The Michelle Traina Riecke Teaching Fellowship is awarded annually to educators in the South Orange & Maplewood Schools who are inspired to advance their teaching skills by learning new and creative methods to use both in traditional classroom settings and beyond. Recipients pursue summer professional development experiences of their choice that lead to improvements in practice, curriculum, and ultimately student achievement. Their newly acquired skills must be directly applicable to their current teaching assignment, and Riecke Fellows are required to exercise professional leadership by sharing their insights with their colleagues so that the knowledge gained will benefit students throughout the entire school district.

Applicants may request up to $3000 for an individual teacher or $5000 for a team of two or more teachers. The deadline for the online application for 2010 awards (available now) is March 26.

The Riecke Fellowship: General Information

Read about the application process.

Preview the online application.

5 tips for finding professional development opportunities.

Apply for a Riecke Fellowship online.

Michelle T. Riecke Fellows:

 

2004:

Eve Kingsbury, Angela Medise and Valerie Sharp: National Differentiated Instruction Conference

2005:

Noah Brauner: NY School of Visual Arts – Computer Aided Design Technology
Kate Pfiefer: Counseling in Culturally Diverse Communities – Minuchin Center for the Family

2006:

Peter Trebour and Thomas Whitaker: Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) Conference

2008:

Bebe Greenberg, Donna Grohman and Jennifer Smalletz: The August Institute on the Teaching of Writing, at Columbia University in New York City.

2009:

Mary Brancaccio: Creative Non-Fiction: Telling the Truth, at Bard; Cathrine Evans, Maureen Davenport, Sue Donatelli, Kathy Shelffo, & Lisa Heumann: Responsive Classroom Institute, New York, NY.

 

About Michelle T. Riecke

The late Shelley Riecke was a beloved friend of SOMEF and a resident of Maplewood for eleven years. For six of those years she was an elected member of the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education and served for two years as the board president. This fellowship was established in her memory in 2003.