Satvika Ananth
Staff Writer

This Monday, International Baccalaureate director and chemistry teacher Jeb Puryear received a surprise worth a thousand dollars, quite literally.

Puryear won an award through a joint United Postal Service and Dallas Mavericks teacher recognition program. Ten out of all the K-12 teacher applicants in the Dallas/Fort Worth area received the award.

As a result, Puryear will receive $1000 for himself, $1000 dollars for the school, and also has tickets to attend the Mavs-Spurs game on Wed. April 14.  Mr. Hunt has also informed Puryear that the money donated to the school will be put in the technology fund.

“I had no idea this was coming,” Puryear said. “It’s hard not to be happy when something like [this] happens.”

Puryear was recommended for the award by his students. Junior Tyler Vender was at a Dallas Mavericks game when she heard about the contest. After going home and researching it, Vender decided to nominate Puryear, and also motivated many of her fellow IB students to do so.

“[Mr. Puryear] is the IB coordinator, and he does a lot of work for us,” Vender said. “He doesn’t get recognized a lot, so I wanted to do this for him.”

In order to complete the recommendation, students had to fill out nomination forms and write an essay of 150 words or less explaining why their teacher should be chosen.

“It’s very nice to get recognition from my students,” Puryear said. “In the end, that’s what it comes down to.”