Jen just sent this, a photo of her with Grant Boulanger and Robert Harrell in Boston this week:
Some of us will be disappointed to note that Grant was not chosen as ACTFL TOY. A traditional teacher was. I don’t think that a single one of us who was involved in helping Grant make his application last fall (especially Tina who worked a lot on it) is surprised. It’s 100% political. Grant was actually too good to win the overall award. That is to say, it is safe for ACTFL and their massive but incredibly inactive member Language Educators group to maybe allow a CI teacher to win regionally, as Grant did as the Central States representative to the national conference, but it would just be too much an admission for them to allow him what I feel is rightly his, the national award. C’est comme ça la vie, n’est-ce pas? Kind of like Hillary with the glass ceiling, one might say. (Three of the five regional finalists were CI teachers. Besides Grant, Darcy Pippins was the SWCOLT winner and Michelle Whaley was the PNCFL regional winner.)
Related:
https://benslavic.com/blog/teacher-of-the-month-robert-harrell/
https://benslavic.com/blog/plc-teacher-of-the-year-jen-schongalla/
https://benslavic.com/blog/another-teacher-of-the-year/