Fifth-grade students at C.W. Shipley Elementary School got to celebrate their teacher when she was recognized for winning the teacher portion of the Smart 529 essay contest. from the West Virginia State Treasurer's office visited the school on May 24 to present Amanda Coon with a check for $2,500. Ms. Coon was the only teacher to win the honor in West Virginia.
Ms. Coon said she has her students participate in the annual essay contest that asks them to write about what they want to be when they grow up every year, but this time she did it as a class project.
"If they did something, I did it with them," Ms. Coon said. "I sat down with them and drafted mine just as they drafted theirs, and we did it all together."
The teacher portion of the contest asks educators to reflect on how they teach and what they are encouraging students to do. Coon said it also got into application beyond the classroom.
"I wrote about how I implement lessons in my room for students and how I relate different topics to the real world to make them think about what they want to do and how it's going to impact their future."
Coon said she teaches students how to budget and manage money using "Coon Cash," a classroom currency the students could earn, lose, and spend. Ms. Coon said she is able to help students connect that to the future.
"There are fines, and students had to keep a ledger with their balance," she said. "We apply that to whatever job they want to do."
She said the money from the essay contest will complement a grant she wrote for a greenhouse her students will use to grow plants.