NEW YORK, Nov. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Penguin Random House and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) have announced the recipients of the 2019 National Teacher Award for Lifelong Readers and 2019 Maya Angelou Teacher Award for Poetry.  These awards recognize the nation's most dynamic and resourceful teachers who use their creativity to inspire and successfully instill a lifelong love of reading and poetry in students.  The Penguin Random House Teacher Awards for Literacy began in 2012 and have awarded more than $150,000 in teacher grants to date. This is the first year the awards have been administered by both organizations. 

The 2019 awards consist of two $10,000 first-place grants for each teacher's respective school. In addition, Penguin Random House will make book donations to both winners. Twenty additional runners-up (10 for each Award) will each receive $1,000 grants in Penguin Random House books donations.  The 2019 winners are:

• Cicely Lewis –$10,000 Lifelong Reader Teacher Award Recipient,
  Educator/Library Media Specialist
  Meadowcreek High School, Norcross, GA
• Rick Coppola  – $10,000 Maya Angelou Grant Recipient,
  Language Arts Teacher
  South Loop Elementary School, Chicago, IL

Michael Gentile, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Penguin Random House Education, presented this year's award recipients during the opening session at the NCTE Annual Convention, in Baltimore, Maryland. "It's an incredible honor to present this year's Penguin Random House Teacher Awards for Literacy and to celebrate these educators for their unique programs motivating and inspiring the nurturing of lifelong readers.  As the leading sponsor to this year's NCTE Conference, we are proud to foster a universal passion for reading and to honor these extraordinary educators for their commitment to student learning."

Emily Kirkpatrick, NCTE Executive Director, said, "Teachers of literacy are in the best position to inspire the readers in their care, and these awards celebrate the work of two truly inspiring educators. It's wonderful to see teaching expertise recognized in this way."

As part of the first-place prize, Penguin Random House sponsored the winners' conference registration, travel, and lodging expense so that Cicely Lewis and Rick Coppola could accept their awards in person at today's opening session, expected to be attended by more than 1,500 educators from around the country. Cicely and Rick will speak to the conference attendees about their initiatives that earned them the 2019 Penguin Random House Teacher Awards.

For more information regarding this year's recipients, go to:
https://social-impact.penguinrandomhouse.com/teacherawards/

Penguin Random House, the world's largest trade book publisher, is dedicated to its mission of nourishing a universal passion for reading by connecting authors and their writing with readers everywhere. The company, which employs more than 10,000 people globally, was formed on July 1, 2013, by Bertelsmann and Pearson, who own 75 percent and 25 percent, respectively. With nearly 275 independent imprints and brands on five continents, Penguin Random House comprises adult and children's fiction and nonfiction print and digital English- and Spanish-language trade book publishing businesses in more than 20 countries worldwide. With over 15,000 new titles, and more than 600 million print, audio and eBooks sold annually, Penguin Random House's publishing lists include more than 80 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world's most widely read authors.

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is the nation's most comprehensive literacy organization, supporting more than 25,000 teachers across the preK–college spectrum. Each year this support is driven by research-based position statements that shape understanding and policy, the publication of 46 peer-reviewed journals and more than a dozen professional books, and an Annual Convention that features 250 authors, 600 concurrent sessions, and 7,000+ attendees. NCTE is the home of the National Day on Writing®, the popular teaching resource ReadWriteThink.org, and Build Your Stack®, a new initiative focused exclusively on helping teachers build their book knowledge and their classroom libraries. Through the expertise of its members, NCTE has served at the forefront of every major improvement in the teaching and learning of English and the language arts since 1911. www.ncte.org

Contacts:
Claire von Schilling; Penguin Random House
212-782-9876; cvonschilling@penguinrandomhouse.com

Janelle Martin; National Council of Teachers of English
347-553-6026; jmartin@ncte.org

Natasha Lesser; Hatcher Group
410-303-5232; nlesser@thehatchergroup.com

SOURCE National Council of Teachers of English

Related Links

http://www.ncte.org