NITV Launches TeachersFirst with Contest for Teachers

Posted on October 30, 1998

The "$100 for 100 Teachers" contest celebrates the launch of TeachersFirst, a new website to provide these resources and make using the Internet easier for K-12 teachers. The goal of the contest is to provide all educators, present and future, with effective, "teacher-tested" Internet resources. TeachersFirst was created by NITV, a not-for-profit learning technologies corporation based in Reston, VA. The free website contains a collection of lesson plans and other classroom and professional materials assembled to assist teachers who don't have the planning time or the training to easily find high-quality educational materials on the Internet.

"Compared to last week's $1.1 Billion dollar budget deal on education, I know that our contest seems small," said Steve Gorski, Senior Vice President of the TeachersFirst Division. "But, I believe the contest will assist all teachers, current and future," he stated.

The $100 for 100 Teachers Contest begins on Monday, October 26, 1998 and will run through Wednesday, November 25, 1998. Contestants will be asked to submit lesson plans to TeachersFirst and the best 100 selected will win a $100 cash award. Winners will be announced on Monday, January 4, 1999, and the winning lesson plans will be posted on the TeachersFirst website during the remainder of the school year so that all teachers across the nation can share in the winning submissions. All contest details can be found on the TeachersFirst site.

"This contest will result in an excellent collection of teaching efforts to be shared for use in classrooms," said Mr. Thomas A. Pyle, Executive Director/CEO of NITV. "It will introduce our new service to a broad new audience of educator users; it will be fun for participating teachers, rewarding for the 100 winners, and most of all, it will be great for children in classrooms across the nation. That's a quadruple win!"

NITV has been assisting schools with technology issues since 1979 and created TeachersFirst as part of its 20th Anniversary commemoration. "From the beginning, NITV's mission has been to improve learning through the proper use of technology," said Dr. Charles D. Moody, Sr., Chairman of NITV and Founder of the National Association of Black School Educators. "and I am proud of what NITV has accomplished and its future direction," Dr. Moody concluded.