May 06--The lesson Kaberi Chakrabarty, a teacher at Sator Sanchez Elementary School in Joliet, may have learned from "Jeopardy" is even if you don't win, you can still succeed.
Chakrabarty placed second in Friday's episode of the quiz show. She earned $11,600, which was enough to advance to the next round of the "Jeopardy" teachers tournament as a wild-card player.
Chakrabarty is one of 15 teachers vying for $100,000 in the two-week tournament, which began airing Monday. Cory Harris, of Mystic, Conn., beat Chakrabarty by earning $16,798 during Friday's episode. Michigan teacher Bill Knuth placed third with $9,999.
The five winners from this week's episodes and four wild-card players advance to the next round, slated to air next week.
Chakrabarty, who attended Willowbrook High School in Villa Park and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, took an early lead in Friday's episode and correctly answered the Final Jeopardy clue about author Louisa May Alcott, but she didn't wager enough to beat Harris.
Each contestant in the tournament is supposed to receive $2,500 for classroom projects. Chakrabarty said she plans to use the grant to buy science experiment kits, musical instruments and math blocks to help her bilingual students learn English.
Chakrabarty said she initially studied for a medical career but changed her focus to Spanish education after visiting Spain.
"That just changed my life for me," Chakrabarty told "Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek about her Spain trip.
"Jeopardy" airs 3:30 p.m. weekdays on WLS-Ch. 7.
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