Published: Aug. 26, 2019

Best should teach logoThe University of Colorado Boulder 2019 Best Should Teach Lecture and Awards Ceremony will celebrate excellence in education by recognizing outstanding CU Boulder faculty members, K-12 teachers and graduate student teachers with Best Should Teach Awards on Sept. 12 from 6-7:30 p.m. in the University Memorial Center Glenn Miller Ballroom. 

Free and open to the public, the ceremony will feature award-winning author and University of Georgia professor Bettina L. Love, who will deliver the keynote talk, “We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching as anti-racist pedagogy.” Love is a dynamic speaker and one of the field’s most esteemed educational researchers in the areas of hip hop education and urban education. Her work is also concerned with how teachers and schools working with parents and communities can build communal, civically engaged schools rooted in intersectional social justice aimed at creating more equitable classrooms.

The event will honor five CU Boulder faculty members, four K-12 teachers from local school districts and lead graduate teachers in the Graduate Teacher Program with Best Should Teach Gold and Silver Awards.

The 2019 Best Should Teach faculty award recipients include:

  • Mona Attwa, Instructor of Arabic, Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations
  • Emmanuel David, Assistant Professor, Department of Women and Gender Studies
  • Wendy Glenn, Program Chair of Secondary Humanities and Professor of Literacy Studies, School of Education
  • Erika Randall, Associate Professor, Department of Theatre and Dance
  • Kate Semsar, Assistant Director for STEM Education and Instructor, Miramontes Arts & Sciences Program (MASP)

Teacher honorees from partner school districts include:

  • Rachel Calus, Adams 12 Five Star School District, 4th grade teacher at STEM Launch in Thornton
  • Sherie Dike-Wilhelm, St Vrain Valley School District, English Language Development Liaison and Bi-Literacy Interventionist at Columbine Elementary in Longmont
  • Tami Dawn Hart, Brighton 27J, Engineering Teacher at Prairie View High School in Henderson
  • Dawn Ringenbach, Boulder Valley School District, art teacher and the teacher librarian at Emerald Elementary in Broomfield

The Best Should Teach awardees were selected for their embodiment of the beliefs, behaviors, and skills of exemplary teachers. The call for nominations for CU Boulder faculty also include statements and nominations from students from all colleges and schools across campus.

"Wendy has taught two of my recent classes and has been simply wonderful," one student nominator remarked about Wendy Glenn. "She is kind, caring, sensitive, and offers quality instruction week in and week out. In an environment where sometimes work feels like it is graded for completion, Wendy provides feedback that seeks to improve our work, but presents it in such a way that we feel seen and our voices heard."

The late, lifelong educator Lindley Stiles and his wife Marguerite Stiles established the Best Should Teach Initiative in 1996 to celebrate excellence in teaching, and Stiles’ inspiring motto is inscribed on the School of Education Building:

“To those who come, I leave the flame! Hold it as high as you can reach. If a better world is your aim, all must agree: The Best Should Teach.”