Mrs. Craft (pictured to the left) is ACP’s beloved Honors Geometry and AP Calculus instructor. She has been with us for about five years now, and we truly do not know what we would do without her! She inspires students to work with determination, think critically, and persevere through even the most difficult logarithmic question. Even though math may not be an easy subject for many students, Mrs. Craft’s dedication in her teaching and care in advocating for success in her classes empowers confidence in our students, motivating them to continue striving for the impossible, despite the obstacles that attempt to hinder their progress.

Last week, ACP received news that an outstanding accomplishment was made from one of our staff members: Mrs. Craft was chosen, out of 4100 Arizonan teachers who applied in the 2018 Fiesta Bowl Charities Wishes for Teachers program, to be a recipient of a $5000 teacher’s grant.

Amazingly proud of Mrs. Craft for her achievement, I decided to conduct an interview to learn more about the Fiesta Bowl Charities Wishes for Teachers program and what the teacher’s grant entails:

Q: What does it mean to be a Fiesta Bowl Charities Wishes for Teachers recipient?

A: By winning the Fiesta Bowl Charities Wishes for Teachers, I was able to get supplies for the classroom that the district didn’t have money to fund. Teachers often have materials or equipment that they think would help students better understand the concepts they teach; however, finite funds prevents purchase of much of these items.

Q: How are you planning utilize this $5,000 Wishes for Teachers grant?

A: I submitted the grant for a set of 30 ti-inspire calculators with charging stations and a distance probe. These calculators can be used with Algebra 1 courses when teaching statistics and have many uses in Algebra 2 and higher. With the charging stations, teachers can download data sets or files that students can use in class without taking up time to individually enter data sets. This will make group activities quicker and more beneficial. The distance probe will allow students to study rates of change in a kinesthetic manner and analyze relationships between position, velocity, and acceleration graphs. Rate of change is an underlying concept for many different math topics at all levels of math.

Q: What was your reaction when you were notified of your grant?

A: I was shocked! I am never that lucky with raffles and other similar competitions; winners were chosen by random drawing if they had submitted the requested paperwork by the deadline.

Q: Are you excited to be honored at the Cheez-its Bowl and Annual Desert Financial Fiesta Bowl Parade?

A: To be honest, I am a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of going on the field at half time and walking in the parade. I really do not like being the center of attention, so I am glad there will be many other teachers on the field with me.

Congratulations Mrs. Craft! We are incredibly proud of you and cannot wait to see how the materials funded by this grant will contribute to the success of our students.