Chattanooga's 15 'Teacherpreneur' winners are announced

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

The Public Education Foundation on Tuesday released the names of all 15 winners in the city's first "Teacherpreneur" competition.

The five top winners were announced Aug. 3, with the promise that more winners would be named soon.

All the winners will share $100,000 offered by the Benwood Foundation. Teacherpreneur was hosted by the Benwood Foundation, the Public Education Foundation and the Hamilton County Department of Education in collaboration with CO.LAB.

The winners are:

• 1. The Howard School's Jessica Hubbuch and Sean Brown for their "Standards Driven Project-Based Learning for High School Sciences" project.

• 2. Red Bank Elementary's Beth Wilson for "Beth's List," a website akin to Craigslist for teachers. The list connects teachers with local businesses that have extra classroom and office supplies.

• 3. Normal Park Museum Magnet's Matthew Craig proposed "First Person Fixer," an interactive computer diagnostics and troubleshooting seminar.

• 4. Two projects tied for fourth. They are Hixson High School's Lee Friedlanderl for "Developing Opportunities for Authentic Student Entrepreneurship with Agriculture Education" and a group of teachers from Bess T. Shepherd, who suggested the "Leadership Think Tank 21st Century Communication and Beyond."

The top five projects received prize money for teachers and funding to implement the ideas. All 15 projects will get financial support. Other projects selected for funding include:

• 5. Ganns Middle Valley Elementary School's Dan Basler presented "All-Star Assessments."

• 6. Central High School's Natalie Cothran for "ATOMS: A Team of Motivated Scientists."

• 7. Kimberly Elbakidze of Red Bank Middle School, "From Ordinary to Bomb Diggity."

• 8. Derek Beaty of Ganns Middle Valley Elementary School, "Math Strategies" app/website.

• 9. Angela Davis of Hardy Elementary School, "One Book, One County, One Child -- A Countywide Book Club."

• 10. Lance Myhan of Ooltewah High School, "PassPort."

• 11. Leah Keith-Houle, Red Bank High School, "Riding the Winds With Drones for Science and Safety."

• 12. Cindy Gaston of Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts, "Seminar Toolkit App."

• 13. Cristol Kapp of Clifton Hills Elementary School, "The MakerSpace @ Our Library."

• 14. Ashley Cox of The Howard School, "Virtual Seminars -- Expanding the World for Students."

Some 60 teachers applied for the Teacherpreneur competition. Twenty-eight teachers or teams of teachers were selected to give public presentations. All 28 projects will continue to receive support from Public Education Foundation, Causeway, CO.LAB and other community partners.

To help mentor or support one of the teams, contact Keri Randolph at krandolph@pefchattanooga.org or 423-668-2426.