The following five educators received personal monetary gifts, digital arts training for teachers and students in their schools, and expenses-paid travel to the NEA Foundation’s Salute to Excellence in Education Gala for themselves and a guest.   These educators were selected from 38 educators nominated by their state affiliate.

The NEA Member Benefits Award for Teaching Excellence recipient receives $25,000 and the four runners-up for the top award each receive The Horace Mann Awards for Teaching Excellence and $10,000 in cash. 

The 2010 NEA Member Benefits Award for Teaching Excellence Recipient

Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh

Dilworth Elementary School
Salt Lake City, Utah
Utah Education Association Nominee

After reading aloud a story about a young boy who loves to explore his grandma’s button box, Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh brings out her own collection and teaching tool.  The enormous jar is filled to the brim with buttons of varying shapes, colors, sizes, and materials.  As the students sort and count the buttons, they learn math skills.  They then use their senses to explore how the buttons feel and imagine who might have worn each button and on what occasion.  This lesson demonstrates Gallagher-Fishbaugh’s hands-on student centered approach to instruction which nurtures cooperation, teamwork, tolerance, and self-reflection.  

Gallagher-Fishbaugh earned her B.A. from Loretto Heights College in Denver, her M.A. from National University in La Jolla, CA, and certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS).  She is a member of the National School Reform Faculty and her state’s 2009 teacher of the year.

Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh Video Duration: 2:46

The 2010 Horace Mann Awards for Teaching Excellence Recipients 

Sarah Baird

Kyrene del Milenio and Kyrene del Cielo Elementary Schools
Phoenix, Arizona
Arizona Education Association Nominee

“I love math” is the mantra in Sarah Baird’s kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms.    This energetic math coach believes in celebrating individual students’ achievements every day.   Students that answer questions  receive a prize, a hug, or a cheer.  Baird’s enthusiasm is contagious.  After deciding to put aside textbooks and use story problems to make math matter, her students’ scores are soaring, and they are embracing critical thinking and mathematical reasoning skills. 

Baird received her B.A. in 1999, M.A. in 2002, and was certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) in 2004.  She also was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2009 from Northern Arizona University.  She is her state’s 2009 teacher of the year and is currently mentoring ten National Board candidates at one of her schools.

Sarah Baird Video Duration: 2:47

Katherine Bishop

Special Education Teacher
Lake Park Elementary School
Bethany, Oklahoma
Oklahoma Education Association Nominee

Katherine Bishop believes that everyone has barriers to learning, but she realizes it often takes time to pinpoint exactly what they are and how to help.  Bishop has created a classroom rich in technology to celebrate her students’ abilities while honoring their differences. 

Thanks to an amplification system funded by a grant Bishop co-authored, her instruction can be understood by the student who is unable to block out certain noises and another who struggles to distinguish between similar sounds.  In her classroom, students may simultaneously preview an assigned book as hard copy, using e-text readers, or with headsets for an audio version. 

Bishop received her B.S. from the University of Central Oklahoma in 1991 and National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification in 2000.  She co-chairs the NBPTS Exceptional Needs Standards Committee and serves on the NEA IDEA Resource Cadre.

Katherine Bishop Video Duration: 2:47

Timothy McCollum

Charleston Middle School
Charleston, Illinois
Illinois Education Association—NEA Nominee

Enter the classroom where the “Sci Guy,” aka Tim McCollum, has been teaching for 36 consecutive years and you may find yourself transported to another continent or a different planet—at least virtually.  His students could be videoconferencing with scientists in Antarctica or downloading images of Mars from a NASA spacecraft.  On a low-tech day, teams brainstorm the best way to launch “spud missiles” during a lesson on Robert Boyle’s Gas Law.  McCollum strives to give his students a daily adventure and teaches them that good questions are more valuable than the right answers. 

McCollum earned his B.S. and M.S. from Eastern Illinois University.  Since 2008, he has been a co-investigator for the NASA Project Expedition Earth and Beyond.  He also served on the National Science Board Commission on 21st Century Education in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).

Tim McCollum Video Duration: 2:47

Robert (Bob) Williams

Colony High School
Palmer, Alaska
NEA Alaska Nominee

Meet Max PZN, a character Bob Williams introduces in his AP Calculus class to help students understand how to find the Relative Maximum of a function where a slope goes from positive to zero to negative (PZN).  Students who take this popular, yet challenging, class form a bond as if in a club, proudly wearing their “team uniform” t-shirts.  Williams thinks that students who excel in math deserve the same attention that athletic teams get at pep rallies.  So, he holds annual school-wide “Pi Day” assemblies at which students perform original math-inspired poetry or songs.  His teaching reaches struggling students and high achievers alike with in-depth inferences and new applications of mathematical concepts.

After completing a degree in engineering, Williams discovered that he loved teaching math.  His earliest teaching experience took him to Gambia, West Africa with the Peace Corps.  He also taught in Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Bronx before returning to his home state.  He earned his M.A. from Columbia University in 1991 and a M.Ed. in educational leadership in 2006.

Bob Williams Video Duration: 2:47