National Disney Teacher Awards Announced
45 Honorees Chosen from More Than 50,000 Nominated Teachers for Successful, Creative Classroom Strategies
BURBANK, Calif.—Disney heroes have been capturing children's hearts for generations, but the newest Disney heroes are reaching them in ways that Cinderella or Aladdin never could. Forty-five teachers from across the country have been chosen from more than 50,000 nominations to receive the 2005 Disney Teacher Award in celebration of their creativity, innovative teaching methods, and ability to inspire their students.
The Disney Honorees push beyond the limitations of the traditional blackboard-and-textbook style of teaching. For example, California Honoree David Vixie takes his history students out on the trail in actual covered wagons, while New Hampshire Honoree Randy Wormald has his math students do dances in the shape of algebraic functions in an activity called 'graph master boogie.' Some change the face of their communities, like Kansas Honoree Ron Poplau, whose community service students work daily with senior citizens, gang members, and the homeless; or Washington Honoree Harlan Kredit, whose science students have revitalized their local ecosystem and brought their river's salmon population back from almost nothing. And California Honoree Carol Anne McGuire taught both her students and her community an important lesson about dedication when her students, who are either blind or visually impaired, wrote, produced, directed, scored, and edited a movie.
"Disney was founded on creativity, and we feel it is vital in helping children learn in ways that both engage and challenge them," said Terry Wick, vice president of Disney Worldwide Outreach. "These creative teachers open up new worlds to students through their creativity and passion for learning. We are proud to be able to provide both monetary rewards and professional development to these special individuals."
The 45 Disney Teacher Honorees (and teaching teams) receive $10,000 from Disney Worldwide Outreach and a trip to The Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif., for a week of fun and celebration from July 23-28. In addition, Disney awards $5,000 to each honoree's school.
Disney Teacher Award Honorees are selected by their peers-former Disney Teacher Honorees and representatives of leading educational associations from across the United States. Honorees come from every subject field and every level of teaching. (See following list of 2005 Honorees.)
Established in 1989, the Disney Teacher Awards do not simply honor one teacher, they also make a permanent investment in that teacher's educational community. In addition to the monetary awards, Disney also flies the teachers and their principal to the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida in October for a six-day professional development institute where they can refine their own innovative teaching approaches by sharing ideas and learn how to engage other teachers to build an effective collaborative teaching culture at their school. Once they return, the teachers and their principals will work with experts from the Center for Collaborative Education in Boston to design a schoolwide plan for making teaching more effective.
The Disney Teacher Awards selection committee consists of former Disney Teacher Honorees and representatives from several leading educational institutions, including the American Federation of Teachers, the National PTA, the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Project Zero, the National Education Association, the National Association of Black School Educators, the American Association of School Administrators, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the Council for American Private Education, the Council for Exceptional Children, the Council of the Great City Schools, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and the National Middle School Association.
During the week of celebratory events in Anaheim, five exceptional teachers will be chosen from the 45 honorees. Four Outstanding Teachers and one Disney Teacher of the Year will receive an additional $15,000 from Disney Worldwide Outreach.
Nominations for the 2006 Disney Teacher Awards will be open in mid-August. For more information on the awards process, please visit www.disneyhand.com.
About the Disney Teacher Awards
The Disney Teacher Awards is part of DisneyHand, worldwide outreach for The Walt Disney Company. DisneyHand is dedicated to making the dreams of families and children a reality through public service initiatives, community outreach and volunteerism in the areas of compassion, learning, the arts and the environment. In 2004, DisneyHand contributed more than $165 million in cash, in-kind support and public service airtime globally, while Disney VoluntEARS contributed more than 461,000 hours to 1,852 outreach projects. For more information, please visit www.disneyhand.com.
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