When I opened the acceptance letter in April 2009 from the Geraldine R. Dodge/FEA Principal Fellowship Foundation I knew then that my life and educational leadership would be changed forever. My impression of "change agent" had been completely re-defined and my perspective on what's really important was made crystal clear.
Receiving a 2009 Dodge/FEA grant afforded me the opportunity to travel to Panama, Central America in June '09 to visit and enjoy the landscape that had birthed my husband. The grant would also allow me to purchase 110 children's books written in English to donate to an elementary school in need on the small developing island.
After 23 years of quality professional development and educational coaching, it was clear that my focus would be on providing something practical, meaningful, and tangible to whatever school I was fortunate to link up with in Panama.
Meeting and speaking with the Directora (School Principal), tiny staff, and eager students at the Escuela to donate the carefully selected and age-appropriate storybooks was an experience that has far exceeded any other educational leadership experience I've encountered. And, the obvious gratitude shared by the youngest to oldest member of the impoverished school is something I'll never forget.
The donated books represent the school's first-ever collection of storybooks written in English, which have been added to their very modest biblioteca (school library). All instruction occurs in Spanish, with a specialist visiting the school one day each week to provide minimal English instruction.
It's been wonderful maintaining global e-mail communications with my new international colleague, and I've already been able to enlist the help from a number of individuals in both my professional and personal network who have agreed to make donations to a Christmas 2009 Book Collection Drive I've started!
We can't wait to mail off this additional collection of quality storybooks as a way to partner with my Panamanian educational colleagues in order to help combat illiteracy on the island and to pave the way for continued bilingual education to regularly occur at the school! Just our small way of making a deposit into the lives of 21st Century learners across the globe...
Sharon is one of about 30 individuals who's received a 2009 Geraldine R. Dodge Principal Fellowship Grant funded by Dodge/FEA to help support self-selected, non-traditional, imaginative, professional development, and personal and intellectual renewal to help promote growth as an educational leader. Sharon is grateful to Dodge/FEA, Mary Reece, Jen Hunsinger, and other Dodge/FEA folks for extending this lifeline to help enhance her evolving leadership.
The focus of Sharon's written grant proposal was to develop a Lifeline Literacy Connection between a suburban New Jersey, USA town and a small rural village in Panama, Central America as a way to say thank you to her husband for his many years of extending lifelines to Sharon and to others.
Sharon M. Biggs, M.A. ~ Educational Leader
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