As part of her reward for being named the 2011 National Online K-12 Teacher of the Year, Kristin Kipp of Evergreen, Colo., will visit the nation's capitol Monday, April 25 to "shadow" the U.S. Department of Education's Director of Educational Technology Karen Cator. Kipp will spend the day with Cator to get a hands-on look at how the Secretary's point-person on educational technology carries out her duties and assignments, aimed at leveraging the power of technology to support continuous and lifelong learning.
Kipp is an online English teacher at Jefferson County's 21st Century Virtual Academy, based in Golden, Colo., which serves high school students throughout the state. Kipp was selected from among 65 nominations of online educators in public schools and state virtual schools in 25 states. The award was founded by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) and the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL). In addition to winning a day with Karen Cator, Kipp also gets an all-expense paid trip to iNACOL's Virtual School Symposium this November in Indianapolis and will be featured on the SREB and iNACOL websites.