Teacher Appreciation Week is May 5th to May 9th, which is by far our favorite time of year!🥳

We are excited to announce the return of our Unruly Educator Awards to honor and recognize all of the innovative and dedicated educators in the Unruly community. Check out our list of nominees below and show your appreciation by voting for an Unruly educator by May 12th.

As part of Teacher Appreciation Week, we are creating a digital "Teacher Time Capsule" filled with teaching tips, tricks, and strategies that stand the test of time. Teachers who submit an item to the "Teacher Time Capsule" will be entered into a raffle for a $50 Amazon gift card. You can submit to the Teaching Time Capsule after voting for your favorite Unruly educator (s).

The Unruliest Educator of the Year

For the educator who brings Unruly energy into everything they do. Whether it’s their enthusiasm for Splats, creative classroom uses, or the way they rally their school around Splats, this person is super Unruly.

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Brian Ashline, STEM Educator, Shaker Junior High School, NY

​​If there’s a Splat nearby, Brian has already turned it into a movement-fueled masterpiece. Brian focuses on using Splats to get his students engaged with computer science and empowers them to showcase their codi by designing their own Unruly games. Through Brian’s teaching, his students have used the most coding blocks of any Unruly school this year, reaching a total of over 30,000 blocks. 

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Elizabeth Moreland, Instructional Coach, Adair-Casey Elementary School, IA

Elizabeth has led the Unruly charge at her school this year by getting students of all grade levels Splatting and introducing teachers to ways they can integrate Splats into their core content lessons. She led students of various grade levels through the majority of this year’s Unruly events, including Go Bananas, Trick-or-Treat Math Halloween, and Stomp Madness. Elizabeth also joined the Unruly Team for a webinar to talk about helping students tackle math anxiety with a variety of strategies, one of them being Unruly Splats. You can check out her suggested strategies here!

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Traci Morihara, Curriculum Specialist, Hawaii Baptist Academy, HI

This educator lives and breathes Unruly—leading with energy, creativity, and a stomp-first, ask-questions-later attitude that inspires the whole school.

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Innovation in Action Award

Awarded to the educator who finds new ways to use Splats in school—think cross-subject integrations, cool coding projects, school-wide event leaders

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Elizabeth Moreland, Instructional Coach, Adair-Casey Elementary School, IA

When Elizabeth uses Splats, she takes full advantage of the range of possibilities! From hopscotch addition with second graders to connecting 20 Splats in a room to get all students coding, she is focused on making learning more engaging and fun for students. 

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Laura Kennedy, Tech Integration Specialist, HRCE, Nova Scotia

If there’s anyone who sees the endless possibilities with Splats, it’s Laura! Laura uses her creative thinking to combine Splats with a variety of subject areas and get students out of their seats to find the joy in learning. She’s always there to support new teachers just getting started and ensure they are confident using new tech tools in the class. 

Check out some of the great things she is doing in classrooms on her BlueSky page →@lkennedy37.bsky.social.

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Catherine Benedict, Teacher, Bible Hill Junior High, Nova Scotia

If you’re looking for inspiration in combining Splats with math, look no further than Catherine! Catherine is new to Splats this year, but she has already designed and coded several math games to use with middle school students, covering areas such as perfect squares, slope, slope intercept, and algebra topics. 

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Marty Cryer, Computer Teacher, Wells Elementary, ME

Marty is a super Splatter! She leads her students through learning to code with Splats and also helps teachers in her school integrate Splats into other subject areas, like math. Whether it be creating a custom game for a classroom teacher or adapting an existing game, Marty knows how to bring movement and fun to learning. She is an Unruly champion through and through!

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Most Active Splatters

For the teacher whose classroom is always on the move—jumping, clapping, running, and learning all at once. This educator uses Unruly to make active learning a core part of their classroom.

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Amanda Mangione, 4th/5th Teacher, Burton Ettinger Elementary, Nova Scotia

There is never a dull moment in Amanda’s classroom! Whether it be incorporating movement into math with Splats, letting her students dive into coding, or fun STEAM challenges, Amanda’s class is always on the move (and ready to compete!). 

If you’re interested in seeing Amanda’s innovative teaching practices and her creative resources, you can follow her on Instagram at @mmemangione.

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Cory McBean, Teacher, Clark Rutherford Memorial School, Nova Scotia

Cory led his students to an amazing Stomp Madness performance this year, achieving the most amount of stomps on Splats by any school in Nova Scotia throughout the one week competition! Whether it be bringing some movement into the day or reinforcing math skills with Unruly games, Cory and his students are always enthusiastic Splatters.

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Kelly Cyr & Kim Aucoin, Grade 6 Teachers, Madeline Symonds Middle School, Nova Scotia

Even though they were new to Splats this year, this dynamic duo at Madeline Symonds Middle School have brought active learning to their middle school students, amassing over 100,000 stomps and 3,000 blocks of code. 

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Mary Marchand, Computer Science Teacher, Kihei Elementary, HI

Even though Mary just started with Splats this winter, she is already off to the races in her computer science classroom! Mary jumped (feet first!) into Stomp Madness, helping her students place second in the district-wide competition, and then, her students were able to show their parents how Splats help them learn at their school STEAM night. 

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Nena Mossman, Ahuimanu Elementary, Technology Coordinator, HI

Nena knows the power of combining computer science with movement and play to make coding more accessible to elementary students and to help them build the future ready skills they need. Nena’s student put on an impressive performance in Stomp Madness this year, stomping over 46,000 times on Splats. 

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Unruliest Coders 

Celebrating a teacher who goes above and beyond to bring computer science to life for their students using Unruly Code

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Ruthmarie Adams, Guidance Counselor, Lockeport Elementary, NS

From novice coder to now coding expert, Ruthmarie combines social-emotional learning with computer science by creating SEL games for her students. Through these games, students work on identifying emotions, managing emotions in different scenarios, and more. She even started a coding club at her school, so students can dive deeper into the world of computer science!

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Jeff Monteith, Extended Learning Program, New Hampton Community Schools, IA

Jeff doesn’t just think outside the box—he stomps on it! From classroom crossovers to school-wide Splatting in the hallway, Jeff brings the enthusiasm for exposing students to computer science. He and his students participate in many of our events, especially the events that include game creation. His students were the winners of this year’s Unruly Survivor, an Hour of Code event focused on creating games or challenges that can be played in teams. 

PS…Ask him to share his Unruly Splats version of the game Mastermind!

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Georgia Ladd, STEM Chair, Central Middle School, MD

As a STEM educator, Georgia knows the value of getting students engaged with computer science in the formative middle school years. Under her guidance, all sixth graders will have designed and coded their own Unruly game tied to their school’s core values. All of this coding has led to her students achieving the fourth highest number of blocks used amongst any Unruly school this year!

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West Bedford School, Multiple teachers, Nova Scotia

This year, students and teachers at West Bedford School have used over 16,000 blocks of code. This type of coding action deserves a full school shoutout.  With each block of code students are being exposed to computer science and building future ready skills. 

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Unruly Hype Hero

Given to the biggest cheerleader for making learning playful, fun, and impactful. They get others in on the Splatting, often leading the whole school in event participation and running PDs for other teachers in their schools.

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Susan Oehlertz, Technology Integration Specialist, Pocahontas Area Community Schools, IA

Susan is the ultimate Unruly hype hero, amongst her students and colleagues! As a long time Unruly Code user she is consistently helping her students learn how to code with Unruly Splats and getting them excited about creating unique games. Not only does she get students hyped up about coding, Susan also gets her colleagues excited about using Splats in math. 

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Tracey Stewart, Sixth Grade Teacher, Aiea Intermediate School, HI

Tracey turned Splats into a school staple—getting STEM students, computer science students, and math club participants stomping and coding away! She led her students to a victory in our most recent Hawaii Stomp Madness district competition with over 93,000 stomps and 5,000 blocks of code used in one week.

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Bryn Hamamura, Multimedia Specialist, Mililani Ike Elementary School, HI

Bryn makes coding contagious—sparking curiosity with Splats and inspiring students to build their coding muscles. With Bryn’s support, students at Mililani ‘Ike were able to use almost 4,000 blocks of code within just two months of getting started with Splats. 

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Nova Scotia Tech Integration Teams, Nova Scotia 

The Tech Integration Leaders across the different regions of Nova Scotia have the Unruly spirit! With their guidance, teachers across schools in Nova Scotia have learned how they can infuse movement, computer science, and purposeful play across various subject areas. Their support is instrumental in building teacher confidence and giving students a plethora of new tools to showcase their learning and gain future-ready skills. 

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To mention a few of the many amazing TILT members, Chris Cocek, Laura Kennedy and Mario Eleftheros in HRCE have helped numerous teachers and students get started with their Splats journey. From teaching students how to code to showing teachers how to integrate Splats into math, these tech educators make up a team that helps teachers new to Splats feel comfortable with implementing a new education technology tool. 

Check out all their great edTech suggestions on BlueSky!

Mario: @margreek.bsky.social

Chris: @edtechcocek.bsky.social

Laura: @lkennedy37.bsky.social

Katie Creelman & Kate English have helped Unruly Splats take the CCRCE region of Nova Scotia by storm. Whether it be running professional development sessions for interested teachers, introducing students to coding, or getting students out of their seats with an active game, Kate and Katie are great supporters of both teachers and students. 

Jeffrey Raine & Ben Drew in TCRCE have done great work finding teachers that would be great fit for Splats and helping them get started on their Unruly journey.

A shoutout to the above TILTs and all members of the Nova Scotia Technology Integration teams for their partnership!

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Honorable Mentions

‍Marty Cryer is an honorable mention for her use of posters in faculty bathrooms to promote Unruly Splats and other ed tech tools available. PS…It works!

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Math Mastermind Award

Someone who integrates Unruly Math into their classroom and focuses on keeping students engaged with math learning in impactful ways, building student confidence and promoting joy

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Elijah Ortiz, Fifth Grade Math Teacher, LEAD 359, NY

This teacher brings math to life—turning practice into play with Splats that get students moving, laughing, and loving numbers. As a fifth grade math teacher, Elijah knows the importance of keeping students engaged with their learning and using a variety of strategies to strengthen students’ conceptual understanding. 

Check out what Splats look like in Elijah’s math classroom here!

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Jen Adelman, Math Coach, Friends Community School, MD

From fractions to fact fluency to place value and more, Jen transforms K-5 math classrooms in her school with Unruly games that get students excited about math and engaged with their learning.

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Jackie Cohn, STEM Educator, Boys and Girls Club of Souhegan Valley, NH
Jackie uses Unruly Math for Math Monday. She has about 25 students volunteer to participate in mixed age groups and 15 for 2nd and 3rd grade specifically 

“As always, the splats were a huge hit and the kids had a hard time leaving once the block was over!” - Jackie

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Sheridan Academy Teachers, First Grade through Fifth Grade Teachers, NY

A full school nomination is much deserved for all of the grade 1 through grade 5 teachers who have been bringing movement and joy to math with Unruly Splats. Since training in mid-March, students have stomped over 6,400 times on Splats, with each stomp representing the reinforcement of foundational math skills. 

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Unruliest Newcomer

New to Splats? No problem for these educators who are already showing their Unruliness!
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Catherine Benedict, Teacher, Bible Hill Junior High, Nova Scotia

You may have seen her name pop up in the Innovation in Action category, but she’s nominated for Unruliest Newcomer too with good reason! There is often a fear of coding when getting started with Splats, however, Catherine jumped feet first into it this year to help make math more active and engaging for her students.

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Heather Van Wagner, Middle School Teacher, Bridgetown Regional Community School, Nova Scotia

Heather has taken Splats by storm in her school in her first year! Not only has she brought movement to subjects like math, ELA, and social studies with Splats, she’s also gotten her students into coding their own games. She’s also had her students introduce Splats to their “buddies” in younger grades, inspiring the next generation of Splatters!

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Susan Agosto, STEM Teacher, PS 18, NY

Even though Susan is just getting started with Splats, her students are already stomping and coding away like professionals. The Unruly Team visited her classroom in March and her students showed off their coding and stomping prowess.

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Anthony Nunez, Tech Educator, PS 1 Courtlandt School, NY

From his very first stomp, this educator showed they were born to be Unruly—bringing instant joy, movement, and momentum to their classroom.

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Unruliest PE Teacher

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David Kober, PE Teacher, Katie-Harper Wright Elementary, MO

This PE powerhouse turned Splats into a full-body experience—mixing movement, games, and learning in the most Unruly way possible. David led his students to victory in a district-wide Stomp Madness competition, stomping over 63,000 times on their Splats. 

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Sara Pici, PE Teacher, AJ Schmidt Elementary School, NY

Sara doesn't just teach movement—she elevates it. This PE teacher blends creativity, cardio, and coding for the ultimate Unruly experience. Under her guidance, students stomped over 25,000 times in PE; that’s nearly 5,000 calories burned stomping on Splats!

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Ashley Daniels, PE Teacher, Annette Officer Elementary, MO

Ashley proves that PE isn’t just about fitness—it’s about fun, focus, and a whole lot of stomping with Splats! Under her leadership, students at Annette Officer Elementary stomped on their Splats over 30,000 times during Stomp Madness, earning a second place title in their district-wide competition. 

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