Up with Her: Spokane teacher receives national innovation award

Alumna Jennifer Macias Morris (MiT in Elementary Education, 2015) was recently selected as a 2021 Grand Prize Winner in The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation Teacher Innovator Awards sponsored by Raytheon Technologies. The Teacher Innovator Awards recognize teachers who inspire students to challenge the rules and take risks, who demonstrate how to be collaborative and empathetic, and who teach the value of learning by staying curious and learning from failure. Macias Morris is one of 10 grand prize winners from across the nation. She is a first grade Spanish immersion teacher for the Libby Center in Spokane Public Schools and was recently profiled in an "Up with Her" segment by Spokane news station KREM 2. "I want [my students] to be critical thinkers," Macias Morris shared. "I don't tell them what to think. It's them ― it's their perspective ― and that's big into developing and empowering students for the twenty-first century skills." Macias Morris completed her program at the College of Education with support from Jennifer Lindsay, Liz Donat, Mary Beth Canty and Patrick Sexton ― all of whom she would like to give special thanks. She was a recipient of the Martinez Fellowship as well as the UW's Ferguson Endowed Scholarship.