2022 Fall Awards are closed, except for TOY - due December 31, 2022
The Colorado Language Excellence and Achievement Recognition Award
(CLEAR)
The Colorado Language Excellence and Achievement Recognition Award, or CLEAR Award, is a distinction intended to honor excellence within world language departments across Colorado, including middle and elementary schools. Just as it thrills the CCFLT to honor our remarkable world language teachers, we are so proud to recognize the extraordinary efforts required to build, nourish, and expand world language departments at all levels. This distinction honors any and all world language departments, granting up to five stars for those that feature the ten indicators for high schools or middle schools that we believe to be the defining characteristics of excellence in language instruction.
Awarded schools are invited to register for the Fall Conference to receive their recognitions.
Application and supporting documents are due September 1, 2023.
Teacher of the Year
(TOY)
This distinction recognizes the spark plugs; the fireworks; the twinkling chandeliers; the tinderboxes of ideas ignited by an enthusiasm for teaching; the educators with enough gleam and glimmer to light up dark rooms and dark times; the glow-in-the dark, phosphorescent types who radiate warmth in all directions; the mentors and friends who keep the path toward excellence illuminated, and remind the rest of us, students and fellow teachers alike, that there is always, always light at the end of every tunnel. Intended for K-postsecondary world language teachers with a minimum of ten years of teaching experience, the CCFLT Teacher of the Year award honors the flame and flicker of our best and brightest.
The CCFLT Teacher of the Year application and rubric are inspired to a great extent by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language’s (ACTFL) Teacher of the Year application dossier, as our hope is that our Teacher of the Year goes on to win as the ACTFL Teacher of the Year
The winner of the CCFLT Teacher of the Year award should be a current world language teacher within the state of Colorado, as well as a member of the CCFLT. Additionally, the winner will be honored with a plaque at both the fall and spring CCFLT conferences, at no cost to them, where they are invited to present on the topic of their choice. Finally, the winner will receive a $500 travel stipend toward to attend the annual Southwestern Conference on Language Teaching (SWCOLT), where they will represent CCFLT and will be considered for the SWCOLT Regional Teacher of the Year Award.
Applicant Dossiers will be measured using this rubric. Application and Supporting documents are due December 31, 2022.
Welcome Package Award
Our most precious resource as world language teachers is a healthy and robust corpus of new educators within our communities. The strength and durability of our profession relies upon the ingenuity, energy, and perspective that new colleagues bring to their classrooms, departments, and schools, and one of our greatest wishes at the CCFLT is to support these newcomers in their every professional endeavor. To that end, we announce the CCFLT Welcome to World Languages Package as a means of extending such scaffolding. The CCFLT Welcome to World Languages Package winner will be provided complimentary registration to the 2023 CCFLT Fall Conference, as well as the 2024 CCFLT Spring Conference; will earn a year of free CCFLT membership; and will receive a copy of Julia G. Thompson’s text, The First-Year Teacher's Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools & Activities for Meeting the Challenges of Each School Day.
We seek applicants who teach at any level of world language within their first three years of teaching; two winners will be selected. The application deadline is 1 September 2023.
Winners are asked to submit a 600-word entry to the CCFLT spring newsletter that describes how they may have benefited from the CCFLT Welcome to World Languages Package.
Applicants should submit the following supporting documents:
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a current curriculum vitae
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a response, not to exceed 300 words, that addresses these questions: Which tools and resources, as a new world language educator, will best support you as you continue your work in the classroom? Where and how will you acquire these tools?
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one letter of recommendation from a figure familiar with the applicant’s work as an educator.
Applicant dossiers will be measured using this rubric. Application and supporting documents are due September 1, 2023.