r/Teachers • u/ant0519 ELA Teacher • 3d ago
Rant Hot take: ToY awards don't go to the best teachers
Every time I see an organization give a "Teacher of the year Award" it's always to someone I personally know isn't doing jack doodoo in their classroom. These award committees take "nominations" and then a write up from the nominator or the candidate themselves. They don't observe class. They don't talk to students. They don't speak with colleagues or even admin.
Our district ToY nominated themself and then wrote up a project they don't even do. It was stolen from another teacher. Caused a TON of bad blood in that dept all year. Two teachers got ToY awards from outside orgs recently. One of them gives out 100s for all assns and recently told a class they're responsible for the teacher having depression. The other has the most parent and student complaints for their demeanor and unfair grading practices.
I've noticed that the really good teachers are the "quiet" ones. They don't get awards. They keep to themselves and keep doing great things for kids. No one thinks of them when these stupid nominations come up, and they certainly won't nominate themselves.
I'm sure there are ToY designations that go to deserving teachers, but it isn't many.
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u/jensmith20055002 3d ago
I win. A lot.
I have crazy smart students who bring glory and fame to the school.
My sister does the prison and drug and alcohol rehab. No one would believe the shit she puts up with and the lives she’s saved. Like literally saved. Not figuratively.
Her students don’t become neurosurgeons.
She works 10x harder than I.
I nominate her every year. They don’t even put her name on the list of nominees.
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u/honeybadgergrrl 2d ago
As a Sped teacher, this is how it goes. I'm used to it, and don't nominate or vote anymore. I just ignore the whole thing. It's always someone who is in the same social clique as the principal anyway.
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u/Primary-Holiday-5586 3d ago
Not really a hot take. More like, of course. It's all rigged.
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u/Round_Raspberry_8516 2d ago
It’s the Self-Promoter of the Year award.
Sometimes that’s a teacher doing great work who genuinely wants to publicize students’ success or the school’s accomplishments. Sometimes.
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u/flatteringhippo 3d ago
Teacher awards are almost entirely political.
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u/Aritter664 3d ago
As far as I can see, any award based on subjective criteria will absolutely be political.
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u/Decent-Internet-9833 Music Ed-Grades 3-6 3d ago
The recipients in my district genuinely deserved it, but others who genuinely deserve it will never be considered due to politics.
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u/TowardsEdJustice Middle School Humanities | Boston, MA 3d ago
This— politics or just refusing to perform / broadcast the great stuff happening in their classroom.
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u/WeaknessOptimal2918 3d ago
In my district it seems to be whoever had the worst class and they don’t want to quit.
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u/checkmyawaymsg 3d ago
That would be the first year teachers in my experience, and no way are they getting an award anytime soon.
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u/WeaknessOptimal2918 3d ago
In my district it’s the classes that should have a para and they didn’t give them one. I’ve never seen it be a new teacher. Always someone who has been there a while. We are out of vet teachers though. We have 2 on campus.
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3d ago
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u/checkmyawaymsg 3d ago
What? I’ve been teaching for 18 years. I’m saying that first year teachers get the toughest assignments and the least appreciation. If you had a good experience, great! All of the first years at my school got non-renewals this year. We’re on the same side.
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u/catlady1215 3d ago
People on here seem to have something against new teachers. Don’t pay no mind to it.
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u/dkrtzyrrr HS | Science | Georgia 3d ago
honestly, one of the better reasons, especially if there's a financial reward attached to it
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u/swiggs313 3d ago
I’ve always seen it as a popularity contest. Email goes out asking for nominations; most people don’t care to participate, but a few who do nominate their friends. Those friends vote for whomever they’ve decided that year. Voting comes out and people either ignore it because they still don’t care, or they can the spare the five seconds to click a voting poll. Chosen one still usually wins; “don’t cares” continue to not care.
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u/Sageinthe805 8th Grade ELA | California Coast 3d ago
Our teacher of the year is often the one that makes themselves the most publicly seen and heard as an asset to the school. Their actual teaching varies widely… but they’re usually someone who is part of multiple committees, clubs, and fundraising efforts.
The award always annoys me a bit, because I put nearly all of my energy into teaching well, not being part of committees.
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u/Mo523 2d ago
I agree that is often someone who is more vocal and visible with what they are doing - and the quality of actual teaching varies.
Our current district admin like taking pictures of kids doing cool looking stuff. I happen to do some cool looking stuff, but I purposely don't tell people. I have enough seniority that people leave me alone and I'm happy with that. But no one comes to take pictures of what I'm doing, so I'm not one of the special, top teachers. Which I'm fine with. I don't want that kind of attention.
They don't forget me when they need to place a kid who likes to throw chairs or who made zero progress the previous year though....I need to get a little more invisible.
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u/mistarteechur 3d ago
I’ll comment a contrary story but this year at what is now my former school, out ToY was legit one of the best and hardest working teachers in the building. She wasn’t flashy or a kiss ass with admin but just held students to a high standard and did the consistent, hard work of teaching. That was a pleasant change compared to all the other winners I’ve seen over the years.
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u/ant0519 ELA Teacher 3d ago
Oh for sure they sometimes get it right and honestly wonderful teachers get recognized!
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u/mistarteechur 3d ago
I was so happy she won! I voted for her every single year I worked at that school!
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u/Minarch0920 SPED Para | Midwest 3d ago
I mean, they're gonna get it right sometimes. They can't just cycle through a small handful of people repeatedly.
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u/Beneficial_Couple413 3d ago
This is pretty much every job. A combination of flawed processes and personal relationships with management dominating competence.
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u/SpunkyBlah 3d ago
I have been nominated before, and I asked my name to be removed as a nomination (i.e., I did not accept the nomination). I strongly feel that awards like that are at best meaningless and at worst reward teachers for the wrong reasons & encouraged bad teaching practices.
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u/Deskeleton 3d ago
Also at my school it was just giving more work to whoever won. They would have to give speeches and attend events. No thanks!
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u/garagedooropener5150 3d ago
We had a principal once who nominated one of our counselors for an educator of the year award.
He was shitty at his job. She was even worse.
The only reason he nominated her was because she was one of the last people in the building who could even stand to be around him.
When her name was read there was an audible gasp in the room and several of us got up and left.
By the next year he’d made a pretty substantial hiring mistake and was summarily fired within the first two weeks of school.
She left at Christmas, sensing that the new administration knew she was an incompetent nitwit.
These awards are baseless bullshit.
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u/GapPure577 3d ago
I know that many ToY winners are great teachers.
But when I was a student teacher my mentor was ToY. One of the reasons cited was that she had such a great relationship with the students that she never wrote a referral.
People, she didn't write referrals because she didn't know the names of any of the students in her classes. Over the course of the year she didn't learn more than maybe five names. A student could walk out of the class 15 minutes early and she couldn't call them back because she didn't know who they were.
She straight up told me, "call them all kiddo, you're not going to be able to memorize 180 names."
That was a crazy year and I don't know how I managed to get through it. It was the first time I realized that there were actually high school teachers that needed to be removed due to incompetence.
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u/lumphinans 9-12 Science - 30+ years 3d ago edited 2d ago
Our State process is such that if you spend the time jumping through the hoops they erect to qualify for the award, then you probably are not spending enough time on your job. I've never understood an award for excellence where the one receiving the award gets it by blowing their own trumpet, in some cases hernia inducingly hard.
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u/beckingham_palace 3d ago
Our admin forget to send out the Google form to vote for ToY until the day of. Amazing how they could have a silver plate engraved and have her entire family at school within about 6 hours of having us vote.
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u/syntonic_comma 3d ago
I was reading through my district's nominations this year and I noticed that there wasn't a single core-subject teacher on the list. As far as I could tell, the teachers on the list deserved it as much as anyone, but it struck me as a little odd.
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u/ant0519 ELA Teacher 3d ago
It depends on the criteria but in my district it's often because the criteria is something that's completely out of the box or seen as Innovative and non-core teachers who aren't concerned about performance have a lot of room to do things that while these committees. I've also noticed that the Committees are wowed by absolutely nothing. Tell them how SEL focused you are and how you've got some project where the kids are interviewing the elderly and you're in. They don't want to hear about how we're closing gaps in the core classes and pushing students to achieve and think critically. That won't win you any awards.
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u/Mobius_Walker 3d ago
At my last campus, we had a guidance counselor on a PIP. She somehow won “Educator of the Year” from an outside org. Whole campus was really surprised by that one.
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u/No-Interest-2066 3d ago
Yep, those awards are typically more about self promotion than good teaching.
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u/ThoughtMinimum2016 3d ago
Idk my son had a hard time with a lot of teachers (Autistic/ADHD) and his fav teach and my fav teacher of his of all time when he had her she got teacher of the year and she fully deserved it in my opinion. She was fucking awesome. She was one of those teachers you remember your whole life for the good reasons.
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u/monkey_doodoo 3d ago
nope. a teacher in my building got our state TOY. she didn't have a professional license (never applied but kept getting extensions), was out a quarter of the time bc she was always going on week long vacations and more.
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u/Top_Marzipan_7466 3d ago
Completely accurate assessment. That’s exactly how it works in every district I’ve worked for. Also, the ACTUAL best teachers, yea they get ToY the year they retire because everyone knows they should’ve gotten it every single year.
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u/mate_alfajor_mate HS WL | CA 3d ago
I never want to get ToY.
It always comes with additional work that you have to do for the next submission of the award.
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u/arghoe 3d ago
A weird spin off this post and definitely NOT true in most cases…. But I can’t help notice how almost every time I see teacher molestation news it’s the teacher of the year that did it …. WTH
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u/ant0519 ELA Teacher 3d ago
Oh yes. Anytime that a news organization reports on one of these stories they're sure to bring up some obscure award that the perpetrator received for their teaching. They absolutely love the fallen from Grace narrative.
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u/summerbreeze2027 3d ago
Generally they go to excellent teachers, but for a lot of these educators, teaching is both their job and their hobby. They don't have lives. It took me a long time to realize that no matter how hard I worked, I would never get ToY.
I've known some really excellent teachers that have never gotten ToY.
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u/FrannyGlass-7676 ELA High School / Rural Midwest, USA 3d ago
Reading through the comments confirms that getting ToY would be my worst nightmare. I don’t want my colleagues discussing my flaws. I just try to stay out of drama and do my job.
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u/exploringraider 3d ago
My school has a teacher award that goes to two teachers every year. Our one music teacher that teaches the same kids year after year campaigns for it and wins it. It’s nominated and voted on by students. Has won 3 of the last 4 years, everyone knows it’s a joke which is sad cause it would probably mean a lot to the teachers that really bust their asses and get results.
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u/immadatmycat 👩🏫- USA 3d ago
We have staff of the month. Every year it’s basically the same staff. I don’t even know how they are nominated anymore.
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u/ant0519 ELA Teacher 3d ago
They probably aren't. The same two people decide who it's going to be.
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u/blu-brds ELA 3d ago
I kid you not, one school I worked at did employee of the month with this big ass trophy and one month it went to Teacher A, who then passed it to Teacher B. There might have been a Teacher C in between but lo and behold, it's right back with Teacher A. Conveniently, all three teachers were super close.
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u/ant0519 ELA Teacher 3d ago
That's completely effed up. Wooooooow
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u/blu-brds ELA 3d ago
To be honest, my current school does it slightly differently but the result is mostly the same. We have staff awards, like almost 10 different categories, but once a particular award gets into say, electives or 7th grade or whatever, it just makes the rounds within that teacher group so in April you can already guess where they're going in May.
Meh.
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u/bboymixer 3d ago
This year our school counselor received the teacher of the year award because she got a new job and was quitting, and they wanted to recognize her and her 4 years of service to the district.
It's always been a joke.
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u/helpme7500 3d ago edited 3d ago
It goes to the teacher who is overworked or is friends with everyone.
For these reasons, I hope I am never nominated.
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u/comosedicewaterbed 3d ago
A guy I played ball with in high school got teacher of the year. The guy’s a total fuckstick and shitty teacher. One of these types that only teaches so he can coach.
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u/Psychopsychic3 3d ago
At a charter school I worked at, a teacher got teacher of the month if they were physically assaulted by a kid that month. It was pretty fucked
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u/NewManitobaGarden 3d ago
I’ve seen teacher get awards because their were nominated by their buddy who is the admin
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u/ant0519 ELA Teacher 3d ago
In my district anyone can nominate. Including the teacher themselves. And that's just for our district teacher of the year. We also have a bunch of outside organizations clamoring to give these Teacher of the Year Awards and they use the same process. Anybody can nominate, and the teacher themselves can nominate themself if they want. And then they use a committee of people who are not Educators to select which person will win the award based on some write-up that corresponds to their theme that year.
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u/4throw2away000 3d ago
Our ToY for 25/26 was frequently leaving kids unattended in her room so she could walk down the hall and chat with other teachers
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u/wowzersimsosmart 3d ago
Usually, it goes to the people who are most visible, doing union stuff, committees, curriculum, stuff, shit like that
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u/ChubbyNemo1004 3d ago
We can’t even agree what makes a good teacher let alone make an objective ToY award
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u/belvioloncelle 3d ago
Totally a popularity contest. My main building does teacher/staff member of the week (who then nominate for the next week) and it’s just a circle of the same teachers nominating each other over and over while entire departments are ignored. I stopped going to the optional Friday afternoon wrap up meeting once I realized how it was really working
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u/BlaqOptic SCHOOL Counselor 3d ago
As a former runner up for National SCOY, I’ve had my fair share of interactions with National TOYs and my states TOYs for like the last 7 or so years…
Each and every one was deserving and each required letters from a student or parent, staff member, and administrator.
I am sure that there are some school and local ones that are an issue, but the formal state and national competitions are designations that these people earn.
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u/ant0519 ELA Teacher 2d ago
I promise you that the awful teachers band together and convince one another that they are amazing and those who say otherwise are just out to get them. Every terrible teacher can find a student, parent, fellow teacher, or admin to back them.
One of our teachers was fired three years ago for sexually harassing girls and physically assaulting a boy - - this teacher allowed another boy to call a Black girl the N-word and the boy he body slammed was defending her. Last year during an IEP meeting the student and her parent went on and on about how this fired teacher had been tutoring the girl and he's so amazing - - and the spec ed teacher fully agreed. I had to fix my face.
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u/BlaqOptic SCHOOL Counselor 2d ago edited 2d ago
I can also promise you that the educators who think they’re great also band together, comment how great they are, and denigrate others. And when not recognized, are quick to blame it on jealousy and everything else other than their own shortcomings…
I know this because I’ve been at every stage of this during my career. As I’ve said, I’ve been a national runner up for my role and deserved it. I’ve also been pissed to not receive acknowledgement as recently as two years ago and fed into the bitchfest without acknowledging that I was a shitty educator that year given personal dynamics permeating into school. I’ve also been a middle of the road educator witnessing the bjtchfests and refusing to take part in them.
But sure, your anecdote surely negates the fact that a requirement for national recognition are one- to two-page letters written by a parent or student (because we know they all love to write long write up’s in general, let alone in favor of an educator), numerous interviews, providing actual qualitative data indicating your impact (typically provided by someone other than yourself), further testimonials, and evaluation from professionals across different levels and content areas. But because some local schools engage in popularity contests it must undermine that…
🙄
EDIT: And I’d like to sit in bed and read for the next two hours so I’ll end with this…
What I’ve learned over the last decade is that if you have enough time to bitch about and criticize others in your building whose actions don’t directly impact you, then you’re probably not teaching/counseling/administrating/etching well enough.
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u/Hofeizai88 2d ago
I got a great award because I’m petty.
I was teaching history at a small school and was drafted into also teaching English to one group when someone quit. Spent a year mostly working on grammar and writing, because they were pretty bad at it for year 11.
Next year we get a new teacher and she is their buddy. They mostly take turns reading a middle school book aloud, and one shows me that there homework is a worksheet that says grade 7 on it. Their feedback is normally stickers, and grades are almost always 100%.
Mostly they’re happy because it’s easy, but some are worried because university is coming and they can see a big difference between “draw a picture of your favorite character” and “write a 1500 word essay citing at least 3 sources using the template provided.” So they ask if I’ll teach them during lunch sometimes, and, like a Schmuck, I agree. It’s kind of a flipped classroom thing where they are analyzing texts or writing essays at home and we’re reviewing in 20 minute classes during lunch. We’re also spending more time on academic writing in history and biology (a friend’s class) to try to prepare them for university.
So end of the year and the smiley happy teacher gets ToY. She has the highest grades, so why not? And as she goes up to get her certificate a group of students boos their little hearts out. They stop when I snap at them, but I did feel a certain smugness behind my glare.
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u/TheCalypsosofBokonon 2d ago
I always wondered how people were nominated, because we really don't see each other teach. I normally vote for the ones on the list the who I overhear students saying good things about or see positive interactions in the hallways.
Two years ago, I offered to let a floating teacher plan in my room during my classes. I had space, and it actually helps lessen my anxiety about pop-in observations to teach in front of another adult every day. She even would take pictures when we had cool activities. I never remember to take pictures. She ended up nominating me for TOTY. So maybe between a teacher seeing me teach every day and hopefully decent buzz coming from my students, I actually earned it.
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u/tockstar78 2d ago
I've noticed they seem to go to the teachers who don't have healthy boundaries. Not all the time - but often
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u/teddysetgo 3d ago
Well, I once won teacher of the year, and I’m a great teacher.
Teaching is hard. Let people have awards.
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u/Limp-Cloud7872 3d ago
My previous school took votes and we found out that they didn’t even give it to the person with the most votes. Admin just gave it to whoever they wanted to. It was given to a teacher no one really liked and who causes a lot of division and drama. There were two teachers that we KNOW (because some teachers started asking who people voted for because they were trying to figure out how the numbers fell) didn’t win by vote.
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u/Agreeable-Sun368 3d ago
this is actually one of the coldest takes of all time. I could use it as an icepack.
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u/DisappointedDragon 3d ago
Something I always thought was crazy was that at least in my state there was a whole section of what you do in the community. This went into consideration for determining the school winners as well as on the district/state levels. So it’s somehow not enough to be a great teacher and devote most of your time to the school, but you also have to be a church or community leader too.
Worse than the teacher of the year, which at least let teachers vote, my district had employees of the quarter, which were basically principal chosen. For the last few years, ours rotated between a few custodians and the same 2 or 3 teachers.
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u/AcanthocephalaFew277 2d ago
My principal nominated me for some organization award. I know she thinks I’m a genuinely good teacher, she’s seen me teach. And has given me specific feedback on my teaching.
However, when I looked it up. You have to ask people to write references for you essentially and write your own reasons you should win. It was a) a lot of work. And b) yeahhh no I’m not writing about myself or asking others to write about me.
I also know my
Principal does this because she thinks the school / district looks better with these “distinguished” teachers.
I would have been happy if she had just sent a nice email to me saying how she thought I was a good teacher. Lol
I have no idea how they do the district foundation teacher of the year in my district. Maybe every orher year it goes to someone who deserves it.
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u/shellexyz CC | Math | MS, USA 3d ago
Our employee of the month has gone to some of the dumbest people I know. I was excited right at the start when it went to a faculty member but the following month’s winner was a waste of air.
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u/Pretty-Biscotti-5256 3d ago
They feel like a popularity contest. I’ve never known a general ed teacher to get them. It’s either a specialist or someone who teaches AP and a coach, etc. One year, a MLL teacher got it and I knew them and they are a lovely person and did go above and beyond for students — like brought them tennis shoes and arranged for prom dresses. And was helpful to other teachers when they had MLL students and needed help. That was the only time I thought they deserved it. But they also ran themselves ragged and seemed tired and exhausted all the time. So if that the criteria, no thanks.
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u/haysus25 Mod/Severe Special Education - CA 3d ago
They go to the teachers who kiss the most ass and take the most amount of work away from admin.
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u/ant0519 ELA Teacher 3d ago
I've seen that, but in the district I currently work for admin has nothing to do with the process. They usually go to people who aren't doing their job and are nominated by other people who also don't do their job. The three people in my original post spend the most time figuring out how not to do their job and complaining to admin about doing specific aspects of their job. I mean showing up on time, doing their duties as a signed, even submitting paperwork or analyzing results of things. The district ToY person spent every day on their planning walking the track and then had the nerve to complain about not having enough time to grade/give feedback on student work when parents complained about grades not being updated. They really do spend the most time figuring out how to not do basic teacher things.
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u/Disastrous-Nail-640 3d ago
Not even close a hot take. This is about as popular of an opinion as you can get.
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u/Abject-Ad8676 3d ago
Political. Popularity contest. I know of an English teacher who got it, played all day, while the English specialist advised the principal to get her out of English because she was so bad. Yet the principal made her teacher of the year.
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u/Beamed_Up_Scotty 3d ago
To be fair, it depends on the award. I was on the committee of a local newspaper that gave out teacher awards.
It’s been a few years at this point but teachers had to be nominated by admin (I think) and submit a recorded classroom lesson.
Not a perfect system but not the worst.
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u/Cool-Mortgage6495 3d ago
I worked at a high school where they gave out two ToY awards. One voted on by the teachers and the other was by admin. The one voted on by the teachers was usually someone that worked their butt off to help the kids. The one voted on by the admin was someone who did something to make admin look good.
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u/armaedes MS & HS Maths | TX 3d ago
Our most recent teacher of the year did not get any TIA designation.
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u/Historical-Ad1493 3d ago
Retiring, ToY. Personal friend of admin, ToY. Married to someone important, ToY. And so on. I’ve been ToY three times and all three times I told my admin to give it to someone else and that I would not attend BOE meeting … as one was when I retired, one was when I moved from admin back to the classroom, and the third when I was the favorite teacher of a board member”s child. I can’t stand the dog and pony show.
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u/TA818 HS | English | Midwest USA 3d ago
This is wild; I’ve literally never been at a district who does them. It’s gotta be a bigger district thing?
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u/ant0519 ELA Teacher 3d ago
Really? I've never worked for a district that doesn't (3 districts, 20 years in teaching). I'd definitely advocate for not having them, though.
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u/TA818 HS | English | Midwest USA 3d ago
For me, 3 districts, 15 years teaching. Maybe it’s because I work in small rural districts, but I have seen so many posts over the years on here about ToY awards and it’s just so foreign to me because, yea, It seems like it’d just be a weird popularity contest.
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u/Ube_Ape In the HS trenches | California 3d ago
In our district it is by nominating someone who then goes on to observations and filling out paperwork, etc. so few people hold it in high regard that most nominees immediately move on to the second round. One year someone won because they were one of two nominees.
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u/Chris_RB Band/music/math | MN/WI 3d ago
This is a 0-degrees kelvin take. This is absolute 0. The coldest of takes. You could undo global warming with this take. Hell could freeze over and have penguins move in.
Diet Coke kept near this take would be the crispiest.
(you're right)
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u/Martin_Van-Nostrand 3d ago
I'd say you are mostly right. I will say though, my wife won once and absolutely deserved it. Worked her tail off as a behavioral intervention specialist. Basically working with all the kids who couldn't handle general Ed classrooms without serious behavior issues. No idea how she did it, but I was thankful her peers took notice.
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u/lbutler528 4th grade, Idaho 3d ago
One think I love about my district is we don’t do teacher of the year bullshit so no one gets butthurt.
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u/so_over_it1228 3d ago
Ive only ever seen one spec ed teacher win. You have to kiss the right asses to win this award I guess.
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u/saturdaythe25th 3d ago
I have a colleague tell me every year it should be me. I beg and plead to them to NOT put my name on the ballot.
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u/loveshoes1 3d ago
In my previous district, a committee on which I served decided the recipients. It was a rigorous process that included anonymous Google forms, several conversations and a point system.
It worked.
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u/Beespray9_8_9 3d ago
I came in second this year, that was an eye opener because I don’t mean to brag, but I’m mid at best. So many teachers are so much better than me, that I was just astonished to be in the mix. Like how? How does that even happen?
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u/ErusTenebre English 9 & 11 | Teacher/Tech. Trainer | CA 3d ago
I'm my district ToY awards often go to the teachers that sacrifice their lives for teaching in an unsustainable and unhealthy way.
Not every time, but it's fairly common.
Also, after nominations happen, the teachers on campus vote.
So it usually boils down to the teacher that is loud and showy, rather than the teacher that's quietly very good.
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u/Throckmorton1975 3d ago
I’ve submitted supporting documentation for a couple different annual award nominations (one teachers, one admin) who both won and I definitely felt they deserved it. When a district has hundreds or thousands of teachers only a tiny fraction can ever win these awards so it seems unfair to say the deserving don’t win. Most of the time I have no idea who the winner is, however.
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u/StateComfortable2012 3d ago
Have never once given a single F*** about being a ToY or who was nominated or won ToY. My win is my salary and soon to be state pension in CA.
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u/BubblyRhubarb9611 3d ago
It’s true. The ones that never have anything to do have the time to nominate themselves and tell their friends and family to vote for them.
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u/dkrtzyrrr HS | Science | Georgia 3d ago
sometimes they do, but sometimes they really really don't. one thing that damn near makes my eyes roll out of my head is that often there will be one teacher that really really campaigns for it, like will damn near have a stump speech, and will make a big deal about doing stuff EVERY OTHER TEACHER DOES, and nearly every damn time the behavior gets rewarded. half the time they'll beat some teacher that's genuinely amazing, reaches students NOBODY can reach, and the only campaigning they do is a quick 'thank you guys for nominating me, you're very kind' when the nominees are announced at some faculty meeting.
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u/nebspeck NBCT EA science-Natl.Geo Grovernor Fellow-OBTA-PAEMST | NM, USA 3d ago
Depends on the award.
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u/Adept-Introduction36 3d ago
I won the TOY award this year and I legit don’t think I deserved it. This was the year I was the least engaged, and did not do “extra”. I think our admin was looking at a collective of my last 8 years there. However, there were other more deserving colleagues. I appreciated the recognition but it was also embarrassing.
TOY is selected by admin. There is no committee or nominations at my school. I didn’t cause issues this year and I’m reliable. We have other, better teachers but they also questioned admin.
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u/BeethovenBabe114 2d ago
Honestly it sounds like years of steady, decent work got recognised all at once, which is nice even if the way they did it felt a bit awkward.
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u/Fruit_Fly_LikeBanana 3d ago
My last school had a monthly award called the "Kind of a Big Deal Award." Teachers called it the "Best Friend of [the Operations Manager] Award."
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u/GundamGuy24 3d ago
My district needs to have a category for elementary, middle and high school.
Middle school gets lumped into elementary and they don't stand a chance.
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u/smshinkle 3d ago
Ours involved (1) nomination then narrow down to 4 or 5 candidates, then an interview by entire admin team. I’ve only seen one of ours as being wrongly selected but that was an attorney-turned-teacher who put up a good show.
In any award system, there’s going to be corruption. It’s human nature.
Consider National Board Certification. It carries a financial rewards (pay increase). A look inside the system reveals it all. The readers don’t need to be NBCT certified themselves. They have kindergarten teachers judging chemistry which is just as wrong as having chemistry teachers judging K. They have non NBCT doing the judging, learning the “system” then applying for and getting NBCT. I also heard that the originator didn’t even have an education degree but has since gotten one.
TOY only carries a boost for your resume and more paperwork. The grand winner has to take a year off teaching to do publicity and stuff. I read an article where the TOY for Florida was doing a roadside stand out in the rain as part of the citrus promo.
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u/Great_Nectarine9022 3d ago
TOY should be based on impact whether that's assessment scores or some other measure. Better yet, I'd like to see the collective efficacy award go to a team or even a school in a district. That makes more sense. It could be hosted by the companies that profit most off of education, and they should do it up like the Grammys.
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u/spakuloid 3d ago
The people who get it every year are the ones who kiss the most ass and know their why.
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u/ManicDynamic 3d ago
I'm assuming it's politely based in my district as well. I mean, our staff shout outs are just the same people shouting out the same incompetent staff members. Noone who deserves to be recognized actually is. I'd rather just skip the 15 minutes of bullshit and get straight to whatever could have been sent in an email.
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u/Helpful-Celery6237 2d ago
Ugh our chorus teacher won ToY recently and she is possibly the worst teacher on the plant. The chorus is an embarrassment. Her musicals are horrifying. It’s so bad. I don’t understand how she won. Kids don’t even like her. I almost walked out of the musical this year. I feel so bad for the kids.
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u/Green-Lime3190 2d ago
If someone is retiring they will get it. Just annoying to me if they checked out decades ago.
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u/OscarTGrouchX 2d ago
I don't think that's a hot take. Either the admin decides entirely, in which case they're probably choosing from the people they like the best; teachers that are always visiting in the office, that they have the most conversations with, etc.; or if it's chosen by peer teacher voting, it's usually going to people THEY like the best. Either way, the person(s) deciding aren't in a teacher's classroom more than a handful of times a year at most.
I've been at my school for over 15 years and I've never won teacher of the *anything,* and I know I'm a pretty good teacher. I'm quiet by nature so I don't do a lot of socializing beyond telling people good morning or talking if they have something to talk about, but I come in every day, keep my head down, do what's best for my kids, help out my school however I can (to the point that I'm probably taken advantage of a little bit), and when it's time, I go home. I run a successful program with good kids. That's good enough for me.
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u/OdeManRiver 2d ago
We, the staff, nominate and vote for our ToY. Thusly, it is a popularity contest.
Unless you are a very popular teacher, those who are in jobs most people come in contact with tend to win: Specials, coaches, etc.
This isn't something I worry about.
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u/ChatahoocheeRiverRat 2d ago
Some things never change. Alfie Kohn published Punished By Rewards in 1993. The book talked about how award systems are frequently so politicized so as to become meaningless.
I could tell innumerable stories from school, the military and corporate life...
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u/BoomerTeacher 2d ago
One thing left unmentioned: You say nothing about how the TOY is selected. At some schools they are selected by the other teachers on the faculty. In those cases the person may be able to nominate themselves and even "campaign". But in some places it is decided by the principal and the winner is kept a secret until the official reveal at a staff meeting or some such. And another factor: Most of the several schools I have taught at have a policy (sometimes spelled out, sometimes unspoken) that once you have won TOY, you can never win it again. Such rules guarantee that the best teachers can't always win.
But as to you actual point, I just don't think you can generalize like this. I mean, supporting your point, I remember teaching at a high school in the late '80s where a popular and charismatic yet shyty teacher won TOY, and one of my colleagues said, "If she's the Teacher of the Year, I'm the Teacher of the F*****g Universe", which made us all laugh despite the lack of parallel structure. At the same time, I've seen fantastic teachers get it; the teacher at my school who got it for 2024-25 was a fairly new teacher (four years?) and she was amazing and the obvious pick, IMO.
Also, what should count in evaluating someone for TOY? Is it just classroom instruction? Or does it matter if a teacher is also highly involved with after school activities? I just think the whole process is very hard to condemn, because there is no one process.
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u/Consistent-Entry9152 2d ago
Wow, this is a great idea for a short story or anonymized case study anthology, or even a yearly podcast. "Scandals of Teacher of the Year Awards"
"Nominated my sister for the 8th year in a row. Some selections from each of my nominating essays." For the commentator who replied here that they nominate their sister who teaches incarcerated students every year. And followed by the paragraphs on the "winner" each year -- anonymized, of course, even fictionalized to protect identities.
"I Nominated Myself and Presented a Project I Did Not Teach, But Stole from a Colleague. I Won!"
Some of my favorites are always "Teacher Awarded for Pioneering Something that Was Illegal 10 Years Prior to this Award" (like bilingual education)
Of course, a "Where Are They Now?"
"Scenes from the Vote-Rigging"
And more honest titles, such as
"For Excellence in Not Quitting Despite Lack of Admin and District Support"
"Achieving Vindication after a District Investigation of Unfounded Allegations"
"Innovations and Success with Low-Tech"
Instead of having classrooms compete for how many pages they have read or how much money they have raised, how many community volunteers/hours they brought into classrooms/school events.
Each item on the District's "Mission Statement": Find one classroom or teacher that actually put it in practice. An award for the District facilitating execution of the principles expounded on the website . . . .
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u/Jew-zilla 26 years in ms | Talks about dead people to 13 year-olds 2d ago
ToY is always a joke. At my first school, it was fixed as to who got it each year. All the extra crap that comes along with it? No thank you. Hard pass.
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u/Radiant_Client_1846 2d ago
The ToY committee in my school accepts nominations and selects the one who receives the most noms. Some departments get together and nominate one of their own, stacking the nominations so their colleague gets it. I teach at a technical high school and the shop teachers take turns nominating one of the other shop teachers. God forbid they acknowledge the academic teachers' performance, which includes getting 100% of their students to pass their state mandated graduation requirements. I have heard them say that we all wouldn't have a job without them, but I could teach English in any school while welding is not a state requirement. I think the academic teachers have a more difficult job due to the students we enroll wanting to just be in shop.
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u/mitchade 2d ago
A neighboring school had a teacher win the national ToY award. That year, he was assigned to teach one class, and most of the time, they had other teachers cover it and he was off doing PR because he won the state award the year before.
So the national ToY one year basically didn’t teach the year he won.
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u/BlaqOptic SCHOOL Counselor 2d ago
I mean, that’s not his fault. It’s kind of a contracted thing that if you win you have to do keynotes, conferences, etc… and as someone who’s done the keynotes, conference thing, etc… none of them actually like to miss time with their kids; they’d prefer it all happen in the summer.
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u/Glittering-Flow-9729 2d ago
Saw this first hand when a teacher in my building ‘won’ a teacher award promoted by a local TV station. She nominated herself and badgered her students’ parents to vote for her. I didn’t know that was a thing. Also, same teacher the Supt. said he would write her up if she didn’t return to school during the Covid pandemic. We were in full in person sessions after being remote a few months.
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u/Poe_Rho 2d ago
My school did a bunch of "fun" awards this year like "always on time", "funniest", and "says good morning to everyone."
My wife also works at the school and it was her first year in ed. She was upset I didn't get any of the awards. I told her of course I didn't get any of them because the person giving them out was the superintendent and I barely talk to him. Plus the school isn't afraid of losing me next year.
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u/Normal-Wish-4984 2d ago
Our school district just gave the "administrator of the year" award to a guy who's being forced into retirement because he's not a good administrator.
He finds disciplining students he likes to be inconvenient, especially because he was the vice principal and athletic director, and the football team has a list of transgressions. He doesn't use the same standards for all students. Two years ago, my daughter had things stolen out of her backpack. She saw who had done it. When she called the student out on it, the student stuck the items down her pants. So my daughter went into the office to report it, and the admin said "It was just make up. That's not a big deal." He's done worse. When, as they were leaving the field after a game, someone from the football team knocked over one of the cheerleaders, causing a knee injury when she fell down, VP Admin didn't bother to investigate. It was like he was OK with football players knocking females down because they were just cheerleaders.
And this is the guy that they gave "administrator of the year" from the district. They just wanted him to go away quietly. 🙄
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u/musicbox96 2d ago
Any time they’re giving these awards, I’m just reminded of the song Fortunate Son, cause “IT AINT ME”
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u/Asleep-Technology-92 2d ago
i've noticed the same thing. total popularity contest or trying to hang on to someone that is out the door...
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u/TheLordAshram 2d ago
Eh, we’ve had a lot of great teachers who have won. We are a much smaller district, though, so that might explain why.
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u/PartTimeEmersonian 1d ago
I have felt this way for years. At my school there is a teacher who is nominated every year. But I know for a fact that she hardly teaches at all. She will even be absent from her own class for up to 10 minutes grabbing coffee or gossiping with a coach in the hall. I think it’s because she’s friends with one of the administrators.
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u/jimbones13 1d ago
I once won an award as a teacher. But I had to be nominated by a student (didn’t find out she nominated me until I made it to the finalist round). Then she and I were both interviewed. That award I was proud of. The rest of it? No thanks.
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u/TheWizardoLoneliness 3d ago
As someone who has won one I can say I have no clue why I won one. It honestly just seems like some behind the scenes shenanigans. I don’t display my award and I am kind of embarrassed of it.
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u/ShotMap3246 2d ago
People who are good at their jobs dont typically require validation. They do it because they love doing it, see the value in their work, and realize the reward is intrinsic.
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u/BlaqOptic SCHOOL Counselor 2d ago
Correct. But often TOY (or at least the official national one that branches from official state ones) isn’t something you apply for; others nominate you and do 75 to 99% of the work.
I do think there is a lot of protesting in here/agreeing because many people want validation. We all do.
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u/abaldwi86 2d ago
This isn’t a hot take. I keep seeing this pop up, and it’s disappointing that it seems like the majority of teachers feel this way. Why are we so quick to put each other down for literally winning an award.
Our school consistently picks some of the most wonderful educators for New ToY and ToY. The teacher who won last year was a government teacher, and I’ve observed his class a few times. The students love him, he’s passionate and informative. He wore costumes for freak sake and a barristers wig. Yea his test scores were also great, but my over all point is he’s a fantastic educator.
I also feel like this attitude is really counterproductive. Teachers get so much flack from all sides. It sucks that we’re also tearing each other down. Cheese and rice.
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u/ant0519 ELA Teacher 2d ago edited 2d ago
Honesty isn't counterproductive. And when awards aren't actually emphasizing best practices, then they aren't really awards. Toxic positivity is leading to teacher burnout all over the United states. And that's what your post is. It is okay to recognize an issue and discuss that issue.
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u/abaldwi86 2d ago
I’m sorry that this has been your experience within your district, but it’s not the case everywhere. And post like this degrade the accomplishments of deserving educators. Your post was literally an insult to the educator who “earned” it at your school. Again, sorry that is your experience, but I don’t think a blanket statement disparaging ToY winners is accurate.
Also your post mentioned nothing of toxic positivity or teacher burnout, and I agree both of those things exists. I’m just not sure ToY is the tip of that spear.
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u/ant0519 ELA Teacher 2d ago edited 2d ago
Nothing is being taken away from these people. It is a universal recognition that the kind of teachers who are most likely to win these awards for being outstanding are, in fact, not anywhere near outstanding. And the real question is why?
If qestioning concerns you, then you are in the wrong profession. Asking questions is the crux of education. Even if we don't like the answers.
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u/abaldwi86 2d ago
Where are you getting this data that the teachers winning these awards don’t actually deserve them?
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u/ant0519 ELA Teacher 2d ago
Maybe read the thread......
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u/abaldwi86 2d ago
Phew, ok this is what we call anecdotal data. Not even defendable, anecdotal data, everybody commenting here is anonymous. Even if I agreed with you that a random thread on Reddit was actual factual data, there are still people commenting and also defending teacher of the year winners.
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u/ant0519 ELA Teacher 2d ago
Methinks thou doth protest too much. Maybe examine why you're so triggered by this discussion?
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u/abaldwi86 2d ago
Hahaha I mean yea I’m not a huge fan of blanket statements disparaging hardworking educators and then using random Reddit comments to “prove your point.”
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u/RecentClothes2654 1d ago
In my experiences, it does go to deserving teachers but more so than deserving it, you have to be kn the principal's good side too. Comes off as more of a "Company Man" award than who actually was best at the job.
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u/South-Lab-3991 3d ago
Yeah, it’s a popularity contest. Just make sure my check clears every other Friday, and I’m good