Jennifer McIntosh, a fifth-grade math teacher at Clark Creek Elementary School STEM Academy, is one of only eight educators statewide to be honored for creativity in the classroom in the Georgia Innovation in Teaching Competition. The competition through Georgia's Innovation Fund recognizes and rewards teachers who demonstrate "innovative teaching strategies" for the Georgia standards in English/Language Arts and Mathematics. McIntosh, along with the other winning teachers and their schools, will receive a $2,000 stipend and a $5,000 grant for the school to use in implementing Georgia's standards.

Teachers were nominated by principals, assistant principals, instructional coaches, district staff and the Georgia Dept. of Education's Teacher and Leader Effectiveness, School Improvement and Curriculum staff. Nominees were asked to submit a unit plan demonstrating innovative and effective strategies for teaching reading, English language arts and/or mathematics and a two-minute video describing their qualifications for the prize.

"The Cherokee County School District is one of the nation's most desirable systems in which to enroll your children largely due to the talent, dedication and innovative spirit of our teachers, and Ms. McIntosh exemplifies this," said Cherokee County Superintendent of Schools Frank R. Petruzielo. "Mathematics is a skill that each child needs to master for success in every career, especially the growing number of desirable jobs in the STEM fields, as well as in their day-to-day life; so, it should be encouraging for our community to know that we have another state leader in this field among our educators."