CPS Teachers Earn Prestigious Fund for Teachers Grants

Two Cincinnati Public Schools educators are turning global experiences into powerful classroom lessons after earning prestigious Fund for Teachers grants. Walnut Hills High School teacher Erin Munsie is expanding her German language curriculum through an immersive experience in Europe, made possible by a $5,000 Fund for Teachers grant.

Munsie traveled to Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald and Auschwitz. She paired her visits with the novels The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Diary of Anne Frank and Night to deepen her understanding of history and culture through storytelling.

“I feel so incredibly lucky that the Fund for Teachers gave me this opportunity,” Munsie said. “As a German teacher, spending time in Germany is invaluable, much less to tie it with the visits to the concentration camps and the novels. Reading Elie Wiesel’s Night and then visiting Auschwitz and Buchenwald, where he and his father lived and died, brought new meaning to his words.”

Munsie said she hopes to share these lessons with her students in a way that goes beyond classroom instruction. 

“Though I’ve studied the Holocaust many times over the years, spending seventeen days to dive deeper really shed new light on many things for me,” she said. “The trip was at times emotionally difficult, but I have no doubt that it will directly impact my students through both my lessons and my broader view of history.”

Munsie is one of two CPS teachers to receive a 2025 Fund for Teachers grant. Anthony Hayes of Frederick Douglass Elementary School was also awarded $5,000 to explore museums, cultural sites and landmarks dedicated to Black and Indigenous histories and social justice in cities including Pittsburgh, Washington DC, New York City, Boston, Montreal, Toronto and Detroit. Hayes will use the experience to create robust lessons that inspire students to think critically, empathize deeply and take pride in their cultural heritage.

Both teachers are part of the 25th cohort of Fund for Teachers Fellows. This summer, 355 teachers received $1.625 million in grants to pursue self-designed fellowships across 79 countries on six continents. Since its founding in 2001, Fund for Teachers has invested $39 million in 10,225 public, private and charter school educators nationwide. The organization partners with the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation to support Ohio teachers.