Big surprise this morning for Highland Park Elementary third-grade teacher Amy West – she found out she is the STAR 101.5 Teacher of the Week. She’s at left in our photo with student Andre Brown, who nominated her for the award. Prizes included a personalized plaque and $100 for the classroom.
I’ll say it again and you can delete my comment if you think it too harsh, but these ‘awards’ are part of corporate marketing on the cheap for companies. For $100, STAR101.5 gets way more advertising than they can by other means. The student is adorable and this in no way reflects on the goodwill of people like him. WS Blog is basically advertising STAR101.5 right here for free. The school time and staff are being used as well as the goodwill of the students. Is it worth the $100. I don’t think so. Last week a similar award was given and publicized. Advertising and marketing on the cheap. This is advertising in OUR public schools.
Ponder, here’s my take on it. We decide what to cover and what not to cover. As editor, I decided to cover this (and the other one you’re alluding to) in honor of the teacher – Amy West in this case – not because of the sponsors (which in this case even include a competing news organization), only one of whom we mention. I could have gone so far as to say “a Teacher of the Week award from a local radio station” but I know as a businessperson that it takes some organizational muscle to make things happen, so I don’t feel personally bad about naming the station. I believe it’s great to recognize teachers, whether it’s a business doing the recognizing or some other kind of organization. As a business, WSB also has sponsored events involving schools – such as the Lafayette walk-a-thon, the Schmitz Park walk-a-thon, the West Seattle High School PTA’s WS 5K – and that usually results in some of what you might call advertising – our logo winds up on a T-shirt, maybe we get a shoutout from the emcee, whatever. But in the meantime, we’ve donated a few hundred bucks to the PTA in question, and some classroom needs get filled that go unfunded otherwise. I don’t know what would be the optimum way of noncommercially funding all needs at all schools, but it’s not happening now, so here we are – TR
I’m probably weird, but I noticed Amy West’s name and Highland Park, especially since they were in the headline. I barely noticed the radio station name. And $100 isn’t much, but at least will buy some supplies that Amy probably would have had to buy herself for the classroom.
congrats amy. nice job andre. love seeing students support their teachers.
never noticed the star 101.5 reference until the first commenter pointed it out. too sensitive.
In response to Ponder, I have listened to Star 101.5 for years and they do this program every single year. Not only goes the Teacher win a 100 bucks for her classroom, but i’m pretty sure she gets money for herself as well as some sort of makeover as a personal gift. I believe that Star does this for advertising (as every radio station does for survival) but i also believe that this station really cares about these moments when teachers realize that they have been honored with this. I highly doubt that they are only doing this solely for corporate marketing. What about Jackie and Bender’s One Big Kiss for Childrens Hospital? Do you think that is only for cooperate marketing? I think that this Teacher Of The Week program is fantastic, and teachers need to be recognized in our community, regardless of who is sponsoring the award.
WSF, now that you mention it, the fine print on the advisory (we got it a day or two before but I can’t find the e-mail now) did mention a couple other prizes.
Here’s the page with the details of the prizes:
http://www.star1015.com/contestsevents?contest=7495
.
Mike
Congratulations Ms. West and room 112. Ms. West is a compassionate caring teacher who is very intentional in how she engages her students in their academics and strives to make learning fun. Can’t we just celebrate a teacher and her students! Ms. West you Rock!!!
Sorry, comment time is over.
| 10 COMMENTS