What are the #iteachmsu Awards?
Gratitude is so important especially for the wide educator community (including but not limited to faculty, GTAs, ULAs, instructional designers, academic advisors, librarians, coaches, etc.) who help support learning across MSU. At #iteachmsu, we believe in elevating, recognizing, and celebrating those contributions is vital.
The #iteachmsu Educator Awards are dedicated to honoring individuals who have been recognized through the Thank an Educator initiative. This is a simple but important act of saying thank you and recognizing the great work of educator colleagues across campus. To learn more about Thank an Educator more broadly check out this #iteachmsu article and this MSU Today article!
Why do the Awards exist?
While the collaborating units and the #iteachmsu project team are excited about the aforementioned “wide educator community”, we have found through informational interviews and observations (as well as conversations with our diverse advisory group and content contributors) that individuals across roles that contribute to the teaching and learning mission of the university may not personally identify as educators. We established the Thank an Educator initiative and are recognizing those individuals with the #iteachmsu Educator Awards to:
- help demonstrate the diversity of educators across roles on campus
- help individuals associate their name/work with “educator” and embrace their educator identity
- celebrate the amazing individuals we have shaping the learning experiences and success of students on our campus.
How are #iteachmsu Educator Award recipients recognized?
In the inaugural year of the #iteachmsu Educator Awards (2019) a brief ceremony and casual reception were held as a conclusion to the Spring Conference on Teaching, Learning, and Student Success. Awardees were designated with a flag on their name tags and picked up their #iteachmsu Educator Award certificates (along with their nomination stories) at reception with food and drink. Dr. Jeff Grabill, Associate Provost at the time, gave a brief welcome and introduction to some of the foundations of #iteachmsu. Then former Provost Youatt concluded the formal portion of the ceremony with congratulations and thoughts on the importance of educator work.
The global pandemic and resulting remote work (2020-21) forced us to think differently about how to hold public events, and while the shift was challenging and uncomfortable at times we have emerged with a way to uplift #iteachmsu Educator Award recipients in a more public way. Instead of a small reception, recognized individuals are being recognized publically via articles here on iteach.msu.edu. They each receive the same Educator Award materials- which are distributed digitally.
How can you submit an educator for an #iteachmsu Educator Award?
Anyone can recognize a fellow Spartan for their contributions to MSU's teaching and learning mission or for how they made a lasting impression on your experience. All you have to do is click "Thank an Educator"
in the left panel of iteach.msu.edu. From there you'll see a short form where you can enter the name, netID, and a short story of the educator you'd like to recognize.
updated 06/23/2021
