Teacher Creativity Program promises special summer in 2013

Thursday, August 23, 2012

For 100 Indiana schoolteachers, media specialists, principals and assistant principals next summer will be a special summer filled with everything new: experiences, places, people, sights and sounds. They will be the recipients of awards from the Teacher Creativity Fellowship Program, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc.

Next summer will mark the 26th year the Endowment has encouraged the educators to dream of what they've always wanted to do -- climb Mount Kilimanjaro, learn Spanish in Spain, plant a "heritage garden," absorb Mozart in Salzburg, zoom down Route 66, explore family history in Crimea, paint in Monet country, study Irish poetry in Dublin, do stand-up comedy, walk the Great Wall in China -- the list is endless.

For the 2013 Teacher Creativity Fellowship Program, 100 awards of $10,000 each will be made to public and private K-12 licensed schoolteachers, principals and assistant principals, guidance counselors and librarians/media specialists to support creative projects.

These projects will take place during six weeks next summer and must be completed by Aug. 31, 2013. The grant period, however, will run through May 2014 so that recipients can report how the grant activities have influenced their work in the classroom.

"The best teachers know that learning never ends," said Sara B. Cobb, Endowment vice president for education. "These teachers are curious. They are articulate and enthusiastic. They are eager to share. We have teachers return and tell us the personal-renewal fellowship was a life-changing experience and the 'biggest adventure of my life.'

"We are constantly amazed and gratified by the enthusiasm the teachers bring to these projects, the lessons they learn and the people they meet. The excitement they bring back to the students in their classrooms is contagious," Cobb added.

All applicants must have at least three years of professional experience to be eligible for this personal-renewal competitive program. Also, former Teacher Creativity fellows who received their award before 2006 are eligible to apply for a second award in the 2013 program.

Applications for the Teacher Creativity Fellowship Program must be postmarked by

Nov. 2. Notification of grant awards will be made by Feb. 22, 2013; grant payments will be made in due course after March 1, 2013.

For specific questions about the Teacher Creativity Fellowship Program, application procedures or grant-writing tips, please consult the Endowment's website, www.lillyendowment.org, or www.teachercreativity.org. You may also contact the Endowment by email, teachercreativity@lei.org.

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