The Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce and Chattanooga 2.0 invite Chattanooga region educators to apply for a new Innovation Award recognizing creativity and innovation in Hamilton County classrooms.
The two organizations will present the 2018 Education Innovator Award as part of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce’s Spirit of Innovation Awards on Oct. 24. This is the first year for the award, created to honor and celebrate local innovation in education that moves Chattanooga toward being the smartest community in the South.
“Our teachers are developing the next generation of innovators and creative thinkers. We want to recognize those teachers who come up with new ideas to help their students develop skills that later become a foundation for problem-solving and critical thinking,” said Abby Garrison, Executive Director for Causeway and volunteer leader of Chattanooga 2.0’s Innovation Action Team, which took a leadership role in creating the award.
Empowering educators, students, parents and the community to reimagine and transform the way learning happens is one of the 10 Urgent Strategies of the Chattanooga 2.0 education initiative.
The application deadline is Sept. 14. Educators can apply on Chattanooga 2.0’s website chatt2.org/education-innovator-award. The recipient will be announced at the Spirit of Innovation Awards event at the Chattanooga Convention Center on Oct. 24.
Chattanooga 2.0 Innovation Action Team members will judge applications based on the criteria of creativity, impact, execution, inspiration and potential to scale.
Eligibility Requirements
– Though judges will recognize the people behind the Innovation, the application focuses on a specific innovation, rather than the person. The Innovation must be a thing, whether that’s a physical product, curriculum, website, app, approach, strategy, etc.
– The innovation must have been implemented in Chattanooga/Hamilton County within the past three years
– The innovation must be new to Hamilton County
– The innovation must be implemented in a PK-12 school or classroom in Hamilton County
– All schools within the county are eligible (public, private, charter, magnet)
– The primary applicant must be employed by a school or the public school district
Chattanooga 2.0 is a community-led movement to transform education and workforce opportunities in Hamilton County. The Innovation Action Team of Chattanooga 2.0 is comprised of business leaders and entrepreneurs along with teachers, principals and Hamilton County Schools leaders. The focus of the team, as its name implies, is to bring innovation back to our schools and perpetuate the idea that innovation is not just technology, it’s doing things in new ways and implementing creative ideas. For more information about the Chattanooga 2.0 movement, visit chatt2.org.
