Three educational projects from Granada, Madrid and Avila win the 2016 Teacher Action Awards
The winners of the 2016 Teacher Action Awards have been announced. HM the Queen today presented the awards to teachers from three Spanish schools for their work in the classrooms teaching important projects for promoting social values. This year the initiatives focus on issues such as accessibility, human values and inclusion.
Ciudad BBVA was the setting for the presentation of the Teacher Action Awards presided by Queen Letizia. These awards recognize the work of teachers whose projects in the 2015-2016 academic year have promoted important values such as solidarity, integration and multiculturism. With this prize, BBVA aims to support enterprising teachers who change lives from the classroom.
In this edition of the awards, 438 candidacies were submitted from all over Spain, from pre-school, elementary, secondary and special education schools. After the assessment stage by autonomous regions –in which Andalusia came top in terms of shortlisted initiatives–, the jury finally chose these three projects.
In Category A –Pre-school and Primary Education–, the winner was “Proyecto capacitados”, submitted by José Alberto Martín Sánchez from the CEIP Atalaya school in Atarfe (Granada). This project aims to raise awareness of accessibility in public places and cities, using the idea of service to others as a learning path. It also seeks to improve accessibility for differently abled people.
In Category B (junior and senior high school, intermediate vocational training and initial professional qualification courses), the first prize went to the project “Redes inclusivas” (Inclusive networks) presented by Juan Carlos Hervás Hernando from the IES Profesor Julio Pérez school in Rivas-Vaciamadrid (Madrid). This is a program that uses active agents to integrate all the social, cultural and academic realities to be found throughout the school. This way everyone can feel part of the school and develop their skills in a motivating environment.
Projects carried out cooperatively between more than one school also had their own special award in the Special Category – Network Projects. On this occasion the winner was “Renacer” (Rebirth) submitted by Juan José Hernández de la Torre from the IES Valle del Tiétar school in Arenas de San Pedro (Avila). This initiative was carried out along with other schools in the area, and takes a closer look at the human values of inclusion and diversity. In it, students work on a subject by taking a multidisciplinary approach and from a range of angles and perspectives, but also in collaboration with students from other schools.
The jury awarded a special mention to the following projects: In Category A, to the “Arbolex” project presented by María José Oviedo from the CEIP Miralvalle school in Plasencia, Cáceres, focused on the inclusion of children with autism spectrum disorders. In Category B, “Y si yo fuera sirio?” (What if I were Syrian?), submitted by María José Ciudad from the Colegio Menesiano school in Santo Domingo de la Calzada (La Rioja), took a close-up view of the current conflict in Syria. Finally, in the Special Category – Network Projects, the special mention went to “En-red-ar”, a training project in the field of mediation for teachers and students, submitted by Carmen Chóliz from the IES Reyes Católicos school in Ejea de los Caballeros, Zaragoza.