Former US President Bill Clinton and Other Dignitaries Presenting
Global Teacher Prize to 2015 Winner Nancie Atwell
June 11, 2015 – Varkey Foundation has officially opened the nominations and application process for the Global Teacher Prize 2016. The award is considered by some as the “Nobel Prize for Teaching”, with 1 million USD presented annually to the teacher with greatest contributions globally. In March 2015, former US President Bill Clinton handed the prize to Ms. Nancie Atwell (US). The judging panel, known as the “Global Teacher Prize Academy”, consists of head-teachers, educational experts, commentators, journalists, public officials, tech entrepreneurs, company directors and scientists from around the world. The panel includes Dr. James E. Ryan, Dean, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University; Ms. Carina Wong, Deputy Director, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Ms. Lila Ibrahim, Chief Business Officer, Coursera; and Dr. Tuan Pham, Founder, Topica Edtech Group.
“This is just the beginning of the road. The truth is that there is never any reward that will be enough to fully repay the debt we all owe to our teachers.” – President Bill Clinton shared.
Ms. Nancie Atwell, the teacher honored with the Prize in 2015, founded the Center for Teaching & Learning as a demonstration school in 1990. The independent K-8 school based in Edgecomb, Maine, has gained recognition for its small class sizes, research-based curriculum and teacher training programs. The majority of her students excel in high school, and 97% matriculate to college or university. Ms. Atwell has also become known for reading-writing workshops where children have the freedom to choose what they read and can tackle as many as 40 books a year. Her 1998 book about these workshops, In The Middle, has sold more than half a million copies and has become a blueprint for other teachers across the U.S. She plans to use all of the prize money for her school. Among her top priorities are expanding the school’s library system and maintaining diversity among its student body, giving tuition assistance to 80 percent of them.
Former Presidents and Prime Ministers of nearly 30 countries has issued a Pledge to Restore Teacher Respect. According to it, “Frequently the ills of society are laid at the door of teachers. They are blamed for everything from a decline in manners among young people to a lack of basic skills in the workplace. They have even, on occasion, been blamed for a country’s poor economic performance.”
Dr. Tuan Pham, Founder of Topica Edtech Group, and member of the Academy of Global Teacher Prize, shared: “This Prize aims to honor the great contributions of Teachers, so that children around the world will dream of becoming great teachers themselves. Teachers are providing inspiration and knowledge for the young generation to tackle the world’s problems: climate change, diseases and poverty. They are also sparking creativity, and encouraging people to move forward, and therefore advancing human civilization”.
This meaningful and honorable global prize is still less known in South East Asia, so many teachers with great contributions may be in a disadvantage of not being nominated and honored. Therefore Topica’s founder was invited to the judging panel as a Young Global Leader honored by the World Economic Forum, and representing an organization with strong contributions to education in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. The organizers are expecting that Topica will help promote the Prize widely in the region, finding and encouraging many nominations for great teachers in each country. Besides the main award worth 1 million USD, 49 other great teachers will be honored globally by this Prize. Apart from the Topica representative, Philippines is also represented by another judge Ms. Julia Abad, Head of the Presidential Management Staff, Office of the President. Other judges has not been named from Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
What did the best teacher you ever had give you that no one else could? If you could say one thing to your favorite teacher from school days, what would it be? Teachers deserve recognition for the magic they create every day. Now you can nominate the Pinoy teacher who helped open your eyes or has lit your child’s imagination on the official website of the Global Teacher Prize: https://www.globalteacherprize.org/nominate
To support nominators without English fluency, the main information on the Prize has been translated to Tagalog here: https://topica.asia/prizeph. Topica is also ready to help translating nominations into English if needed.
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Topica Edtech Group is a leading online education provider in South East Asia. Topica Uni cooperates with 8 universities including top-tier institutions in the Philippines and Vietnam and to provide high-quality online degree programs. Topica Native provides online English speech tutoring courses in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, and was the first in the world to launch a Google Glass app for speech tutoring. Topica Founder Institute is an accelerator program whose grads have raised nearly 10 million US dollars in 3 years. An early Topica initiative was personally launched by then-Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. Topica employs 500 fulltime staff, 1,400 part-time instructors and operates offices in Manila, Singapore, Bangkok, Hanoi, HCMC, Danang. ADVT