Teaching by Example

HOUSTON, TX, Nov 12 (MARKET WIRE) --
Teachers' lesson plans cover core subjects, charging students to do as
they say. The following three teachers can add "Do as I do" to their
instruction: Nella Wortman, Kara MacDevitt and Josan Perales spent
transformative summer fellowships journaling impressions of Auschwitz,
testing water in Southeast Asia, and interviewing migrant workers at the
U.S.-Mexico border -- all to help students grasp our shared humanity.

Thanks to Fund for Teachers, Nella, Kara and Josan join the 3,500
additional "Fellows" expanding their students' worldview by first
expanding their own. Fund for Teachers' summer fellowships strengthen the
vital bond between curriculum, experiences and the ongoing human
narrative, subsequently transforming the process of learning in their
classrooms and school communities.

"My fellowship focused on integrating my writing and teaching so I could
inspire students to become more engaged writers themselves," said Wortman.
The child of a Holocaust survivor, she embarked on a pilgrimage to sites
of historical and personal significance in Europe to draft a corresponding
Memoir Writing Unit for her students at Houston's Pin Oak Middle School.
Wortman's notebook of impressions and images now serves as a model for her
students' own notebooks, incorporating their struggles and successes as
inspiration.

Our collective need for potable water prompted MacDevitt's voyage to
Southeast Asia. A former hydrologist, she spent six weeks testing samples
of the world's most polluted water, often passing rice paddies irrigated
with the very water contaminated by the factory next door. After returning
to Brooklyn's International High School at Lafayette, MacDevitt's research
compelled her students to mount a grassroots campaign to protect New York
City's sole water supply from natural gas drilling.

Josan Perales and two colleagues from Vista Grande High School in Taos,
NM, spent the summer researching migrant workers' experiences crossing the
border in the Sonoran Desert. Their research with humanitarian groups,
Border Patrol and migrant workers revealed multiple facets of the
controversial subject and formed the basis of a school-wide,
interdisciplinary, year-long study entitled Borders. "Borders manifest
themselves in many ways," said Josan. "People always have obstacles to
overcome, walls to climb or daunting odds to prove wrong. Opportunity
often lies on the other side of the border."

Learn more about these teachers' experiences and find out how you or a
teacher you know can create their own inspiring story this summer, at
www.fundforteachers.org.

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Claudia Morlan
713-524-0661
claudia@elmorepr.com

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