An Apple for the Teacher!

About a week ago, I was told that the Writing Program was nominating me for the College's graduate student teaching award. Apparently, several of my students wrote letters of support and the Program Director seconded their nomination. Now, I'm in the process of writing a revised statement of teaching philosophy and pulling together other materials to support the nomination: course descriptions, sample syllabi and assignments, and student evaluations. It's so strange to rifle through my evaluations and read some of the things students have written about my class over the past few years. Most of them are really positive, though some provided constructive criticism and still others read like pretty obvious cases of "sour grapes."

On Tuesday, I will meet with the director to ask her a few last-minute questions about the application. Although I can't bank on winning the actual award, it's nice to know that my students saw fit to nominate me. I also learned that the English Department decided to co-sponsor my nomination rather than put forward another student nominee. Here's hoping that the double-nomination will help increase my chances of winning. The monetary prize isn't huge--$500--but it certainly would act as a great morale booster! Though I'm not sure of the exact date, the results will likely be announced in mid-April.