Bay Area teachers build and test their own shoulder pads at an Extra Yard for Teachers event at Levi’s Stadium on May 18, 2018. (Courtesy San Francisco 49ers)
On Friday, the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers hosted 20 teachers at Levi’s Stadium to launch the College Football Playoff Foundation’s Extra Yard for Teachers platform across the Bay Area. Over the next year, counting down to the college football national championship game due to be held at Levi’s Stadium next January, the program will bring in more teachers and advocate for resources to support STEAM education.
“We have the benefit of leveraging a sports platform for a social cause, in this case education,” said Britton Banowsky, executive director of the CFP Foundation about the Extra Yard initiative. The program is unique in each community where the title game is played, and continues long after the clock runs to zero. The game in 2017 in Tampa., Fla. focused on college readiness, and the Foundation continues to work on that goal more than a year later.
The objective for Extra Yard in Silicon Valley is to support the teaching of science, technology, engineering, arts and math. “STEAM is not unique to the Valley,” explained Jesse Lovejoy, director of the 49ers EDU program and Bay Area Host Committee education director, “but we’re in a unique position to address it here. It’s what we do.”
Allison Frisbie, 28, a third-grade teacher at Reed Elementary in San Jose, was among the 20 educators at Levi’s Stadium on Friday. “This area is so unique to other areas,” Frisbie said, emphasizing how important technical skills will be to her students when they might be applying for work at local tech companies a decade from now, and the role of STEAM education in that. “It’s really preparing them not just for life, but for job opportunities.”
As well as discussions about the logistical and financial challenges teachers face bringing science, technology, engineering, arts and math education to their classes, the educators were put through their paces as students. They were given a challenge to build shoulder pads out of cardboard, straws, foam, and tape, then tested them by running and leaping back and forth
“I got to be in the kids shoes,” said Frisbie, noting that it helped to say to herself: “This is what my teacher expects me to do.”
Frisbie has also previously attended a couple of teacher training days within the 49ers EDU program. “I try to bring a lot back,” she explained of those events and the projects the teachers are given. “Definitely these ideas of problem solving, critical thinking.”
Many teachers across the United States face challenges with access to materials they need to teach STEAM. According to a U.S. Department of Education study released last week, 94 percent of public school educators spent their own money on classroom supplies during the 2014-15 school year. In charter schools the number was 88 percent. Overall, teachers spent an average of $479. At schools in which 75 percent or more students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, i.e., schools in economically disadvantaged areas, nine percent of teachers spent more than $1,000 on supplies. The majority of the teachers at Levi’s last week admitted needing to spend their own money on materials.
Banowsky and Lovejoy had a surprise in store at the end of the day. “This will help them,” said Jesse about the program in general, before adding: “And they’re about to find out that we’re giving them $2,000.”
That money came in the form of a coupon for the Donors Choose school crowdfunding website, and the funds were sourced from a $29 million donation to Donors Choose made by virtual currency company Ripple in March. When Banowsky announced the classroom contribution to the teachers, they were visibly stunned. Some teared up, others said the day felt like Christmas.
“Teacher’s often don’t get the recognition they deserve,” Banowksy said. “A lot of this is just saying thank you, keep going.”
