Ten teachers from NDA have been nominated for the coveted Golden Apple. They are Adam Rudar, Andrea Gilson, Bryan Konshak, Caitlin VandenWyngaard, Carolyn Brown, Eliza Campbell, Julie Campbell, Michael Prudisch, Molly Mattke and Steve Johnson.
The Golden Apple Awards is a program designed to recognize outstanding teachers in the greater Green Bay area. The program looks for “high standards of professionalism, leadership, and innovation in teaching,” and the teachers selected must represent these ideals.
“Each of them has been recognized by someone in our community as making a difference for students, and that is the most important part of being nominated,” said Principal Mrs. Hearden, who is incredibly proud of all the outstanding nominees.
Teachers and staff members can be nominated by students, parents, other teachers, school staff members and community members.
“It’s an honor to be nominated and encourages me to continue to strive to become a better teacher,” said veteran English teacher Brown.
There are five stages in the Awards process: the Nomination Phase, Application Phase, De-Biasing Phase, Screening Phase, and Judging Phase.
The school is currently in the Application Phase, where school staff must select two nominees to move forward in the process to represent NDA. The process of choosing the next two will be a difficult one, as all the teachers nominated are highly qualified.
“We always have many worthy nominees, and it is so challenging to choose just one,” said Hearden.
Hearden herself is a Teacher of Distinction in the program, which is awarded during the Screening Phase of the Golden Apple Awards. Teachers of Distinction stand out amongst thousands of nominees and embody what it means to be one of the top leaders and educators within their communities. She described how her letter of recommendation, which was written by a parent, was so important to her.
“One year when I moved on to the next level, a parent wrote a letter of recommendation for me. That letter was better than any award I could receive,” said Hearden.
The Golden Apple Awards are exactly what NDA is about – recognizing the teachers and staff that are making a difference in students’ lives, so they can go out into the world as capable graduates.
“Making a difference for our students is why we work so hard here at NDA,” said Hearden.
Adviser’s Note: Feature stories on all 10 nominees are posted in the Online Tritonian. Their stories are written by Journalism I students.
