We have recently been the lucky recipients of the Fund for Teachers learning fellowship grant.  Our fellowship focus is divided into two separate learning opportunities. The first opportunity will help us become more knowledgeable and comfortable with teaching writing. The second part of our experience increases our first hand knowledge of our country’s rich and diverse culture.

After looking extensively at our new Common Core standards, we decided to attend the Columbia University Teachers College Summer Writing Institute.  While there, we will focus on curriculum development and the structure of writer’s workshop. We will acquire strategies to help us teach various genres of writing, determine methods to hold students more accountable, and find ways to improve student writing through the use of quality text examples. We will then be able to apply these learning immediately in the classroom on our return.

Before and after the Writing Institute we will have the opportunity to visit historical sites around both New York and Washington, DC.  There are so many locations in these two cities that support our current curriculum standards.  We will have trouble narrowing down our focus!

Thank you again to Fund for Teachers and PEF for giving us this amazing learning opportunity.  We can't wait to share our learning experiences with our students and faculty!

Reservations

Planning a 10 day fellowship can be just a tad overwhelming!  We've researched so many places and activities.  All I can tell you is that there are way too many great locations to visit and restaurants to eat at while we will be in DC and NY.  I can say that we completely lucked out with our living arrangements in NY.  Since we had to VERY quickly change our trip dates, our original NY apartment selection also changed.  Leigh immediately started searching airbnb and hit the jackpot!  We found the perfect place to stay!  The apartment is EXTREMELY close to Columbia University and ended up being cheaper than our original apartment (which is good since our DC hotel went up in price).  After we had the lodging and transportation taken care of, we were able to start planning the other learning aspects of our fellowship.  Here's what we've come up with so far:

• Washington, DC
• Air and Space Smithsonian
• The Capitol Building (special permission is needed for this if you ever plan a tour)
• National Mall
• Arlington Cemetery
• American History Smithsonian
• Ford's Theatre

• New York
• American Museum of Natural History
• Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island (if open)
• Twin Towers Memorial Site
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Empire State Building

Hopefully our schedule (and energy levels) will allow all of these learning opportunities!