The 2016 Milken Educator Awards Forum

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Mar 21, 2016

We added 37 outstanding teachers and principals to the Milken Educator family this year. Watch the highlights of our 2015-16 Awards season in the video above.

Dear Milken Educators and Champions of Education,

We just returned from three wonderful days with the 2015 Milken Educators at the 2016 Milken Educator Awards Forum in New Orleans. It was such a pleasure getting to know the new class and learning about their classroom strategies, sky-high expectations for their students, and dreams and aspirations for their own careers.

As Kimberly Freeman (SC '15) said on her blog shortly after she returned from New Orleans:

At the end of the day, it wasn't exactly about learning. It was about thinking. It was about dreaming. It was about doing....There was a continuous message: What is the impact I will leave on my chosen and cherished profession? Is it possible to broaden that impact? Am I taking my responsibility seriously enough?

And as Milken Educator Awards creator Lowell Milken said, "There is no natural constituency for change....It takes someone like a Milken Educator to articulate a vision."

From job-alike presentations to share creative teaching techniques, to the exciting presentations and panel discussions, to the many bonds formed during and between the sessions, to the beautiful and meaningful kukui nut leis gifted to all by Michael Sana (HI '15), the Forum was one of the high points of this Awards season. We look forward to watching the Milken Educator class of 2015 change the way teachers teach and students learn for decades to come.