You are invited to submit a nomination for Bethany’s 2024-25 Teacher of the Year by filling out the following form. Please submit nominations by Thursday, May 8.
Note that the following teachers are not eligible since they have received this award in the past five years: Jen Bontrager 23-24, Edgar Silva 22-23, Christa Janzen 21-22, Michael Yeakey 20-21. See additional criteria below.
Since 1996 a Bethany family has funded the Teacher-of-the-Year Award to affirm and recognize the work of dedicated teachers at Bethany.
At a church school such as Bethany, our purpose is not only to provide an academically excellent education, but to also help students grow in their understanding of a larger, God-given purpose for their lives – to which they’ve been called and for which they are being equipped. In short, to prepare students to participate in God’s work in the world. Recipients of this award exemplify a “Faith that Lives,” foster “Academic Excellence” and are deeply rooted in our community (i.e., model God’s love, respect differences, build compassionate relationships and practice reconciliation.
The following criteria are considered in selecting the recipients for teacher-of-the-year and are based on Bethany core values:
- Caring for and engaging with individual students, encouraging them to live with integrity, value diversity, demonstrate cultural sensitivity, and practice stewardship as valued in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition.
- Reflects on instruction and adapts instructional approaches to maximize students’ engagement in learning.
- Teaching with enthusiasm and passion
- Contributing to extracurricular activities or otherwise contributing to the life of the school community.
- Positively representing Bethany to others and actively engaging in church and community life
- no individual employee is eligible more than once in five years. Teachers not eligible: Jen Bontrager 2024, Edgar Silva 2023, Christa Janzen 2022, Michael Yeakey 2021.
To select the teacher recipients, students, parents, and employees are invited to nominate a teacher, giving reasons for the choice.