FFT

Blogs

History in Color

The Fellow team of Rayna Walters, Garrett Griffin and Kurt Zimmerman (New Haven, CT) used a $10,000 Fund for Teachers grant to deepen their scholarship and student conversations about the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. But as they shared in this NPR interview, the slave trade is only a facet of Black history, not its genesis. And…

Celebrating Our Fellows

SPRING 2026 UPDATE Spring ushers in a season of recognition for educators, which gives us the opportunity to do a little humble bragging by saying “We knew them first.” Join us in celebrating these FFT Fellows and, please, let us know about exciting updates in your careers and classrooms!

Ramadan Mubarak

As 1.8 billion people across the globe are celebrating Ramadan, students at Lincoln Elementary in Norman, OK recently learned about the celebration from their fellow students who also are Muslim. Their teacher, Diane Wood, informed and inspired their presentation using experiences from her Fund for Teachers fellowship last summer. “My fellowship to Spain and Morocco helped me to develop…

So That Others May Learn

Last summer with a Fund for Teaches grant, Dr. Shelina Warren and four peers from Dunbar High School in Washington DC embarked on a journey across five states in the Deep South to more effectively teach complex and accurate historical narratives about race, civil rights, and the African American experience. In advance of Martin Luther King Day, we reached out to Shelina to learn more…

Reaching Out to Rural Teachers

After 25 years of investing in educators—totaling $39 million in fellowships—one thing has become clear: Our grant recipients are our strongest ambassadors. When a teacher encourages a fellow teacher to apply, it just hits differently. This holds especially true for our Rural Teacher initiative*. Inspired by our recent work to expand awareness of Fund for…

Commonalities Among Indigenous Cultures

Four Native American tribes once inhabited the territory that now comprises Tulsa, OK, where students of Rachel Langley and Jesse Wren attend school. Additionally, one-third of their students are descendants of Tribal Peoples. But how does one teach elementary students about complex topics such as land rights and Tribal sovereignty? Jesse and Rachel chose to…

Postcard from Japan

Many teachers are already into their first weeks of school; however, FFT Fellow Prince Johnson (Food and Finance High School – New York, NY) is still being a student on his fellowship in Japan. We caught up with him mid-fellowship to hear about how he is observing Tokyo’s urbanization, Kyoto’s cultural landscapes, and Hiroshima’s history…

Looking Back to Move Forward

Students of Washington D.C.’s Dunbar High School walk in the footsteps of trailblazers such as the first Black graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, the first Black U.S. Senator elected by a popular vote, and the head academic researcher on Brown v. The Board of Education. Established in 1870 as the Preparatory High School for Colored…

Get to Know Us!

Who are the 354 teachers awarded 2025 Fund for Teachers grants? This infographic provides a snapshot. You can learn more about this 25th cohort of FFT Fellows here and don’t forget to follow their learning on our Facebook and Instagram pages!

Embracing, Not Erasing, Vietnamese Heritage

“I remember setting foot on my first Boston snow in February 1992,” said FFT Fellow Thu-Hang Tran-Peou describing her arrival from Vietnam as a young girl. “It was my first encounter with tuyết (snow)—a word I had read, wrote, and pondered before but had never known. The coldness, the fragility of the white cluster melting…

The FFT Community Factor

Integral to our work is the collaboration of our community partners – foundations, nonprofits and organizations that share our commitment to teachers and their students. Through their partnership on Fellow selection, funding and local support, these valued stakeholders extend Fund for Teachers’ impact across the country in rural and urban schools. We are grateful that…

Life in Action

Students at Life Learning Academy are disconnected – literally and figuratively. Many of the students live on campus, located on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay. Also, students arrive after experiencing life traumas, often involving the juvenile justice system, and not finding success in traditional school settings. Kevin Hicks arrived at Life Learning Academy…

Meet Our New Fellows

Fund for Teachers, one of the nation’s leading organizations supporting preK-12 educators, is proud to announce its 2025 grant recipients. This summer, 357 teachers will leverage $1.625 million into experiential learning in 79 countries on 6 continents. These educators comprise Fund for Teachers’ 25th cohort of FFT Fellows. Since 2001, Fund for Teachers has invested $39 million in 10,225 public, private and…

And they all learned happily ever after

Once upon a time, an elementary school librarian became a Fund for Teachers Fellow, and her fairy tale dreams became a reality. It really did feel like a whirlwind fairy tale. Back in January of 2023, a friend of mine reached out to me about working together on a FFT grant. I was hesitant at…

Music (& History) To Students’ Ears

The town of Roseburg, Oregon has a few notable distinctions – the subject of the Johnny Cash song “Lumberjack” and home to a pack of feral angora goats that predicted weather in the 1980s – but a diverse demographic is not among them. The county seat is 91% white and the students at Roseburg High…

The Nexus of Cultures & Communities

The inspiration behind Fund for Teachers fellowships are as diverse as our Fellows; however, only one (that we know of) stemmed from a subway attack. In November 2021, four Asian-American students were attacked because of their ethnicity by four Black teenagers. Alarmed by subsequent increasing racial tensions at Central High School, members of the school’s…

Experiencing History to Expand Knowledge

Three years ago, Ariana Sanders (Cincinnati) used a $5,000 Fund for Teachers grant to participate in the Witness Tree Institute’s immersive educator experience in Ghana, where she explored the impact of colonization, as well as how Africans protect their natural resources. Her goal was to inform the development of learning objectives and course modules for…

Fellows Helping Fellows

At the height of the Los Angeles fires, FFT Fellow Andrea Lofthouse Quesada posted on Instagram that she and her home were safe. With her permission, we shared her post as a small form of encouragement for her and all of the educators providing students some sense of normalcy as fires continued to rage. On…