Montgomery County Public
Schools Teacher is Among Six McGlothlin Award Finalists
Blue Ridge PBS recently announced the six finalists for the McGlothlin Awards for Teaching Excellence. Among the finalists is Jayanne Bridges, a teacher at Christiansburg Middle School. The finalists, who are from school districts in Virginia and Tennessee, are recognized for their commitment to the teaching profession; inspiring students, other educators, and the community; meeting the diverse needs of learners; and promoting a high level of student achievement and social responsibility.
Since 1999, the McGlothlin Foundation has provided two prizes of $25,000 to a kindergarten
through fifth grade public school teacher and a middle/high school public
school teacher who excel in their fields in core curriculum subjects. Recipients must use $10,000 for international
travel to broaden their thinking and experience, and to bring the world back to
their classrooms. Several of the past
winners have produced documentaries (some now in national circulation) and
websites to share their travel experiences with other learners.
The McGlothlin Awards are tied with the nation's largest awards to teachers (the
Milkin and the Disney awards) but are only offered to teachers from communities
in the Blue Ridge regions of Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
In the final round of the competition, separate three-person committees of
McGlothlin judges will observe the six finalists in their classrooms. The winners will be announced on April 17,
2007 at the presentation of the McGlothlin Awards ceremony held at Radford
University. The Awards culminate the celebration
of teaching, an afternoon of professional development for the region's
educators led by master teachers and other experts in the field. The event's keynote speaker will be Dr.
Thomas
Morris, Virginia's Secretary of Education.