Two San Diego-Area Teachers Win
National Disney Education Awards
Teachers from San Diego Chosen From More Than 75,000 Nominees for Inspiring,
Creative Classroom Strategies
BURBANK, Calif.— Two San Diego-area teachers have been chosen from more than
75,000 nominees nationwide to receive the 2006 Disney Teacher Award in
celebration of their creativity, innovative teaching methods, and ability to
inspire their students.
Each of the 44 Disney Teacher Honorees receives $10,000 from Disney and a trip
to the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif., for a week of fun and celebration
from July 29 to August 3. In addition, Disney awards $5,000 to each of their
schools.
• St. Claire Adriaan, a sixth-grade mathematics teacher at KIPP Adelante
Preparatory Academy in San Diego, is one of three Honorees being recognized for
middle school math education. Creativity is key in Adriaan’s classroom. “To
explain integers, I begin by reading a fairy tale about a beautiful princess
who was forced to marry a really mean prince. The princess has a really
positive outlook on life and loves people, nature and life itself. The mean
old prince is a very negative person,” explained Adriaan. “Somewhere in the
fairy tale the princess exclaims, ‘I love to love’ and ‘I hate to hate.’ The
mean old prince shouts out he ‘loves to hate’ and ‘hates to love’. This forms
the basis of my lesson on multiplying and dividing integers. Student knows
that love is positive and hate is negative and enjoy using it to solve
multiplication and division problems of signed numbers.”
• Carmen Munnelly, an eighth-grade history teacher at De Portola Middle School
in San Diego, is one of three Honorees being recognized for middle school
humanities education. When asked what she loves about teaching, Munnelly said,
“I get to do meaningful work with the most energetic and passionate people on
the planet. Middle schoolers are hilarious and have big hearts -- a can’t-miss
combo.”
“Disney is dedicated to brightening the lives of children and we salute
dedicated teachers like Mr. Adriaan and Miss Munnelly for using creativity in
their classrooms to inspire our children to achieve more than they ever thought
possible,” said Terry Wick, vice president of Disney Worldwide Outreach. “We
hope communities across the country will join us in thanking all their great
teachers this week during Teacher Appreciation Week.”
Disney Teacher Honorees are selected by their peers—representatives of leading
educational associations from across the United States and former Disney
Teacher Honorees. Honorees come from every subject field and every level of
PreK-12 teaching.
The Disney Teacher Awards do not simply honor one teacher, they also make an
investment in that teacher’s educational community. In addition to the
monetary awards, Disney will also fly Mr. Adriaan and Miss Munnelly with their
respective
principals to the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla., 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, Adriaan, Munnelly, 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. Ahmad will take a
leadership role, educating her fellow teachers in the creative techniques that
have made her so successful at connecting with students.
During the week of celebratory events in Anaheim, five exceptional teachers
will be chosen from the 44 Honorees. Four Outstanding Teachers and one Disney
Teacher of the Year will receive an additional $15,000 from Disney.
About Disney Worldwide Outreach
The Disney Teacher Awards program is part of Disney Worldwide Outreach. Disney
is dedicated to making the wishes 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 2005, Disney contributed
more than $190 million in cash, in-kind support and public service air time
globally. Disney VoluntEARS, company employees who donate their time to
outreach projects, contributed more than 442,000 hours of service. For more
information on Disney’s outreach initiatives, please visit www.disneyhand.com.
For more on the Disney Teacher Awards, please visit
www.disneyteacherawards.org.
