I have been very fortunate over the past few years to receive several major teaching awards. It is a very special honor to be nominated by people you highly respect and then supported by letters from colleagues, students/parents, community partners and administrators. I consider myself to be a very humble person but something I feel strongly about is the need for elevating the profession. The primary reason I followed through with any of the award nominations I’ve received over the years was to gain a greater platform with which to improve the overall quality of education, particularly of the Social Studies.
Nominate a teacher and then when they receive the award, strongly encourage them to use the platform of that award to promote whatever is their educational passion. There are a lot of closed doors in this world and an award can serve as a great door stop. It can be an excuse to have a meeting with somebody who helped sponsor the award to thank them for the honor. The publicity that goes along with the award won’t make the nightly news or generate much action on social media (outside your friends and family) but the right people will see it and could reach out. Better yet, use it to reach out. Share the news with your alma mater and offer to return and speak with pre-service teachers. Share the news with your legislators and ask them to visit your classroom or have a sit-down conversation with them about educational issues.
When I won my first teaching award from the Minnesota Historical Society in 2010 I made a plan to use that award as a launch pad. I once interviewed somebody for an article I wrote in the Outdoor News who had won a national championship. He said when he won the competition the sponsors would come calling. A year later, his phone had barely rang and somebody else took his title. It took him 10 years to win the title again, and when he did it his next call was to a few companies he hoped to work for. The title gave him the meeting and the rest was up to him, but he was speaking to me with 20 years of being a professional in his chosen field (duck and goose calling if you must know) thanks to the platform given him by striking when the timing was right. If a duck and goose calling champion can turn a national title into a life’s work, a significant teaching award can transform a good teacher into a greatly influential one.
So please nominate somebody. Pick somebody with a great classroom presence who truly enjoys teaching students and the teaching profession. Pick somebody who is passionate about the value of the social studies and will work to elevate the profession further. Honor somebody who is on a Quixotic journey to slay the windmills and who dreams the impossible dreams. If they dare believe their students can change the world, and it’s their life’s work to make it happen, then by all means take a few minutes to nominate them.
There are a lot of awards out there and two that are near and dear to my heart include the Minnesota Social Studies Teacher of the Year program from MCSS and the National Council for the Social Studies Teacher of the Year program (see below). Nominate that teacher. Tell them you did and insist that they complete the application. Then remind them what they owe their students and the profession once they win. To paraphrase a great movie, “Nothing’s riding on this, except maybe the future of our country.”
Outstanding Social Studies Teacher of the Year
The annual NCSS Outstanding Teacher of the Year Awards recognize exceptional classroom social studies teachers for grades K-6, 5-8, a
nd 7-12 who teach social studies regularly and systematically in elementary school settings, and at least half-time in middle or junior high and high school settings.
- $2,500 cash prize
- up to $500 in 2017 NCSS Annual Conference travel expenses
- complimentary 1 year NCSS membership
- 2017 Teacher of the Year Annual Conference Panel presentation
- 2017 Individual Teacher of the Year Annual Conference session presentation
Mr. Hustvedt's Meanderings 