shana bowen head shot photoCongratulations to Shana Bowen, a second grade teacher at Somerset Elementary, who has been named a finalist for the Allen Distinguished Educators (ADE) program!  This year there were 81 applicants from 31 states, representing grades K-12.  Of these applicants, 16 were named finalists, and the ADE team will recommend up to seven to be named Allen Distinguished Educators.  The winners will be revealed, and receive $25,000 at an award ceremony at SXSW edu on March 8, 2016.

Bowen is extremely excited about being selected.  “Primary education is more than making learning fun, it’s about making it engaging, meaningful and authentic for our students,” she said.  “We recognize a creative mess as permission to explore, invent, and persist.  A classroom that allows for mistakes, fosters new ideas, bigger ideas and thinkers.  If we give students permission, they will be cooperative problem solvers and compassionate leaders.”

For more information about the award visit the Allen Distinguished Educators website.

The Bellevue School District acknowledges that we learn, work, live and gather on the Indigenous Land of the Coast Salish peoples, specifically the Duwamish and Snoqualmie Tribes. We thank these caretakers of this land, who have lived and continue to live here, since time immemorial.