One of the most inspiring and upbeat events every spring is the Denver Teachers’ Awards annual banquet and this year’s process for nominating outstanding teachers is now underway.

Denver Teachers’ Awards is now encouraging nominations for the 2002-2003 Distinguished Teacher Awards. The deadline for submitting nominations is Friday, January 31, 2003. Nomination books are to be delivered to the first floor Welcome Center of the Denver Public Schools administration building (900 Grant St.) by that date.

Nomination books are judged and scored by a committee of college professors. Final selections are based on the results of the committee’s scores. The Denver Teachers’ Awards Board of Directors does not do any judging. The Board, however, tries to ensure elementary, middle, and high school teachers are all represented in the final selection. The quality of content of the nomination books serves as the basis for scoring, not the appearance of the book.

Official 2002-2003 nomination forms are available at www.dpsk12.org/docs/teacher_awards.shtml. You will also find the link to the forms under the “Updates” section on the DPS home page.

Principals, school staff members, parents, students and citizens may nominate teachers. The nomination form is to be accompanied by letters and documents supportive of teaching excellence and should be put together in a nomination notebook of your own design.

To be eligible, teachers must have taught for five years or more in the district prior to this year and must not have won this award before.

A training session for those who wish to learn more about putting together a “winning” nomination book will be held in Room 108 at the administration building (900 Grant St.) beginning at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 4.

Since 1957, Denver Teachers’ Awards (the Denver Chapter of Colorado Awards) has recognized the teaching profession annually by honoring distinguished teachers for excellence in teaching.

For more information, please contact Tom Waymire at 303-863-6181 or Sharon Tave at 303-863-3701.