NEA Foundation and DC

The Panel pictured with me after the interview.

For some of you who know me and are "friends" with me on Facebook, you already know that I have been in Washington, DC being interviewed for the NEA Foundation Horace Mann Teaching Excellence Award. I was selected as a semi-finalist. The Foundation then interviews the top 10 and narrows it down to the top 5 (and selects the winner). This was a great opportunity for me in so many ways and want to share the process with you all. I had 90 minutes with the panel - the first 25 minutes I taught a lesson (pretending the panel were students) - the next 45 minutes were the interview questions. I felt sorry for the panel as these very accomplished people spent 10 hours Monday and 10 hours Tuesday in interviews. Now that is a couple of LONG days! These are the questions they asked and were sent to us ahead of time:

1. Why did you choose this particular lesson for us?
2. What do students take away from your classroom besides knowledge of a particular subject?
3. Describe the greatest impact you believe you have had on a student or students.
4. Please tell us the student body and the community in which you teach.
5. How do you involve parents and the community in your students’ education?
6. How do you help your students to value and understand the diversity (e.g., of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, politics, etc.) represented in our society?
7. Beyond activities in your own classroom, how have you contributed to the success of your school and/or district?
8. How would you convince college students and new teachers that it is vital to join and take an active role in the association?
9. What has been your most significant accomplishment in terms of advocacy for public education or the teaching profession?
10. What professional development experience has most affected your teaching practice?
11. What has been your most significant contribution to the professional growth of your colleagues?
12. Where has your intellectual curiosity taken you recently, and where do you expect it to take you in the future?
13. If you are selected as a finalist, you may get a lot of media attention. What issues related to public education would you want to advance? What would your key concerns and messages be?

Janice Ward with the NEA Foundation - she calmed our nerves, made sure we had everything we needed and fed us!

If any time remains at the end, I could talk on any topic. Hard to believe, but I had 2:24 to talk MORE! So I talked about the drop-out rate and the need to have interventions in place in 6th grade....waiting until high school is often too late. I wish I could report that I gave this wonderfully, perfect lesson but I didn't. My technology crashed in the middle of it and I had to quickly change gears. Consequently I didn't finish the entire lesson. Think I got any credit for adapting and being flexible??? :-)

I learned a lot through this whole experience and have grown professionally and personally. The NEA Foundation does amazing work. There are 3.2 million NEA members in the US and $1 of our dues goes to the Foundation. This Foundation is committed to lowering the drop out rate and promoting teacher innovation (among many other goals). Kansas City just was awarded one of their grants for the planning stages for Closing the Achievement Gap. How awesome is it that our dues are reinvested in educators....we are giving back to ourselves! If you aren't aware of all the Foundation's work, focus, grants, and awards - check it out here.

Harriet Sanford, President of The NEA Foundation

I was treated fantastic while in DC - like a professional! The hotel was incredible and the people were friendly and passionate. Harriet Sanford, President of the NEA Foundation gave me a book, Three Cups of Tea, to read. Can you believe this was on my list to read? It was perfect!!!! I have already read about half of it and it is inspiring to read about how one person is changing lives through education! I continue to learn and grow with each experience and have a new appreciation and awareness of the NEA Foundation. Thank you for this amazing opportunity and I look forward to the Awards Gala in February where all state award winners are recognized.

My chance of making the top 5 are "Slim to none and Slim just left the building" but will let you all know who the top 5 are when I find out - I am keeping my fingers crossed for a few other great State Teachers of the Year who were also up for this award and whom I consider great friends.

This is Madi and I pictured at KU in April.

So after a day filled with anxiety, relief, frustration, excitement, learning and exhaustion, I returned home to find an email from a previous student, Madi Shipley, majoring in math education at KU. When I was in Oklahoma City for the Regional Math Conference, I learned about a NCTM Scholarship math education majors could apply for. I thought Madi would be a perfect fit for this scholarship. She applied and guess what??? She was awarded it!! Only ONE student in the United States is given the $10,000 scholarship and Madi is the ONE! I am so proud of her. I know she will be an innovative, enthusiastic, and mostly, CARING educator. Some lucky students and district in the near future are going to have her for a teacher - exciting! This news completed my jumbled mix of emotions over the last 24 hours....and it ended with pride....and a reminder of why I teach!