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The Fund for Teachers Helps Educators Bring the World to Classrooms August 16, 2001 5:12am HOUSTON, Aug 16, 2001 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Linda Richard wanted to bring the world of William Shakespeare to life for her students at Houston's Westchester International Academy. A workshop at the Bard's Globe Theatre in London provided new ideas that will enable Richard to share not only the text of Shakespeare's plays but the historical and cultural context in which the dramas were written and performed. Richard's participation in the workshop was made possible by a grant from The Fund for Teachers, an innovative new foundation with the goal of recognizing, stimulating and enhancing the experience of elementary and secondary teachers. The fund awarded grants of up to $5,000 to 88 teachers from Houston, Minneapolis, Denver and Oakland, Calif., permitting them to travel, enjoy new experiences and develop fresh ideas that they are now taking back to their classrooms. The program will be expanded to New York and Tulsa, Okla., in 2002. The Fund for Teachers is the vision of Raymond Plank, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Houston-based Apache Corporation. Plank believes that schoolteachers at the K-12 level have important roles in shaping young people but often do not receive adequate recognition and encouragement. For Plank, one influential teacher was Noah Foss, who taught Latin at Blake School in Minneapolis in the 1930s. Without Foss, Plank says, he would not have excelled on his college entrance examinations and gained admission to Yale. In 1997, Plank established an endowment in Minneapolis to provide grants for teachers to travel and broaden their perspectives during the summer. Now, with more than $1 million in seed money from Apache, Plank and others, The Fund for Teachers has been established to expand the program. Their creativity unleashed, teachers came up with dozens of ideas for the grants that have enabled them to enjoy new experiences and develop fresh ideas that they are taking back to their classrooms. One Oakland teacher attended the Festival of American Folk Tunes, while others traveled to such points as Cuba, Zimbabwe, France and Chile. A teacher from Houston's Spring Branch Independent School District visited butterfly habitats in Mexico and Texas while another Houston teacher traveled the Silk Route in Western China and Tibet and visited the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze to improve her geography classes. Another educator spent five weeks bicycling in Germany so she will have more anecdotes about German life for her students. "I hope I can pass on to my students the feelings I felt standing at historical sites, visiting museums or even walking the streets of a foreign land. I want to bring to life the names, dates and historical events the students read about in their history books," said Kerry Kemble, a geography teacher from Texas. One Denver teacher explored history at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, while others studied Spanish and the Mayan culture in Mexico, researched the history of the United Farm Workers Union in California, and studied ecology and geography in Alaska. "I came home from the summer institute armed with hundreds of primary source documents and resources that I can take into my classroom on the first day of school to show my students the process of historical analysis and inquiry," said Denver teacher Jon Wolfer, who attended the National History Day Summer Institute on the Cold War at the University of Maryland. "This will enhance the quality of my teaching by providing the students not only with my interpretation of history, but encouraging them to come up with their own interpretations as well." Those interested in learning more about The Fund for Teachers may contact Karen Kovach, at (800) 681-2667, or by e-mail karen.kovach@apachecorp.com. Note: If you are not sure where
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