The PAEMST Eagle Flew Today

In addition to last week's recognition events in Washington, DC, the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching includes a $10,000 deposit into each awardee's personal bank account.

That deposit was made to my account today.

One of the PAEMST meet-and-greet small group discussion prompts last week Wednesday was "What are your plans for the prize money?" By that point in the activity, we were very comfortable with each other—impressed and delighted with the dynamism and affability of the assembly. So that particular prompt quickly disintegrated into joke-making. I recall asking my group if they thought "Candy and magazines" would be an inappropriate response. I don't recall serious feedback being offered!

The monetary prize is a wonderful benefit of being selected as an awardee. Who among us couldn't find a use for $10,000? I do not know the exact reason that it's part of the award, but it is likely an acknowledgement that teachers spend a non-trivial amount of their own money on classroom materials. With 97 awardees, there are probably 97 different ways the money will be handled.

In any case, I'm off to the store to get my candy and magazines!