This award recognizes a student teacher/intern who has demonstrated during his or her student teaching/intern experience an outstanding ability to:

• Plan and develop a repertoire of classroom management skills and instructional strategies that support the needs and curriculum of all students;
• Establish effective interpersonal relationships with students, parents, faculty, and staff; and
• Reflect about the teaching and learning process.

Since the award’s establishment in 1994, KDP and ATE have named a very select few from around the United States as National Student Teacher of the Year. The award recognizes one student teacher/intern annually who has demonstrated the ability to plan and develop classroom management skills and instructional strategies that support all students; establish interpersonal relationships with students, parents, faculty, and staff; and reflect powerfully on their student teaching experience.

The Ken Burrett Fund was established in 1997, by colleagues in honor of Ken Burrett, Director of Student Teaching, at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA. The Ray and Marge Sunderlund Memorial fund was established in 2006, in honor of Ray and Marge who came from Kutztown, PA where Ray was Director of Student teaching at Kutztown University. They contributed many hours of service and constructive ideas to ATE during their many hours of membership. This fund was conflated in August, 2011 and will support outstanding student teaching performance.

The 2023 application period is open!

View the Student Teacher of the Year Application

For more information see the KDP website.

Award winners are acknowledged with a $2,000 scholarship award. 

Parth Shah, University of California- Berkeley,

2018 KDP/ATE Student Teacher of the Year

from top left Jim Whiteman, Lynn Kline, Paul Paese,

Marilyn Nicholas, and recipient Parth Shah

Criteria

For the Student Teacher/Intern of the Year award, applicants must be an enrolled undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, or graduate student with a minimum 3.0 GPA and be student teaching/interning full time at a curricular level for which they are eligible for certification.

Membership in KDP or ATE is not required to apply.

All applicants must submit an application that includes a lesson plan and a 30-minute video comprised of an introduction, the lesson plan delivered in a classroom setting, and a reflection of the outcome.

The 2023 application period will be open soon. The recipient will be announced on August 31.

View the application form with more information on the KDP website.