This summer, a select group of Katy ISD teachers will participate in the Fund for Teachers Fellows program, travelling to destinations like Milan, Spain, Iceland and Denmark to embark on self-designed learning experiences that they will bring home to Katy ISD classrooms.
A total of 13 Katy ISD teachers have been selected among only 67 in the Greater-Houston area for the grant program.
This year’s Fund for Teachers 2012 Fellows include:
- Jerry Manto and Sabrina Silva, Exley Elementary – Manto and Silva will participate in the World Music Drumming workshop in Seattle to learn instrument skills and techniques that will enrich the musicality of a diverse student population.
- Nancy Hess, Griffin Elementary and Leslie Edge, McRoberts Elementary – Both Hess and Edge will research proactive renewable environments in Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden to initiate student discussions about renewable energies and the transition to a less energy-based society.
- Christina Foley and Stephanie Nady, Morton Ranch Elementary – Foley and Nady will participate in Kent State University’s summer Reading & Writing Development Center workshops to learn strategies for assessing struggling readers and targeting intervention to specific needs.
- Michael Thomas, Schmalz Elementary – Thomas will participate in the Musician’s Institute’s Contemporary College of Music program in Los Angeles to hone arrangement and digital recording skills that will help students compose and record their own original music.
- Thelma Ginsburg, Stephens Elementary – Ginsburg will travel to Mexico and Colombia to develop lessons that incorporate effective storytelling techniques and expose children to authentic and original stories that reflect their own diverse cultures.
- Jennifer Lightsey, West Memorial Elementary – Lightsey will hike among the biodiversity and unique geology features of Big Bend National Park and gaze at the galaxy through the McDonald Observatory’s telescope in Ft. Davis to familiarize first graders with their state and encourage them to think like scientists.
- Rochelle Harris and Tamara McDaniel-Alford, Morton Ranch Junior High – Harris and McDaniel-Alford will observe how Renaissance artists and architects in Milan, Florence and Venice infused mathematical principles into artistic achievements to then teach students how to visualize, verbalize, and apply mathematical concepts to their everyday environments.
- Nancy Huffman and Laura Williams, Katy High School – Participate in a “painting in plein air” workshop in Almeria, Spain, and afterward paint throughout the Andalusian countryside, to bolster the landscape portion of art curriculum and stimulate student observations about their environment and the impact they make upon it.
Past Katy ISD grant recipients participated in a wide variety of expeditions, including: exploring Hawaii’s active volcanoes; studying Islam through Morocco’s political, social and economic development and trekking across Laos learning about the Hmong culture.
Fund for Teachers enriches the personal and professional growth of teachers by recognizing and supporting them as they identify and pursue opportunities around the globe that will have the greatest impact on their practice, the academic lives of their students and on their school communities.
