Keep curiosity alive 〰️
Help keep curiosity alive
By raising $58,500, Words in the Wild maintains their Teaching Fellows through the end of 2026. Just this year, they’ll impact over 300 kids, families, and educators through evidence-based literacy instruction and the joy of reading.
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Make a one time donation
All contributions matter, from $1 - $10,000 (and beyond!). A one-time donation supports a current Teaching Fellow today.
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Sponsor a Teaching Fellow
Recurring donations let us know “we can count on this for a sustained period of time,” ensuring support beyond 2026.
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Spread the word
Sharing this campaign with your friends, colleagues, and neighbors helps more than we can say.
Your one-time donation makes an immediate impact
$200
Starts to offset orientation and onboarding costs for one Fellow
$600
Supports one Fellow’s participation in a weekly professional learning community for a semester
$350
Sends one Fellow to a Structured Word Inquiry professional development seminar
$1,400
Provides a community event led by Fellows: storytime, family literacy night or a local festival pop-up
Your sustained donation makes an immediate and sustained impact
$25/month
Covers an annual technology stipend for Fellows
$90/month
Covers one Teaching Fellow’s transportation costs for getting between schools both for instruction and coaching for the year
$50/month
Allows us to give one Fellow an additional lesson shadowing opportunity where they can observe and practice new teaching skills with mentorship
$250/month
Covers facilitation for one weekly Community of Practice meetings for all Teaching Fellows
Literacy shapes everything: our self-expression, our interpersonal relationships, and our global innovation. Without it, our world becomes small. And yet, over a third of kids aren’t reading at grade level, and too many teachers don’t know what to do about it.
Words in the Wild’s Teaching Fellowship solves the problem from both sides. This experience-based program provides hands-on learning for educators who learn how to help kids tap into their inner scientist and investigate words the same way they’d explore how dew drops are made or what happens to caterpillars in their cocoon.
By raising $58,500, two Teaching Fellows will remain on staff through the end of 2026 and impact hundreds of children and the people who love them (yes really. Keep reading).
Keep curiosity alive 〰️
A Teaching Fellow doesn’t change one life. They change hundreds.
In fact, within four years, one Teaching Fellow quadruples their impact. Here’s the math based on the lowest reasonable estimate:
Year 1 impact: 150 people
A Teaching Fellow begins their journey at Words in the Wild, reaching dozens of kids and their teachers and families through tutoring, family/teacher workshops, community events, and summer camp.
Year 2 impact: 300 people
Now the Teaching Fellow is also training incoming Fellows, along with expanded responsibilities for sharing their learning with the wider community. This means they’re impacting the kids those Fellows work with and creating more impact alone.
Year 3 impact: 450 people
Finished with the Fellowship, this alum takes a full-time teaching job.
They reach 25 kids in their classroom, plus those kids’s families, plus the school community; estimating low, that’s 150 people.
And they mentor their peers, helping other educators become stronger and teaching reading. Let’s say they mentor one peer and one new Teaching Fellow—that’s another 300 people.
Year 4 impact: 500 people
It’s year two of teaching for our alumni.
They’re impacting another 150 people (kids in the class, family, school communities)
They’re mentoring two fellow educators this year (another 300 folks impacted)
Maybe they’re joining the curriculum committee at their district and influencing thousands (but we won’t count that in this estimate)
And the people they mentored last year take on their own mentees (that’s another 300).
What’s Words in the Wild? Motivated by a vision of children growing into confident, courageous readers, surrounded by adults who believe in them and who have the skills to put that belief into action, we apply the spark of wonder to the power of structured literacy. Learn all about them.
How Teaching Fellows supercharge Words in the Wild
1.
Words in the Wild partners with districts, schools, and community-based organizations to serve children, teachers, and families with tutoring, professional learning, and literacy events.
2.
Teaching Fellows work and learn alongside Words in the Wild senior staff and staff in partner schools providing equitable, nature-infused literacy support. They are key to amplifying the impact of WitW’s mission by providing to students who are reading below grade level with joy and expertise.
3.
And, Teaching Fellows get experience with literacy-infused nature working at summer camp and community events like literacy nights at schools, free pop-ups at farmers markets and fairs.
4.
In this learning lab model, fellows receive coaching from seasoned pros and participate in ongoing cycles of inquiry that shape the programs.
Dr. Alexis Filippini
Dr. Filippini is the founder of Words in the Wild, an elementary school parent, and a reading specialist who prefers to teach in a garden. Alexis has supported children, educators, and families in a variety of roles since 2002, including bilingual reading interventionist, behavioral clinician, special education professor (San Francisco State University) and dean of teaching and learning.
Words in the Wild began when Alexis wondered how to get the most wiggly students engaged in intensive structured literacy interventions. In 2013, she piloted a summer camp called Readers and Writers in the Garden (which got rebranded because the kids said it was "too school-y"). Teacher mentoring was always part of the vision, and that first year her co-teacher was an early career special education teacher, who brought as much to the program as he gained. Specifically, he brought a worm bin. On the back of his bicycle. Those worms sparked the curiosity more quickly than Alexis had imagined, and thus began the "learning lab" model of mutual learning and growth with mentors and Fellows.
Dr. Filippini earned her MA and PhD degrees in special education with an emphasis in cognitive science from UC Santa Barbara, and a BA in linguistics. She also holds a preliminary Education Specialist Credential: Mild/Moderate Disabilities with English Learner and Autism Authorizations.
Founder | CEO
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Make a one time donation
All contributions matter, from $1 - $10,000 (and beyond!). A one-time donation supports a current Teaching Fellow today.
-
Sponsor a Teaching Fellow
Recurring donations let us know “we can count on this for a sustained period of time,” ensuring support beyond 2026.
-
Spread the word
Sharing this campaign with your friends, colleagues, and neighbors helps more than we can say.
Keep curiosity alive.