- What is the Power of Us Award?
The Power of Us Awards provide funding to stimulate cross-school interactions and collaborative learning/work within the Network. The goal is to curate, refine and share compelling examples of collaboration to increase the level of connection between members. The expectation is that two or more people/schools within the Network work together to collaborate and learn around a specific idea/topic. Work could include, but is not limited to: a classroom project, a whole school project, work around a specific learning outcome, building culture, assessments, implementation of rubrics or aspects of the model, strengthening feedback, improving career or college readiness, and so much more.
- Who may I collaborate with on our work?
The expectation is for members of the network to create a meaningful connection and collaborate on a shared topic of interest. Collaborative teams must include representatives from at least two different school districts. Collaborative teams may include multiple members from the same school and/or district if they are joined by at least one member from a different district in the Network.
- How do I submit an application?
- When do the projects need to be complete?
The project should be complete by June 1, 2020.
- Are there any regulations/guidelines for how I use the money?
Money awarded could be used for anything in relation to the work you will be doing. For example travel to a conference, travel to visit your teammate, hotel rooms, conference registration, supplies, etc. Specific exclusions around how money may be used will be outlined in the agreement letter.
- Do I have to pay taxes on the award I received?
No. However, if the awardees choose to have the monetary award paid directly to them they will receive a W-9 from New Tech Network and that will be reported to the Internal Revenue Service as income. As long as you spend the full value of the award and document your expenditures you will be able to write off the full value of the award on your taxes. Thus, you will have no tax liability.
- When will I receive the money and how?
Winners will be notified by December 15, 2019 and awards funds will be distributed shortly after notification and acceptance. There are three different ways the money can be distributed.
- The money can be disbursed directly to members of the applying team
- It can be disbursed to your school, or
- The awardees can submit to NTN for reimbursement for project related expenditures. NTN will distribute the funds according to what is most convenient for the awardees.
- If I receive this award, what are my commitments?
If you receive this award you are committing to collaboratively develop and share compelling examples of cross-school work. This means you are committing to work with others, or another, outside of your school district to do some meaningful learning and application around a shared idea. You are also committing to share your learning in some way.
- What is expected in terms of “sharing my learning”?
You can choose to share your learning in many ways! You can present at NTAC, write a blog for the NTN website, build out your project in Echo, share your artifacts with the NTN Help Center, and more.
- What type of support will we have throughout this process?
Throughout the process of your work, The Power of Us team will have an Echo group that we will all join. Here we will post all the information about the Power of Us Award you will need. This will also provide a place for participants to ask questions and receive support from an NTN member if needed.