One of the central purposes of NACTA (North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture) is to recognize those individuals whose efforts represent the very best in agricultural higher education.  The NACTA Teacher Fellow Award is a criterion based award and is reviewed by a committee of NACTA members.  To qualify for the award a NACTA member must have been on a full-time appointment involving at least 25% teaching for a minimum of 5 of the past 7 years. Criteria included in the evaluation are the instructor's teaching philosophy; evaluations submitted by current students, alumni, administrative officers, and peers; a self-evaluation as well as factors such as availability to students, teaching innovations, and departmental/institutional activity.  Recipients receive a plaque.
 

• 1) Inclusion of the NACTA Awards Check List at the beginning of the nominee's file.
• 2) Nominators letter should be sent to the Teaching Awards Chair - It should be a brief letter indicating who it is they are nominating and justification.
• 3) Evidence of an individual NACTA membership for at least the present year (be sure and address this).  Membership will be verified with the NACTA Secretary.  Also included should be evidence that the nominee has been on a full-time appointment involving at least 25% teaching for at least five of the past seven years is required. (A statement by an academic administrative officer will suffice - refer to the Administrative Officer Form.)
• 4) An essay by the nominee on his or her philosophy of teaching is required. This must not exceed five typewritten (double-spaced) pages.
• 5) Evaluations of the nominee's teaching by recent students must be included (must include the last three years during a five year period). Since most institutions have an in-house teacher evaluation system, a summary of recent data on the nominee's performance as assessed by the home institution's system is appropriate. Such an analysis must be accompanied by appropriate interpretive materials and a copy of the evaluation instrument employed. The NACTA Teacher Evaluation Form - Current Student may be used if the nominee's home institution does not collect and analyze student evaluations or to supplement your institution's in-house evaluation system (include no more than ten evaluations).
• 6) Evaluations of the nominee's teaching by recent (last 5 years) alumni. At least five (suggested up to ten) evaluations by recent graduates should be provided using the NACTA Teacher Evaluation Form - Alumnus/Alumna. This may be supplemented by alumni letters.
• 7) An evaluation of the nominee's performance should be provided by at least one, but no more than three academic administrative officers using the NACTA Teacher Evaluation Form -Administrative Officer. This may be supplemented by a letter.
• 8) An evaluation of the nominee's performance should be provided by at least one, but no more than three peers using the NACTA Teacher Evaluation Form - Peer. This may be supplemented by a letter.
• 9) The nominee should provide a self-evaluation of his or her professional activities, included should be evidence of: availability to students, ability to attract and motivate students, use of current, innovative and effective teaching methods, current in subject matter, scholarly activities, active participation in departmental and institutional affairs, mediator of the campus culture and link to the public, and student related activities.

Attendance at annual meeting: Nominees should recognize that NACTA and sponsors expect awardees to be present at the annual conference to receive their awards.  A consent of nomination implies that the nominee has an intention and, if selected for an award, will make a reasonable attempt to attend the annual conference.  The 2008 annual conference will be held June 10 to 13 at Utah State University, Logan, Utah.   All award recipients are expected to participate/make presentations at future NACTA conferences.

A photograph and short biography of each award recipient will be included in the awards program at the annual conference.  Submit a biography not to exceed 250 words in WordPerfect or Word format, along with a good picture in the form of a JPG or GIF file (the larger/better quality, the better your picture will be).  The biography and picture should be sent via e-mail to the Chair of the Teacher Recognition Committee.

Postmark deadline for all nomination materials is March 1, 2008.

First impressions do count. Some attention to neatness of organization, format, and presentation of dossiers can make a difference.

The nominator should submit four file copies for each person nominated.  Receipt of the nomination packet will be acknowledged.  Note: Copies of the file will not be returned, so the nominator should not send the original file.

A cover page should include the following information:
          Name, title, professional address, telephone number, e-mail address of the nominator;
          Name, title, professional address, telephone number, e-mail address of the nominee;
          A list of the awards for which the nominee is being nominated.