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Outstanding Rising Star Award

Award Description

This award recognizes a teacher with no more than five years of experience (both in the U.S. and/or internationally) who already has made a significant impact on their students by exhibiting best practices to an uncommonly high degree.

Candidate Qualities

  • Frequent use of the target language in instruction
  • Designs instruction to meet the individual needs of all learners
  • Designs and implements activities that meet the goals of the World Readiness Standards set forth by ACTFL
  • Engages students in cultural learning both inside and outside of the classroom
  • Continuously seeks out opportunities to grow and improve his or her own professional practice
  • Stays actively involved in professional language teaching organizations
  • Exhibits strong leadership skills through various experiences (e.g. presenting sessions and workshops for conferences)
  • Exhibits excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Regularly and effectively advocates in his or her community, and, if given the opportunity, at the state and even national level for the advancement and enhancement of world language teaching and learning for all students.

Award Criteria

  • Current KWLA member in good standing with a maximum of five years’ experience as a world language educator (both in the U.S. and/or internationally), having worked full-time in an accredited public and/or private schools/education institution, and being the teacher of record.
  • Evidence of quality and impact of teaching with program descriptions and letters of support from students, colleagues, administrators
  • Evidence of service to school, community, and state organizations including memberships, offices, contributions, presentations to the public, media coverage, and participation in cultural events
  • Record of participation in professional development

Award Nomination Procedures

  • STEP 1: Review above the candidate qualities and the award eligibility criteria.
  • STEP 2: Gather all the required award nomination evidence (see next section).
  • STEP 3: Submit the nomination by filling the “KWLA Awards Nomination Form”, and send all the evidence to the Chair of the KWLA Awards Committee at awards@kwla.org
  • DEADLINE: All nominations and evidence must be submitted by June 30th.

Award Nomination Evidence

  1. Letter of endorsement from a professional colleague
  2. Letter of endorsement from a supervisor/administrator
  3. Letter of endorsement from a current or former student or parent – A short video would be most recommended and preferred
  4. Current Curriculum Vitae of not more than five (5) pages which includes: Educational background; Teaching experience; Recent travel related to teaching; Service to the world language profession as a whole; Membership in other professional organizations; Workshops given, papers presented, articles published; Awards and honors received
  5. A five hundred word first-person statement on the importance of developing language and cultural competencies

Special Note:

Teachers selected as “KWLA Outstanding Teacher” and “Outstanding Rising Star Teacher” will be asked to fill out and sign a commitment form indicating they will:

  1. Attend the KWLA conference next year and the following,
  2. Serve on the KWLA Conference Committee until next year’s conference,
  3. Present a professional learning workshop for teachers in Spring, and
  4. serve as a spokesperson for the profession at KWLA events and state advocacy events (i.e. Languages & Legislators).

Have any further questions about awards and nomination procedures? Please contact the KWLA Awards Committee Chair anytime at: awards@kwla.org

DISCLAIMER: A press release for winners of the Outstanding Rising Teacher Award will be published within a week after the conference. Press releases for all other awards winners will be available by request only