The Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English is planning to honor two UW-Milwaukee School of Education graduates at its annual convention Oct. 18 and 19 in Madison.
Marjorie Elizabeth Struck was selected as the winner of the Outstanding Student Teacher Award for the 2017-2018 school year. She did her student teaching at Bradley Tech High School.
Jesse Martin was selected as the winner of the Nancy Hoefs Memorial Award for Outstanding First Year Teachersfor the 2017-2018 school year. He taught at James Madison Academic campus.
In informing Struck of the award, committee members praised her commitment to urban education, her ability to work with students one-on-one and her highly collaborative relationship with her cooperating teacher and other colleagues.
“The selection committee was deeply impressed by the ways in which you engage students with literature and learning, helping them to make intertextual connections as well as connect texts to their own lives and to current events; the purposeful ways in which you taught argumentation were also frequently mentioned,” wrote David Roloff, an English Education professor at UW-Stevens Point who is chair of the Awards Committee of WCTE.
Martin was praised for his work in building links with students and their communities.
“The selection committee made regular mention of the ways in which you work to build relationships with your students, continually aiming to learn more about their interests and abilities, and how you then used this knowledge to inform your professional and pedagogical actions as you worked with students and their communities,” Roloff wrote.
Since 2009, 11 School of Education Early Adolescence through Adolescence English students have won the outstanding student teacher award; seven EAA-English graduates have won the outstanding first-year teacher award.
