In October, I approached my friends and colleagues, Jess and Sarah, with a pretty crazy idea. What if we went to Finland this summer to watch the teachers there?
I had read so many articles about the success of schools in Finland. If you haven’t heard about the amazing school system there, check out this article and this one. I was so amazed by everything I was reading and knew I wanted to experience it. Thus began our research into a grant.
After months of research and help from my cousin (who went to Germany on a grant last summer) and our district technology coach/fellow slicer, Colin, we came up with a plan. We would spend a week in Finland visiting two schools and meeting with one educational expert. Then, we would travel to the innovative Steve Jobs School in Amsterdam. I arranged the visits, planned our budget, researched flights, and spent countless hours planning the trip.
We spent hours and days writing the grant. We checked it over so many times. And tomorrow, we will find out. If we get it, it will be an experience of a lifetime. It has the potential to completely change me as a teacher. If we don’t get it, we will be left disappointed and feeling like all our time and energy was a waste.
We have been waiting for months and now the news is finally here. We spent much of our morning texting each other, excited/worried/ready.
“Did you look up the latest flights?”
“What time do you think we will get the email?”
“Why do you think they would reject it? Or do you think it’s good?”
I’m so anxious for tomorrow, but hoping for the best. I’m ready to experience the amazing educational culture Finland and The Steve Jobs School. Hopefully, I will be able to!
Good luck and try to stay distracted today! Please put me high on the list of people you tell when you get the news!!!
Fingers crossed and praying that your grant comes thru and that you have success in learning new and innovative ways of teaching.
How exciting! I can’t wait to hear if you got it or not!
WOW – What an opportunity! I really hope your grant us accepted. Hopefully, the grant readers will embrace the ideals of the Finland system, which can only help our US schools. Play is the key. When our district finally went to a full-day kindergarten program, we did our research, and we have a “play-based” model. I visited master teacher Kristi Mraz’s school twice over the last year and a half. The entire school maintains inquiry and play based curriculum. The research she shared along with what I learned from a Bank Street College, “Day of Play,” really opened my eyes. If you aren’t already following Christi Wyman, you should @WymansWonders https://.wonderingandwondering.wordpress.com
I wish you and your colleagues all the best!
Thank you so much! That is so interesting – one of my colleagues on the grant will be teaching Kindergarten next year and the play model is what is really interesting her! I will have to follow that blog – thanks for the recommendation!
I am so excited — and nervous — for you! What an amazing opportunity! I’ll be whispering wishes for you to hear good news.
omg ! good luck! what program did you go through to write the grant?! i TOTALLY want to do this!!! please share! I can’t wait to find out if u got the grant or not!
It’s called Fund for Teachers! They fund travel grants for teaching opportunities. My cousin did it last year and explored the real life Brother’s Grimm in Germany for two weeks!
Oh my gosh!!! This is so awesome!! I so hope you get to go!! Please post tomorrow and let us know!? Haha! I’m so excited for you!! Also, if you get the grant accepted, I would love to know what you did for research and stuff- something a few teachers here would love to experience!
Good luck! What an AMAZING opportunity!!!
Wow!!! What an amazing opportunity!! I can’t wait to find out if you got it. Imagine slicing from Finland and Amsterdam!!
This is amazing! What a well-thought out and inspired idea – how could they turn you down? Side note, if you get accepted, have you thought about how you are going to capture and share your learning as it happens? I know there are many of us who have heard the same things that you have and would love to know what you learn!
WOW! So exciting! It may be hard to sleep tonight! :0)
I hope you receive the grant. If you don’t though, you should receive comments about what you submitted, I found that this helped me to better write the next grant.
Best of luck!
This is a fantastic opportunity and I truly hope that you’re given this chance. Good luck!
Crossing my fingers for you! Please let us know and keep us updated.
https://wordsmithing2017.wordpress.com
Did you get approved?! You haven’t posted anything since this!
Sorry forgot to update! Unfortunately, we didn’t get it 😔 We were pretty disappointed, but hopefully can try again sometime!