Honoring New Teachers

It seems as though so many education awards are popping up around the world. What a great thing to honor hard working people in their chosen field of education. Some awards have been created by nonprofits and others created by corporations. Often awards go to mid-career or veteran teachers. One group of teachers seemingly overlooked (but not always) are new teachers. My hopes are to encourage you to start a Teacher of Promise Award (TOP Award) program at your school or in your district just as I did. This isn’t a formal program you need to seek out, but only a home-grown way to celebrate the efforts of those new to our profession.

Our first years of teaching are often such a massive challenge. Just keeping up is a great accomplishment, but there are times we find a special individual who is not only keeping up, but truly starting to be an exemplar in those first few years. I think of these new teachers as “Rookies of the Year.” In baseball these young phenoms do things not expected of someone new to the game. In the same way, taking the time to recognize a handful of new teachers at each level (primary, middle grades and high school teachers) who also demostrate a level of expertise beyond there years of experience sends a powerful message of support for excellence in the profession.

Should you decide to add your own TOP Award, here's how it looks for our district. After optional nominations from school sites, a small committee selects a few new teachers to be honored based on discussions with site administrators and other site level teachers. Once selected, flowers are brought to announce the TOP at their school site. We also have a special recognition at our Teacher of the Year banquet, along with some small mementos donated by local organizations and businesses.  So the Teacher of Promise award, or TOP award, has the purpose of honoring those first or second year teachers for putting in tremendous effort to impacting the students' lives, connect with staff members and for unwavering dedication to the best profession. I hope you'll consider adding your own type of award to honor new teachers.