I am excited to announce that myself and nine other teachers across the country are finalists for a $10,000 classroom grant from GOOD through the Great American Teach Off competition. I am not so excited that one of the people I am competing against is a member of my online learning network. I am not, by nature, a competitive person (unless of course I’m competing with myself), so these kinds of things are hard for me. I am a strong believer that we are better working together than in competition with each other.
However, the grant money I have a chance of receiving will directly affect my students, and that I can live with. I plan on using the grant money for my classroom, but I also plan on giving some of it to the school to help jump start our new parent resource center. We can’t help children if we don’t help their families and their caregivers. Healthy, happy families are a better indicator of a child’s future than academic success.
So how does this competition work?
Each of the finalists will have a video posted at http://www.good.is/great-american-teach-off starting tomorrow–Monday, October 3rd. Voters visit the site and vote for their favorite teacher. You can vote only once a day, but you can vote every day!
Each week, 2 finalists will be eliminated. After 5 weeks, a final winner will be determined.
I can’t wait to ‘meet’ the other educator finalists through their videos and I wish everyone good luck. I have no doubt that each and every finalist is deserving of such recognition and that his or her students will benefit greatly from the grant money.
Visit http://www.good.is/great-american-teach-off every day and vote!
Tracey McGrath
mbteach