Sparkly dresses, top hats and army fatigues are all part of fourth-grade teacher Megan Marie Allen's plan to get her students to dream big.
The Tampa teacher has introduced screenplay writing, moviemaking and writing boot camps to show her Cleveland Elementary School students that learning is fun.
"I think I'm just a big goofy kid at heart," Allen, 30, said. "I absolutely get all my energy and inspiration from my kids. They teach me more than I could teach them."
And Allen is giving others inspiration. Macy's and the Florida Department of Education honored her as one of five finalists nominated for the state's teacher of the year.
Allen was picked from more than 180,000 public school teachers in Florida. A selection committee of teachers, principals, parents and the business community narrowed it down to five from a group of 72 teachers.
Her mother's legacy lives on in costumes she wears and the songs she creates, such as "Drop the Decimal Like It's Hot"( to the tune of Snoop Dogg's hit "Drop It Like It's Hot"). Longtime science teacher Sandra Allen died in 2001 of pancreatic cancer.
At Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland, Sandra Allen pulled stunts in the classroom to get students involved, including dressing as a chicken when the class dropped eggs during an experiment.
"She was definitely outside the box," Megan Marie Allen said of her mother.
This is Allen's first year at Cleveland Elementary. She previously worked for two years at Burney Elementary in Plant City. She said both are small schools with high-poverty, high-need kids.
Allen received a $5,000 check from Macy's and a $500 gift card for her honor. The company also gave $1,000 to Cleveland Elementary, 723 E. Hamilton Ave.
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