"Mr. Tinkham is the best!” yelled his eighth grade students from Burlingame Intermediate School.
The excited sentiment is the start of a video on Jeopardy.com introducing viewers to this week’s contestants. Charley Tinkham, a history teacher who turns 50 Thursday, is one of 15 teachers nationwide participating in the first-ever Teachers Tournament on "Jeopardy!” The two-week tournament began airing Monday. Tonight, Tinkham, will make his first appearance on the long-running show.
The winning teacher will take home $100,000 and a spot in the "Jeopardy!” Tournament of Champions later this year. Second place comes with a minimum of $50,000 prize and the third place winner earns $10,000. Contestants eliminated in the first round receive $5,000 and each teacher took home a classroom "Jeopardy!” unit for their school.
For Tinkham, who is from San Bruno, the opportunity is years in the making. He grew up watching the show. Two years ago, he took an online contestant exam. Last summer, he received word that the show was interested. In September, Tinkham did an in-person interview and was selected for the teacher tournament, which was filmed in March.
The show’s call for Tinkham, who has been teaching at Burlingame Intermediate for 21 years, came during a class. Tinkham, like most contestants, was given about six weeks to prepare. He used the time to brush up on geography and history of various cultures.
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Taping was a nice getaway for Tinkham and his family, who went down together for the event.
"It’s been fun. The best part was it wasn’t just about me,” he said, noting the show filmed a segment with his students.
The classroom version of the game came in handy for practicing as Tinkham pointed out buzzing in is really important. There’s a small window of time for a person to buzz in first.
Tinkham was prohibited from chatting about the show, and how he did, before it aired. But he promised to share his thoughts after the competition is over.
Heather Murtagh can be reached by email: heather@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 105.
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