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Foundation Announces Teacher of the Year

The Silicon Valley Education Foundation (SVEF) and Xilinx hosted the event which also honored teachers named in the K-BAY/SVEF Teacher of the Month program and SVEF’s Teacher Innovation Grants, both recognize teachers who use innovative and creative methods to inspire learning in the classroom.  They were joined by San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, members of the business community and dozens of Silicon Valley school superintendents, school board members, principals and classroom teachers.

SVEF named Scott Wolf a 2nd grade teacher at Arbuckle Elementary School in the Alum Rock Union School District, as the 2007/2008 Teacher of the Year for his hands-on paleontology project.   SVEF also recognized Karen Benitez, a science teacher at George LeyVa Middle School in the Evergreen School District, as the 2006/2007 Teacher of the Year for her project surrounding the laws of motion. 

“A quality education begins with creative, dedicated teachers,” said Muhammed Chaudhry, President and CEO of SVEF.  “Tonight’s awardees exemplify the innovative and creative spirit Silicon Valley schools need to succeed.  It’s important that we honor their commitment and reward their efforts.”   

"A good community needs good schools and good schools need good teachers", said Mayor Chuck Reed, "I'm pleased to join the SVEF in presenting recognition awards to our outstanding teachers.  Please continue to inspire the future innovators of Silicon Valley."

The Teacher of the Year was selected from the pool of SVEF Teacher Innovation Grant winners.  The Teacher Innovation Grant program seeks to incentivize innovative approaches to learning in the classroom by providing $500-1,000 grants to teachers through a competitive process.  Each month, K-BAY 94.5 and SVEF select one teacher as “Teacher of the Month” who is publically recognized on K-BAY throughout the month.  The Teacher of the Year was selected from the “Teacher of the Month” winners.

“Xilinx is committed to ensuring Silicon Valley schools prepare our students for the Silicon Valley jobs of tomorrow,” said Ivo Bolsens, Senior VP and CTO, Xlinix.  “It’s our honor to recognize teachers who inspire their students to achieve their best, and who show the courage to try new approaches to teaching to get results.”

As part of the awards ceremony, the 2007/2008 Teacher of the Year awardee received a $2,500 grant from IBM for their school to go towards the purchase of equipment, materials, training, field trips or other educational purposes to further the school’s academic programs.  Additionally, the Teacher of the Year receives a $500 grant to be used for their classroom and a $500 grant to be used for any purpose the teacher chooses, and a laptop computer donated by Apple. 

Also recognized at this evening’s event were the participants in SVEF’s Teach Here, Live Here program. Teach Here, Live Here offers teachers a $5,000 grant for rental and move-in assistance for teachers committing to teach in San Jose for three years.  The program was started with a $100,000 grant from the City of San Jose, proposed by Mayor Chuck Reed.  To date, the program has helped school districts recruit new teachers, specifically in the hard to fill positions of math, science and special education.