KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A local 2nd grade teacher won Friday afternoon in the Jeopardy Teachers Tournament.
Friday afternoon, Larry Martin, a 2nd grade teacher at Belinder Elementary School in the Shawnee Mission School District, won the Jeopardy Teachers Tournament, beating two other competitors in the two-day episode.
The 27 year educator has been eager to be a contestant on the show for years. He then got the call he had been waiting for.
“And for the next couple of minutes I thought my life has just changed,” Martin said.
And clearly he did really well.
“The first question that I got right , the audience applauded and I thought that never happens when I'm playing on my couch,” Martin said.
During the teacher tournament, his 2nd graders have been watching closely.
“I hope he wins because he's been on a hot streak right now,” one second grader said.
“I think he's really famous,” another 2nd grader said. “It's probably because we make the Marvel News.”
Marvel News is a newspaper subscription put together by Martin’s class.
“You can get our copies now on a pdf online but I just want to expand it a little more,” Martin said. “Maybe more of a video presence and maybe even a larger and diverse audience.”
The newspaper will now get a little extra help thanks to a $2500 grant from Farmers Insurance for participating in the tournament.
Students were able to send in Alex Tribec questions, and he answered! Now his responses will be put in the final copy of this year’s Marvel News.
Martin’s friends, family and students watched the final episode of the Teachers Tournament, which aired Friday afternoon on 41 Action News, in a watch party at the school.
The Belinder community was extremely happy with the outcome, as was Martin.
“I didn't just get on Jeopardy, I won the tournament,” Martin said. “I won the $100,000 Teacher Tournament and so it was hard to believe it was really happening.”
