Earlier this year, we reported that comedian and actor Jack Black became the first participant in the Farmers Insurance “Thank a Million Teachers” campaign by personally thanking his former teacher Debbie Devine (scroll down for video).
“Thank a Million Teachers” encourages people of all ages to thank the teachers who made a difference in their lives on the website thankamillionteachers.com, and provides up to $2,500 in grant money to select educators who submit proposals via the site. Over half a million teacher thank yous have already been logged, putting the program ahead of schedule for reaching its goal of one million teachers thanked in 2014.
The campaign continues, and on March 6th was expanded with the announcement of the “Dream Big Challenge,” a national competition which will award five teachers grants of up to $100,000 each for use in transforming their schools and communities. According to the press release for the event, which took place at the Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, “teachers will be invited to submit comprehensive proposals describing their visionary program, implementation plans and timelines, expected outcomes and a detailed budget. Complete rules and guidelines, as well as downloadable forms are available at www.thankamillionteachers.com.”
In addition to announcing the competition, the event also recognized five local high school students, known as the “M.I.T. 5,” who will be attending the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology together this fall. The students — Andrew Koh, Raymundo Cano, Gi Min Choi, Kevin Escobar Rodriguez, and William Lopez-Cordero — publicly thanked their teachers and were then presented with a check for $1,000 each from Farmers, while Polytechnic High School itself was given a check for $5,000.
Have you thanked a teacher today?