Yager Award

Nominations

Faculty who wish to nominate teachers eligible for this award should write a letter of nomination indicating:

• The teaching qualities the nominee possesses, which qualify them as exemplars in K-12 teaching.
• Experiences and interactions the nominator has had with the nominee that have shaped the nominee’s teaching.
• Current contact information including the school, grade, and subject the nominee is teaching.

Letters should be submitted electronically to  ami.roeding@uni.edu. Please discuss your intent with the nominee prior to nomination since the application procedure is rather involved. Likewise, nominators are encouraged, but not required, to assist the nominees in gathering and preparing application materials.  

Applications

Nominees will be asked to provide:

1. Documentation of the success of their teaching via the success of their students.
2. A video-recorded learning sequence of them interacting with students in their classroom.  This sequence should be at least 10 minutes long, but no longer than 15 minutes and should be submitted in DVD format or a high quality digital video file. This can come from any current or past teaching experience and can be comprised of several separate sequences.
3. An essay that identifies no more than three most important attributes that make them an excellent teacher and explains how those attributes were developed through their interaction with the UNI faculty member who nominated them and how the learning sequence submitted is a representation of those three attributes. Examples of the kinds of activities that a successful nominee might be expected to display can be found in the announcement. (1000 words maximum)  

Two support letters, one from a present student and one from a past student where the students discuss the following:

a.  How the nominee has helped them learn the subject.

b.  The activities/projects/experiments from the nominee’s class which were most memorable.

c.   Three reasons they feel the nominee is an excellent teacher.

NOTE: In the case of younger students, letters may come from the parents of current or past students or the attached form may be used in lieu of a letter from a current student.

If you have any questions, contact Ami Roeding, ami.roeding@uni.edu (319) 273-2725.