PROVIDENCE, R.I., May 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Teaching isn't easy. With the many obstacles facing teachers today, they could use some support in the classroom and with school budgets as tight as they are, teachers could use some extra cash. Nutmeg Education hopes to give them both through its "Lesson Plan Submission Contest," which began on the day of Nutmeg Education's launch, May 21, and runs until June 18.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120530/CG15503)

The contest offers teachers up to $2,500 for themselves and their school just for submitting a lesson plan. It also gets them started using a free resource to discover new lesson plans and instructional ideas with its Lesson Plan Network. To sign up, visit NutmegEducation.com/contest.

There's three parts to the contest. The first is the "Teacher Challenge", which is a cash giveaway that guarantees $500 for any group of at least 8 teachers who sign up for the site and each upload at least one ELA or Math lesson plan (the deadline for the Teacher Challenge has been extended to June 18 to include as many teachers as possible). The "School Challenge" rewards the school with the most total lesson plans with $1,000, and the "Lesson Plan Contest" offers $1,000 to the teacher who uploads the most creative or innovative lesson as judged by our panel of teachers.

Teachers are encouraged to learn more about the contest, explore the website, and begin submitting their lesson plans to the Lesson Plan Network by visiting http://www.nutmegeducation.com. The site also allows teachers to administer short formative assessments and identify where students are struggling through the Collaborative Assessment Builder, and provide those students with the relevant remediation resources with the Remedial Education Center. Those two components will launch later this summer.

Please download the Nutmeg Education contest flyer and contest rules from http://nutmegeducation.com/contest/.

About Nutmeg Education:Nutmeg Education, LLC was founded in July, 2011 in Hobe Sound, Florida, by Jonathan Modica. During the first few months, Jon and the company's co-founder, Teddy Hills, engaged teachers around the country and quickly identified what they describe as a "mismatch" in how teachers were using the available K-12 resources. Many teachers were trying to inform their instruction from the results of assessments that were solely designed by test companies to measure standardized assessment performance. By doing this, teachers, schools, and districts were using test data to make inappropriate assumptions about student learning. Nutmeg soon evolved to tackle not just the assessment mismatch, but also the need for instructional resources and remediation. Nutmeg was created to help teachers through a free online platform, empowering them with the greatest resource that there is to offer the collective knowledge of the teaching community.

Until this past year, teachers' ability to share standards-aligned materials and resources has been prohibited by the vast differences among state curriculum standards. The Common Core State Standards, a set of education standards now adopted by 45 states, provide a baseline for sharing across the country. Therefore, the time is perfect for the Nutmeg Education Platform.

In November, Nutmeg contracted with New Philosophy, LLC, a digital agency in New York with the technical know-how and design prowess to make Nutmeg's vision a reality. From the start, Nutmeg worked closely with teachers to be sure they were building a platform that was aligned to teachers' daily classroom needs and easy enough for all teachers to use during their already packed. The twenty teachers who spent time and energy helping to design Nutmeg are Nutmeg's "Founding Teachers"; these Founding Teachers played a key role in helping create the platform.

For additional information about Nutmeg Education and the Lesson Plan Submission Contest please go to: http://nutmegeducation.com/media/.

More here:
Nutmeg Education Engages Teachers with Lesson Plan Submission Contest