For the last 9 years, I have had at least 1 (now 4) kids in a class­room. I do not think of the school as just the place where I send my kids each day for 6.5 hours. The teacher is part of our extended fam­ily. On a school day, the teacher spends just about as much awake time with my child as I do. My child’s teacher is our part­ner in rais­ing our chil­dren. The amount of time, energy and money that they ded­i­cate to their class­rooms is enor­mous. I often have a dif­fi­cult time find­ing ways to thank them for the ded­i­ca­tion they put forth. Some­how, a can­dle just doesn’t express what each one of my child’s teach­ers means to me. My involve­ment in the “A Day Made Bet­ter” cam­paign is my way of giv­ing back to the teachers.

Did you know teach­ers spend an aver­age of $1200 of their own money on class­room sup­plies each year? That’s $4 bil­lion annu­ally! That’s why Office­Max joined with Adopt-A-Classroom to cre­ate “A Day Made Bet­ter,” a national cause event founded to erase teacher-funded class­rooms. This year, “A Day Made Bet­ter” will take place on Octo­ber 6 where 1,000 teach­ers will be sur­prised in their class­rooms each with $1,000 worth of essen­tial sup­plies from Office­Max. That’s more than one mil­lion dol­lars donated to help teach­ers! Prin­ci­pals at needy schools nom­i­nated the teach­ers for demon­strat­ing ded­i­ca­tion, inno­va­tion, and passion.

To pay-it-forward, Office­Max and Mom It For­ward have teamed up to cre­ate aware­ness about the issue of teacher-funded class­rooms and to give you the oppor­tu­nity to get involved and help a teacher in your com­mu­nity on behalf of the “A Day Made Bet­ter.” Here’s how:

Sim­ply nom­i­nate a teacher of your choice to win this give­away by fol­low­ing the entry require­ments. Be sure to check out the prize and criteria!

Prize

One excep­tional teacher will receive a ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR gift card to Office­Max. This can go a long way when it comes to class­room supplies!

Cri­te­ria

This is a give­away that is meant to be given away. What does that mean? You get to nom­i­nate a teacher by shar­ing why this per­son is excep­tional and deserv­ing of this give­away. The best­part, every story told helps raise aware­ness in an effort to erase teacher-funded class­rooms. The win­ning teacher will be cho­sen based on the fol­low­ing cri­te­ria, so be sure to tell us why your teacher is most deserving:

• Ded­i­ca­tion: does every­thing in his/her power to deliver the best pos­si­ble edu­ca­tion for his/her students.
• Inno­va­tion: thinks out­side the box and engages his/her stu­dents through cre­ative learn­ing activ­i­ties & programs.
• Pas­sion: expresses a gen­uine pas­sion for edu­ca­tion and shares this enthu­si­asm in the classroom.
• Need: demon­strates a need for essen­tial class­room supplies.

Entry Require­ments

To enter your teacher, you are required to do two things.

Write about your nom­i­nated teacher in the com­ments sec­tion of this post.

2. Post these mes­sages on Face­book and/or Twitter.

• Teach­ers spend avg $1200 of own $$ on school sup­plies annu­ally! Help erase teacher-funded class­rooms. http://bit.ly/3VUNvC PLS RT #omx
• Nom­i­nate a teacher 2 win $100 in Office­Max class­room sup­plies. Enter here: http://bit.ly/2QnZTH PLS RT #omx
• Join the “A Day Made Bet­ter” move­ment to end teacher-funded class­rooms at http://bit.ly/UJ3LF #omx

More than 30 sites are par­tic­i­pat­ing in this cam­paign between now and Sun­day, Octo­ber 4. Visit http://momitforward.com for a list of all the give­aways! You may enter a dif­fer­ent teacher on every site, but you may only win once!

Thanks so much for help­ing pay-it-forward to teach­ers in your com­mu­nity! Please join us on Tues­day, Sep­tem­ber 29 from 9 to 11 pm ET for Girls Night Out (#gno) on Twit­ter if you’d like to meet the team behind the cause: @officemax, @adaymadebetter and @Adopt_Classroom. Hope to see you there!

Fine Print

Tagged as: awake time, dollar gift, extended family, giveaway, lucky teacher, needy schools, october 6, officemax, one million dollars, pay it forward, time energy