Kelley Waldron: 20 courageous teachers who teach the future

What does courageous education look like? Educators from diverse schools, backgrounds, and levels of education and experience willing to collaborate for the collective good of our students. Courageous education says that restrictions and barriers to achieving the ideal will always exist but that as committed teachers, we can work to make great improvements within those while working to shift those barriers so that our schools become transformative environments for all of our students. This past summer, we wrote about the power of transformative education, to create change and change-makers in our classrooms and schools. In pursuing this work, we recognize 20 courageous educators from schools throughout Savannah that have invested passion, energy, and time to explore what it means to transform teaching, classrooms, and schools to the benefit of our students. The inaugural class of Teach the Future Fellowship (http://teachthefuture.co/) has spent the first part of the year exploring what it means to engage in transformative education through professional development in-service; community learning through participation in Geekend and Railsbridge; and innovative problem solving sessions. Community partners such as The Guild Hall and The Creative Coast have been strategic in helping provide space and context for these dialogues to take place. Within these collaborations and events, we have witnessed courageous education. This courage has manifested itself in many forms: tenured teachers willingly revise classroom practice to take risks to more meaningfully leverage technology as a learning tool; an understanding and articulation of the ways in which innovation outside of education should drive meaningful reform within schools; and six creative solutions that both work within the confines of current school structure while seeking to redefine it simultaneously. These educators are taking their ideas and solutions into their classroom and schools, directly impacting their students, instructional approach, and school cultures.Our inaugural fellows will continue on their journey through the spring with participation in EdCamp Savannah, Fast Pitch, a tech crawl, and the TEDx conference. We are opening applications for the second class of fellows to apply beginning Feb. 1, 2016 through March 1, 2016. We seek a diverse and talented group of educator applicants from public and private schools in Savannah to continue the courageous conversation of what it means to create transformative education. Applications can be accessed at our website at: http://teachthefuture.co/ THE 2015-2016 TEACH THE FUTURE FELLOWS, INAUGURAL CLASS MEMBERS WERE:Lauren Brantley, Savannah Arts Academy; April Brooks,Savannah Country Day School; Susan Daly, May Howard Elementary; Amanda Fox, The STEM Academy @ Bartlett; Leigh Harris, Godley Station School; Kathleen Hobbs, The STEM Academy @ Bartlett; Lorelei Howard, H. V. Jenkins; Jessica Lazzuri, St. Andrew’s School; Thomas Maty,H.V. Jenkins; Melissa McCoy,Jenkins High School; Mark Mizelle, The STEM Academy @ Bartlett; Terence Mooney, Savannah Country Day School; Allyson Morgan, The STEM Academy @ Bartlett; Ronne Phillips, Coastal Middle School; Jen Standing, St. Andrew’s School; Jeremy Stringer, Savannah Country Day School;Dorothea (Thea) Van Goor, Esther F. Garrison School of Visual and Performing Arts; Carrie Vetrovsky, Savannah Country Day School;Alexis Watts, St. Andrew’s School; Daniel Welch, St. Andrew’s School. Dr. Kelley Waldron is the assistant head of school at St. Andrew’s School. Source: Savannah Morning News