Are you considering applying for a Fund for Teachers grant, but don’t know where to start? What better place than to take advice from Maine’s 2021 Teacher of the Year and Fund for Teachers Fellow Cindy Soule. Cindy is a 4th grade teacher at Gerald E. Talbot Community School and holds a Master of Science in Special Education from the University of Southern Maine and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work from the University of Maine at Orono. In addition to recently being named Teacher of the Year, she is also a candidate for Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.
This summer, she and two peers will use their Fund for Teachers grant to explore phenomenon in Hawaii related to Earth, Physical, and Life Science units to create opportunities for organic student-driven inquiry aligned to Next Generation Science Standards and applied across the district. We caught up with Cindy in her classroom to talk about her fellowship, statewide recognition, BrenéBrown’s influence on her well-being as a teacher and her tips for crafting a successful Fund for Teachers proposal.