News – Teachers Institute of Philadelphia

TIP Fellow Sally O’Brien Featured in the artblog

TIP Fellow and Kensington Health Sciences Academy teacher Sally O’Brien collaborated with Artblog contributor Candy Alexandra Gonzalez on a poetry and book arts project called “Imagining Our Future Through Visual Poetry and Book Arts.” Together they applied for the Picasso Project Teacher-Based Grant, which supports innovative teacher-driven arts projects and in December, received news that their project had been funded. Their project has exposed Sally’s senior students to “book binding, word and image centered practices,…

TIP Seminar Leaders produce UN Report on Lead

TIP seminar leaders and University Advisory Council members Reto Giere and Marilyn Howarth along with Richard Pepino of the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology co-authored a new publication for the United Nations Environment Programme. The publication calls for the eradication of lead paint worldwide to prevent lead poisoning. The use of lead paint is still permitted in 60% of all countries globally and lead poisoning is the cause of more than a million deaths…

TIP launches 2021 seminars

On Wednesday, January 20th TIP launched its 2021 program with a virtual orientation reception. We heard a brief overview from each of the seminar leaders of the topic they will present to teachers over the course of the next 16 weeks. Members of our teacher and university governing bodies also shared how the program has improved teaching in the public schools and strengthened relations between university and community. We warmly welcome TIP’s 2021 cohort and…

TIP seminar leader Rogers Smith shared his post-election thoughts with CNN

CNN political commentator Tara Setmayer, who is a former GOP communications director, spoke with constitutional scholar and TIP seminar leader Rogers Smith about the 2020 election’s impact on the identity of the Republican Party. The event was part of the Andrea Mitchell Center’s Race and Politics series. They discussed the power struggle taking place within the GOP between “Trump-apologist Republicans and more traditional Republicans.” Though Smith and Setmayer agreed that Trump will dominate the Republican…

TIP Fellows Present at Celebration of Writing & Literacy

Local educators met online for two days of learning, reflection, and joy as they shared innovative and topical curriculum ideas on the theme of “Educating for Justice in the Digital Age”! 2020 was the 19th consecutive year that the Philadelphia Writing Project hosted the Celebration of Writing and Literacy and the fourth year of The Teachers Institute’s cosponsorship of the event. The Penn Museum also joined us this year as a cosponsor and presented the…

Seminar Leader Marilyn Howarth featured in Penn Today

Seminar leader and UAC member Marilyn Howarth was featured in Penn Today discussing her work to identify children exposed to lead poisoning, develop intervention programs and educate Philadelphia communities about the risks of lead. She and her colleague Richard Pepino, who spoke at last year’s Celebration of Writing and Literacy, have worked together with multiple partners, from local entities like the Overbrook Environmental Education Center to federal agencies like the CDC and the Environmental Protection…

TIP Seminar Leader Nominated for World Fantasy Award

TIP Seminar Leader Ebony Elizabeth Thomas has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award which recognizes the best fantasy fiction books published in the previous calendar year. The awards will be presented at the World Fantasy Convention on October 29th – November 1st. Ebony’s book The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games examines the teaching of African American literature, history, and culture in K-12 classrooms. This year she…

Superintendent Hite Praises Fellows at Spring Celebration

On June 30th we honored the 64 School District of Philadelphia teachers who completed our semester-long seminar program via Zoom. Guest speakers William Hite and Otis Hackney congratulated the teachers on their accomplishments and Fellows in each seminar shared what they learned and the curriculum units they created. Although we were unable to celebrate in person this year the event was an uplifting conclusion to a successful seminar program. Click here for photos from this…

TIP 2021 Seminars

Next year’s program covers a variety of topics including renewable energy, urban studies, democracy, cancer biology and African music. To learn more about TIP’s spring 2021 seminars click here: https://theteachersinstitute.org/apply-to-tip/current-seminars/ 2020 seminar leaders are (top left to lower right): Professor Jorge Santiago-Aviles, Professor Sandra Ryeom, Professor Rickie Sanders, Professor Carol Muller, Professor Karen Detlefsen. To learn how you can participate next year click here: https://theteachersinstitute.org/apply-to-tip/application/

TIP 2020 Spring Celebration

This year TIP’s spring celebration will be virtual! A fellow from each seminar will present a summary of what was learned and discuss the curriculum units created. This years seminars were: Evolutionary Biology led by Dustin Brisson New Approaches to the History of Slavery: The View from the Penn and Slavery Project led by Kathleen Brown A Visual Approach to Learning Math led by Robert Ghrist Cinema and Civil Rights led by Karen Redrobe The…

Seminar Leaders Ramsey and Troutt-Powell Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

TIP seminar leaders Guthrie Ramsey and Eve M. Troutt-Powell are two of four Penn faculty being recognized for their world-class leadership and expertise. They have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences which honored 276 leaders from different disciplines and professions in 2020. Ramsey is the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music in the School of Arts & Sciences. A musicologist, pianist, and composer, he is a widely…

2020 National Fellows Selected

TIP Fellows Alex de Arana, Cristobal Carambo, Rachel Odoroff, and Lisa Yau have been chosen to participate in national seminars hosted by the Yale National Initiative to strengthen teaching in public schools. The summer intensive program provides public school teachers deeper knowledge of the subjects they teach and an opportunity to learn from internationally renowned faculty members and colleagues around the nation. Alex de Arana will attend Politics and Public Policy in the United States…

Tip seminar leader kathleen brown featured in Penn today

TIP seminar leader Professor Kathleen Brown spoke with Penn Today about the history of black voting rights, quandary of black voters today, and the women’s suffrage movement. Click here to read more: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/african-americans-have-been-blocked-voting-black-vote-not-block Kathleen is currently teaching a TIP seminar entitled New Approaches to the History of Slavery: The View from the Penn and Slavery Project in which she and 11 Fellows are developing new strategies for learning about the history of slavery in the…

TIP Seminars will be led remotely due to coronavirus outbreak

TIP seminars will resume remotely on Monday, March 23rd to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We thank TIP’s 2020 Fellows and seminar leaders for adjusting and doing their best to safeguard public health during this difficult time.

TIP 2020 Seminars Begin

This week TIP Fellows began attending their weekly seminars! This year’s program covers a variety of topics including cinema, mathematics, science fiction, Philadelphia’s history, biology, and the Penn & Slavery project. To learn more about TIP’s current seminars click here: https://theteachersinstitute.org/apply-to-tip/current-seminars/ 2020 seminar leaders are (top left to lower right): Professor Robert Ghrist, Professor Ebony Elizatbeth Thomas, Professor Howard Spodek, Professor Dustin Brisson, Professor Karen Redrobe, and Professor Kathleen Brown To learn how you can…

National Teacher of the Year Award Winner Speaks at Yale National Initiative

Rodney Robinson, a three-time fellow at the Yale National Initiative (YNI) Summer Intensive program, was named Teacher of the Year by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). He addressed Yale’s Annual Conference on Saturday, October 26th, where Teachers Institute fellows from around the country had gathered to celebrate the completion of their unit-writing process. He explained the challenges of his former role teaching in a juvenile detention facility in Richmond, Virginia, and described…

TIP Fellows Present their Units at Annual Educator Convening

TIP fellows contributed enthusiastically to the Celebration of Writing and Literacy (CoWL) on Saturday, October 12, 2019, an annual convening that brought teachers and scholars from around the region. It was the third year TIP will partnered with the Philadelphia Writing Project on this event, in which teachers share self-authored curricula and research. Presentation sessions by TIP fellows showcased materials from 2019 seminars in Philadelphia and at Yale, and included “Intercultural Storytelling,” “Lead and Health,”…

Freda/Frankie Anderson wins 2019 Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching

TIP Teacher Freda/Frankie Anderson, won the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching this summer. Anderson teaches a community activism class to high school sophomores and juniors at the U School. “She comes up with ideas for her class by researching topics she is passionate about, borrowing some from Date, the previous teacher, and receiving input from other people. This includes not only her students, but also organizations such as Youth United for Change and Teaching Tolerance, more…

TIP Teacher Lisa Yau Publishes book of poems on depression, features work of 5th grade students

Kirkbride Elementary teacher and TIP Teacher Representative Lisa Yau created a book of her 5th graders’ poems entitled Demystifying Depression: 29 Voices to Normalize Crazy Goodness. The book stemmed from a project in which Yau’s students researched depression, then wrote and made art on the subject. Yau’s work in the 2019 TIP seminar “Modern & Contemporary U.S. Poetry” taught by Professor Al Filreis, inspired her to use poetry to teach about this important and difficult…

TIP Fellows Present at Penn Ethnography Forum

TIP Fellows Amanda Schear and Charlie McGeehan participated in The University of Pennsylvania’s 40th Ethnography in Education Research Forum, February 22 – 23, 2019 at the Graduate School of Education. This year’s theme, “The Future of Ethnography and Education: Methodologies, Equity, and Ethics” covered a wide range of topics in educational research, both local and international. The conference featured a full day of presentations and workshops led by educational practitioners. Amanda Schear led a session entitled: “When…