Home > Grants
	Last updated 12.12.05

The 2004 NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence Recipient

Jennifer J. Montgomery
North Dakota Education Association (NDEA)

Jennifer J. Montgomery is an English and journalism teacher at Bismarck High School in Bismarck, North Dakota. A National Board Certified Teacher, she felt a special calling to be a teacher more than 12 years ago.

Ms. Montgomery's teaching style addresses students’ unique learning needs and backgrounds, allowing them to “work on things that matter in ways that make sense to them as individuals.” Her classes engage students in discussion and debate that help them to make analogies between contemporary life and events in the classic literature they study. She believes that students should “embrace leadership in their own learning,” a philosophy which is reflected in particular in her journalism students, who take full responsibility for publishing a monthly newspaper with a circulation of 1,500.

Ms. Montgomery has received numerous awards and honors, including the 2003 North Dakota Teacher of the Year and finalist for the 2003 National Teacher of the Year, 2001 Milken National Educator Award, and Award for Excellence in Teaching from American Councils for International Education in 2002.

Active in the National Education Association (NEA) as well as her local and state associations, Ms. Montgomery was a NEA Women’s Leadership Training Program National Cadres Trainer in 2002. She has served on the NDEA Board of Directors, acted as a legislative lobbyist, been a delegate to the NEA’s Representative Assembly, and served in many public relations capacities at the state level. At the local level, Ms. Montgomery has been Bismarck Education Association bargaining team member and head bargainer, and state representative assembly delegate, among many responsibilities.

Ms. Montgomery earned a Master of Science in Education; Bachelor of Science in Education, Summa Cum Laude; and a Bachelor of Arts, Summa Cum Laude, from the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.

For more information on the Horace Mann Insurance Company, our partner in
The NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence, click here.

Award for Teaching Excellence main page

Salute to Excellence in Education Gala main page