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BEVY OF COMPETITIONS REWARDS TEACHERS; NEW LISTING KEEPS READERS UP TO DATEMarch 8, 2000Recognition for using art to reach students with special needs, or recognition for just being a good teacher, is only a small stack of paperwork away as two organizations launch new rounds of teacher competitions this month. Both seek to bring national recognition to teachers who see going to school every day as more than just a job, and both offer a little padding for the wallets of those who win. Other companies are offering grants to promote new ideas and projects. Recognizing that if teachers want help they often have to ask, Special Education News is launching a new listing of competitions and grants. March is not necessarily a special month for teacher competitions to be announced. It just happens to be the month during which Special Education News has decided to add "Grants, Competitions and Awards" to its RESOURCE LIBRARY. This listing will be updated regularly as new award competitions are announced, and links to news about winners will be posted as it becomes available. The listing will also feature information on federal and private grants to fund various special education projects. The P. Buckley Moss Foundation for Children's Education is looking for teachers, administrators and paraprofessionals who use innovative and effective arts programs to teach students with disabilities. The projects can be in the visual or performing arts and should target students with identified perceptual, cognitive, and sensory disabilities. One first place winner of the National Educator's Award for Advanced Special Education Through the Arts will receive $5,000 cash, and the winner's school will receive an equal payment that must be used to develop new programs or improve existing programs using arts instruction for students with disabilities. Three second place winners will receive $500 each, with equal payments to their schools as well. The Walt Disney Co. is again looking for outstanding teachers to put on TV in a national awards ceremony it holds every year from Disneyland and shows on The Disney Channel. The American Teacher Awards recognize teachers who help improve performance or light creative fires within their students. From nominations submitted in the spring and applications that must be submitted in June, Disney selects 39 honorees. From them, the company names 12 finalists, one in each of 12 categories including special education. One final national teacher of the year is selected from those 12 finalists. First round winners receive $2,500, and an additional $2,500 is given to their schools. Finalists get another $2,500, and the national winner receives $25,000 plus $25,000 for his or her school and $10,000 for the school district. In the grant department, Super School Software launched a new program, e2000, to provide teachers and administrators an opportunity to work with other teachers and administrators to improve assessment and instruction through technology. The project will build a team of teacher researchers "who are willing to investigate the potential of technology as it relates to assessment, educational planning, and best practices in regular, gifted, and special education," the software company says. In addition to an unspecified grant amount, selected teachers and administrators will receive training and support for educational projects and will benefit from the research findings of the entire group, Super School says. New grants are also available from Curriculum Associates, through its Excellence in Teaching Cabinet Awards. The grant program helps teachers make classrooms better learning environments through the use of innovative tools and technology. The grants will fund projects from three months to one year long in kindergarten through eighth grade. The awards include cash grants of $1,000, plus $500 in materials from Curriculum Associates, a private firm that publishes supplemental classroom materials such as printed worksheets, audio tapes and CD-ROMs.8 |
