St. Francisville fifth grade teacher Stephanie Whetstone got one heck of a surprise yesterday, waking up to find she’d been award with the 25,000 dollar Milken Award for her work in the classrooms of Bains Elementary. Whetstone was recognized for her commitment to making sure students understand not just the STEM curriculum, but why they need those vital math skills.
“In told the kids when we are learning about decimals, that when you go to the grocery store with your family, you know now about paying with money, making change, and doing those everyday life skills.”
The 25,000 is a no strings attached cash prize.
Whetstone says Bains is one of the top five performing schools in the state, and credits their emphasis on building a sense of responsibility in their older students.
“We try to create a lot of leadership roles for our fifth graders so they can feel that they are important, and they can set an example for the other students.”
Milken Senior Vice President Dr. Jane Foley released a statement praising the educator’s work, saying “Stephanie’s students will know how to meet the demands of today’s global economy.”
It’s a generous award for one of Louisiana hard-working educators, and comes at a time where there’s a pay raise push statewide for teachers. Whetstone says she was shocked to receive the award, and hopes other Louisiana teachers will be financially rewarded by lawmakers for their efforts as well.
“Teachers are asked to do more and more every single year, and sometimes our pay does not reflect that. When we come to school, we aren’t just teaching, we are building these relationships, we’re being counsellors, we’re being nurses, we’re being asked to do a whole lot of other things.”
Governor Edwards is proposing a 1,000 dollar teacher pay raise, and a 500 dollar support staff pay raise.
