Teacher Ambassador Fellowship.

Applications for the Department's fifth cohort of Teaching Ambassador Fellows recently opened and are scheduled to close on February 22. Since 2008, this highly competitive program has enabled a total of 69 outstanding teachers, each with a record of leadership, strong communications skills, and insights into education policy based in classroom expertise to work with the agency on either a full-or part-time basis. The program offers three separate paid positions. The Washington Fellowship is a full-time appointment based at the Department's headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Classroom Fellowship enables teachers to participate on a part-time basis with the Department, working with the agency's regional offices, in addition to their regular school responsibilities. The Regional Fellowship, offered for the first time this year, is a full-time appointment based at one of the Department's regional offices. All fellows spend a year learning about federal programs and policies, sharing their expertise with federal staff members and providing communication and outreach about federal initiatives to other educators on behalf of the agency in order to help teachers understand and implement these efforts at the federal, state, and local levels. (Note: In a blog post, current Washington fellows react to the President's comments on teachers in his State of the Union address.)