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Jane Phillips Elementary’s art teacher Erin Rakes and music teacher Julie Pattison have been named 2020 Fellows by Oklahoma’s Fund for Teachers.

According to Bartlesville Public School, these teachers will explore the history and culture of Vienna, Salzburg and Munich when conditions allow. The district says this will allow Rakes and Pattison to create trauma-informed classrooms that incorporate hands-on learning experiences grounded in the arts for Pre-K through fifth-grade students.

Both Rakes and Pattison were among 37 teachers statewide who were selected for self-designed professional development grants for opportunities around the world in being named 2020 Fellows by Oklahoma's Fund for Teachers.

$132,000 in such Oklahoma grants were made possible through a partnership between the national nonprofit Fund for Teachers, the Oklahoma Foundation of Excellence, and the Tulsa Community Foundation. An Oklahoma Tribal Alliance, which began supporting the program last year, expanded its support this year to help increase the Oklahoma fellowship funding to its highest level in five years. Additional funding was provided by the Stuart and Temple Foundations of Tulsa.

Bartlesville Public Schools said the Tribal Alliance is comprised of the Chickasaw Nation, Osage Nation, Cherokee Nation, Citizen-Potawatomi Nation, Choctaw Nation, Sac and Fox Nation, the Seminole Nation and the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. This year, grants were awarded to six tribal members representing the Citizen Potawatomi, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Cherokee tribes.

Since 2002, more than 1,000 Oklahoma teachers have received Fund for Teachers grants totaling over $3.6-million. In 2006, Oklahoma became the first state in the nation to offer grants to educators statewide when the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence joined Fund for Teachers and the Tulsa Community as state partners.

Pictured below is Rakes and Pattison, courtesy of Bartlesville Public Schools.