educators improve their knowledge of the people and cultures of other countries. In 2008, participating countries include Greece, India, Mexico, and South Africa.

Who can apply? All educators with three years of experience who have responsibility for curriculum in the social sciences or humanities, including languages.

What does the fellowship pay for? Everything, except for a $400 cost share.

How many teachers get the fellowship? More than one-hundred teachers annually.

Are there any additional requirements? Participants are required to complete a curriculum project when they return home.

When are applications due? Mid-September for the following summer.

Who do I contact? Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad.

English-Speaking Union of the United States's British Universities Summer School Program

Michelle Terl had heard friends rave that their fellowships through the English-Speaking Union changed their lives.

"Once I went and had the experience, I understood why they said that," says Terl, who teaches drama and runs an active after-school theater program in Broward County, Florida. "There was just so much to bring back into the classroom and into my extracurricular experiences."

As part of the Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance course at the Shakespeare Globe Centre, Terl and her peers (a mix of English and drama teachers) studied voice and movement with Globe practitioners, attended lectures about the theater's construction, and developed performances with individual directors.

Terl was so inspired that she and her students re-created a small replica of the Globe Theatre back in Florida. "I wanted to share the experience I'd had," she explains, "and talking about it just wasn't enough. I wanted my student actors to perform on a stage like the Globe's and connect with an audience that closely."

Her students put on a sold-out show of A Midsummer Night's Dream. "To have a high school kid elbow you in a crowd and say, 'This is the coolest thing I've ever seen,' well, that makes me a happy teacher," says Terl. And her performers were happy about re-creating the Globe, too. "They told me later, 'We thought you were insane, but now we're really glad you did it.'"

Who sponsors the fellowship? The English-Speaking Union of the United States, a nonprofit educational organization committed to promoting "scholarship and the advancement of knowledge through the effective use of English in an expanding global community."

What is the fellowship for? Fellows take three- or six-week courses at the International Shakespeare Globe Centre, Oxford University, or Edinburgh's Scottish Universities International Summer School. Past courses have included Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance, Text and Context: British Literature from 1900 to the Present, Modernism and Postmodernism, and numerous other literature, history, and creative writing classes.

Who can apply? Secondary school teachers near one of the English-Speaking Union's seventy-two branches in the United States.

What does the fellowship pay for? It varies. The branch offices of the English-Speaking Union give out the scholarships. The majority of branches cover all tuition, accommodations, and some meals, and many include the airfare as well.

How many teachers get the fellowship? In the summer of 2007, there were forty-seven fellows from twenty-eight ESU branches.

Are there any additional requirements? No, but some branches ask participants to speak to their members after the trip.

When are applications due? Most ESU branches have deadlines in early February.

Who do I contact? The English-Speaking Union of the United States. Look at the Web site to find the ESU branch nearest you to see if it funds a scholarship. You can also email Alice Uhl or call her at the national office, at (212) 818-1200 ext. 212.

Lisa Morehouse taught secondary English for twelve years in San Francisco and rural Georgia. She is now a public radio journalist and an education consultant.

This article originally published on 1/9/2008