Eyes on the Prize: Announcing the 2011 Awards for Teaching Excellence Recipients  

There were frayed nerves, excitement, and satisfaction derived from a lesson well taught when a dozen outstanding educators from across the nation each presented a real classroom lesson for the National Selection Panel for The NEA Foundation’s Awards for Teaching Excellence.

The panel selected the five 2011 recipients of The Horace Mann Awards for Teaching Excellence. Each will receive $10,000 and be recognized at the NEA Foundation’s Salute to Excellence in Education Gala on February 11, 2011.  One of these five educators will receive The NEA Member Benefits Award for Teaching Excellence and an additional $25,000.  Congratulations!The Horace Mann Awards for Teaching Excellence recipients are:

Kathy Steinhoff, an 8^th-9^th grade math teacher at Jefferson Junior High School in Columbia, MO;

Teresa Lawrence McNeill, a math teacher and ESL Program Coordinator at Walter Hines Page High School in Greensboro, NC;

Maryanne Woods-Murphy, a Spanish teacher at Adlai Stevenson High School in Bergen, NJ;

Karen Gorringe, a 6^th grade educator at Bluffdale Elementary, in Bluffdale, UT; and

Terri Vest, a 7^th-12^th grade English and social studies teacher at Twinfield Union School in Plainfield, VT.

A huge thank you to the National Selection Panel members: Jean Hobbs Conte, Joyce Powell, Eboni Walker, and especially the NEA Foundation Board members Pete Romero, who served as the panel chair, and Brenna Isaacs.

Get the inside scoop on what it’s like to be one of the five recipients of The Horace Mann Awards for Teaching Excellence. Watch 2010 gala emcee Philippe Cousteau chat with last years’ awardees.