Joe Hornaday
The Lilly Endowment, one of the world’s largest private philanthropic foundations, has announced its recipients of the 2010 Teacher Creativity Fellowship grants.
Greensburg Community School Corporation teachers Nancy J. Porter and Erica C. Case were among the 120 Indiana educators who have been selected to receive the grant.
Come this summer, the educators who have been selected will head for Alaska and Arizona, Kentucky and Kenya, Utah and Ukraine, Ireland and Illinois and France and Florida.
Funded by the Lilly Endowment, the program enables teachers, principals, guidance counselors and school librarians from all over Indiana to take time to pursue their personal interests and explore subjects that intrigue them.
The group will study sea turtles in Florida, mosaics in Turkey and Italy, textiles in Thailand, castles in Germany, antiquities in Egypt, butterflies in Mexico, bagpiping in Scotland, snakes in the Smoky Mountains and drumming in Ghana.
They will attended writing workshops, explore family histories, improve language abilities, walk and bike for miles, work on an organic farm, volunteer at an archaeological dig, help out at a shelter for victims of domestic violence in Peru, learn to ride a motorcycle, stargaze and drive a Model A Ford throughout the Midwest.
Whatever the teachers and others do, they will be able to re-energize themselves and reinvigorate their love of teaching. This is not a “professional development” program, but many teachers have returned testifying that they were very close to leaving the profession until the renewal experience of the trips convinced them otherwise.
“We never cease to be delighted at the response to this popular program,” Sara B. Cobb, Endowment vice president for education, explained. “Among other things, good teaching also requires a high degree of energy and motivation. We regularly hear that these renewal experiences have helped hard-working Indiana educators regain their enthusiasm for their profession.”
Judges make recommendations for these awards from a very competitive pool of applicants, and about 550 applied for the $8,000 awards. Since the Teacher Creativity Fellowship Program began in 1987, more than 2,000 Indiana educators have received grants. This class brings that total to 2,187.
