Salt Lake Tribune, KUED present Teacher Innovation Awards

Bennion Elementary School teacher Amber Palmer has a motto she adapted from President John F. Kennedy:

"Ask not what technology can do for you, but what you can do with technology."

The fifth-grade teacher at the Salt Lake City school takes the motto seriously, and has demonstrated she can do plenty.

In her classroom, students use stop-motion animation to learn challenging spelling words.

They explore history concepts using the video game "Minecraft's" virtual worlds.

Palmer was among five Utah teachers who Thursday night were presented by The Salt Lake Tribune and KUED Channel 7 with Teacher Innovation Awards in recognition of their outstanding efforts to incorporate technology in meaningful ways in their classrooms.

No child could help but be engaged in learning by the energy and creativity these teachers bring to their work each day.

Nicole Reitz-Larsen enables teenagers to explore computer programming at Salt Lake City's West High School

At Northwest Middle School in Salt Lake City, Roger Haglund is using iPods and T1-Nspire hand-held computers to teach math.

Shon Feller has incorporated his Woods Cross High School students' cell phones into their classroom time as they learn about photography, commercial art and 3D design.

At Copper Mountain Middle School in Herriman, learning to write in Tami Ewell's language arts classes means blogging, creating social media posts, doing podcasts and collaborating on projects with fellow students from Montana to Brazil.

The Salt Lake Tribune is proud to co-sponsor the Teacher Innovation Awards with KUED, which will air a program about the five teachers Thursday at 7 p.m.

Meanwhile, The Tribune will profile each of these teachers starting Sunday with a look at Palmer. The profiles will continue each day through Thursday.

Check them out. It's guaranteed these educators will teach you a few things.