We have a teacher of the year award at our school. We have the kids write about their favorite teacher and whoever gets the most letters wins. We bought a rocking chair and had a brass plaque engraved with "teacher of the year",whoever wins gets the chair in their classroom for the year, and we also get them a $50 gift certificate. The gift certificate is from our chamber of commerce, which can be used at like 150 business' in town(wherever they choose). This is done at the end of the year with a little presentation. Last year the gym teacher won and he broke down in front of all the kids, it was very touching.
I'm not sure how these are down through our district but we have 3 local tv stations that run monthly teacher award contests and one of those teachers from 2 years ago went on to a national lunch and received an award. Our PTO does a staff excellence award where any staff member can nominate another one and the winning person gets a framed certificate and a little goody bag. It seems to help keep up spirits.
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating-in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. --Anne Morris
We have a teacher of the year award. The Board of Ed picks the teacher. I am not sure what criteria they use to pick them or if they are just working there way through all the teachers. I will have to ask to see how they award it.
Our school has yearly awards for teacher of the year, teacher's aid, and (I think) humanitarian, which is a non-teaching staff member.
As I recall this is a peer-voting award, so the staff nominate and vote for the winners. The PTO used to provide the prizes - something like $100 gift cards for each winner.
When the district asked PTOs to focus more on volunteerism and programs and moved major fundraising back to the schools a couple years ago, our total financial model and budget were reworked, and I believe the school took over furnishing the gift cards. But the program is still in place.
Our superintendent forwarded some information to me to use if we were interested in nominating someone for Teacher of the Year - a program sponsored by the Michigan Department of Education. I investigated the program online and discovered the teacher would have to be willing to take a one year leave of absence from teaching to be ellgible to win. So, we discussed this with the principal and realized it wasn't a viable option for us. But it did get me thinking -- I was thinking about holding a Teacher of the Year program just within our school. Does anyone award teachers with this or a similar title? Any advice would be appreciated!
