Carol MacDaniels Award Overview
Nebraska Writing Project hosts an annual award to recognize the work of a Nebraska teacher who exemplifies the principles for which NeWP stands. Through a teacher-directed nomination process, NeWP selects each year a Nebraska teacher who has made a significant contribution to writing education in the state. We will honor a teacher who has not only taught writing well, but has inspired other teachers or connected school to community or publicly advocated for teacher expertise. These are the activities that the Nebraska Writing Project values as its purposes and includes in its vision for Nebraska education.
Nominate a Teacher
All Nebraska teachers, kindergarten through college, are eligible for this award. To nominate a teacher, send a letter of nomination to the NeWP Director, Dr. Rachael Shah (Rshah@unl.edu), by February 25th, 2025.
Nominations should include:
A. Nominee's name; home, school, and e-mail address; phone number
B. Nominator's name; home, school, and e-mail address; phone number
C. A letter of nomination explaining how this teacher exemplifies the spirit of the award.
All nominations will be read and rated by the Nebraska Writing Project Co-Directors. Evaluations will be based on the nominee's contributions to writing and the teaching of writing, to community-school connections, and to advocacy for educators, especially through the Writing Project. Nominees do not need to exhibit all these contributions but should exhibit excellence in at least one.
The award recipient will be announced at the Nebraska Writing Project Summer Celebration in mid-June.
2024 Recipient: Melissa Legate
The Nebraska Writing Project presented the 2024 Carol MacDaniels Teacher of the Year Award to Melissa Legate. An English teacher at Piece Jr-Sr. High School, Melissa’s impact extends through her school and across the state of Nebraska through her multiple leadership roles with the Nebraska Writing Project. She has served as a Co-Director of our site, mentored teachers as part of one of the largest studies on argument writing ever completed, hosted an embedded institute in her own district, coordinated our involvement with the NETA Conference, and this year, she is facilitating our summer institute. Melissa stands out to me for her thoughtful intelligence, gift at hosting conversations across divides, and unwavering commitment to students and to the larger work of teaching. She completed a stellar MA thesis about her work equipping students to have rich discussions about complex public issues online (if only our most politicians would have been her students!). Rather than shying away from difficult conversations, Melissa wades in alongside her students, with the boldness of a truly great teacher.
As her nominator, Brenda Larabee, writes, “In 2015, Melissa wholeheartedly embraced the Nebraska Writing Project Summer Institute experience. During this transformative period, she demonstrated an exceptional capacity for growth and innovation. Using her own words from the EQUIP presentation she delivered at the Summer Institute, Melissa articulated a profound philosophy: “We (as teachers) can cultivate in our students awareness, the ability to question things as they are, and a sense of responsibility for dissenting and envisioning solutions when they become aware of injustice.” This quote encapsulates the force and enthusiasm with which Melissa approaches everything in her classroom and her work with the Nebraska Writing Project.
Echoing similar themes, as one of NeWP colleagues writes, Melissa is “a force for positive change in the educational landscape,” continuing, “Melissa embodies the NeWP core value of teachers teaching teachers. She facilitates collaboration between teachers extraordinarily well, inviting their experience and expertise to speak in order to develop programming, activities and lesson plans that are in the best interest of students. She is driven, humble, and dedicated to professional growth.”
Melissa’s leadership is well-known at her school, as well. In the words of her principal, “In my humble opinion, I believe Mrs. Legate is one of the very best English instructors in the state of Nebraska . . . . Whether it's been a class she's taught or an activity she's sponsored or coached, it's always "turned to gold" because of her dedication and detail-oriented preparation. Not only is she a hard worker, Mrs. Legate also is a "kid magnet." Her students are naturally drawn to her because of her caring nature and ability and willingness to relate to all types of children.”
The way Melissa both cares for and challenges her students is evident in the words they used to describe her classes. One of her students wrote, “She facilitated class discussions in a way that both let everyone voice their perspective and allowed students to find nuance by listening to others.” In another’s words, “To be blunt, I was not too fond of English class due to the rigorous writing involved along with many complex readings that we were expected to understand eventually. Writing was very difficult for me because, quite frankly, I wasn't comfortable with being pushed outside my comfort zone. However . . . Mrs. Legate knew that this is where students grow the most.” A third adds, “She pushed me to think for myself and helped me grow and develop as an individual. I know that I am a better person today because of her!”
In addition to exemplary teaching and advocacy for teachers, Melissa also embodies the ideal that the best teachers of writing are writers themselves. You can hear in Melissa’s writing not only her powerful voice, but her deep commitment to craft. I want to end with an excerpt from a blog post by Melissa, in which she engages head on the negative messages about teaching swirling around in our culture, responding to students who asks ““Why would Mr. So-and-So have chosen to be just a high school teacher? He’s so smart” or “I can’t believe That Brilliant Alumnus settled for being a teacher.”
You asked me if I enjoy my work. Most days, HELL YES. Are there times the seemingly impenetrable apathy in the room is enough to suffocate me? Times I feel so inundated with lesson planning or providing feedback on a stack of essays that I scarcely have time to eat lunch? Times I rack my brain so hard to come up with something I pray will keep you engaged that I have no mental energy left when I go home to my own kids? Times the ratio between my work and my level of compensation feels so incredibly unbalanced that I contemplate joining a pyramid scheme? Also, HELL YES.
But these times pass. And when they do, they give way to the good stuff. . . . . What I love most about my job is not what I teach; it is whom I teach. And that changes with every hour-and-a-half. . . . . Your teachers have the honor of helping you learn about the world and where you fit in it, of piquing your curiosity and guiding you to answers, of walking beside you as you try new things and gradually backing off as you master them. . . . . We teach you how to think. To problem solve. To struggle and succeed. To research and question and create. We teach you that you belong here. That we value you. That you have gifts no one else has, and that you can do amazing things because of them.
So perhaps Mr. So-and-So down the hall and That Brilliant Alum settled for chose this life not because they are suckers willing to take measly pay or because they must not have been able to succeed in any field that actually matters . . . . Perhaps they became teachers because they know what it is to watch the eyes of a student who has just made a discovery, seen a connection, or sparked an idea. They know what it means to read the words of a young person finding voice through an argumentative essay or processing major life events in a narrative. . . . . They know that teaching allows them to impact humans who will eventually hold every profession, political office, and community leadership position of the future. They know. Because you said it yourself; they’re brilliant.”
Melissa, the Nebraska Writing Project see your brilliance, and we are honored to present you with the 2024 Carol MacDaniels Teacher of the Year Award!
About Carol MacDaniels
In selecting a model for this Teacher of the Year Award, a teacher-leader who illustrates with her work the principles that NeWP values, we have needed to look no farther than teacher leader Carol MacDaniels. Carol has helped the Nebraska Writing Project for almost 15 years through a variety of ever-shifting positions. She participated in her first Summer Institute in 1987 and Literacy Institute in 1988. She was one of the first teachers appointed as a summer facilitator, serving the Lincoln Institute several times in the early 90's. She became, with Sue Anderson, one of NeWP's first two Associate Coordinators, helping to establish our mini-grant and reading group programs and our Advisory Board. For the past five years, she has served as Rural Coordinator, which has meant developing our important Rural Institute program, leading our nationally-recognized Rural Voices Country Schools team, representing the whole National Writing Project at a variety of conferences, and serving on the executive committee of the National Writing Project's Rural Sites Network. Carol MacDaniels, in short, has helped the Nebraska Writing Project grow up. We are who we are largely because of Carol MacDaniels' guidance.
Carol's vision of education, and of teacher's work, have become key elements of the Nebraska Writing Project stands. She is centered in writing, in community relevance for education, and in educator advocacy.
As a model NeWP teacher, Carol is a writer herself. Since the summer of 1992, she has met every Thursday night in a writing group, sharing her own work and responding to the writing of others. In those eight years, she has written memoir, family history, poetry, Nebraska history, professional articles, letters to the editor, and journals. Much of this writing she shares with her students. Her modeling allows students to write what's most meaningful, to learn the rhythms of regular writing which makes life richer and more intelligible, to try strategies which make the written word more publicly effective. Those who have had the pleasure of sharing writing with Carol know the gentle way she draws meaning from writing.
Carol has also taught us a deep understanding of local place, the necessary connection of Nebraska writing and teaching to Nebraska. A native Nebraskan herself who traveled east and then returned at a crucial moment in her life, Carol understands the celebration and critique of local community, and the way true citizenship can only develop in a people who understand their roots. As Rural Coordinator for the Nebraska Writing Project, she continues to lead our Rural Voices team in imagining ways to match education to community history, geography, biology, and heritage. Her book with Gerry Cox, A Guide to Nebraska Authors, is an important resource for such work. In her work for the Rural Resource Program, she's been described as one of only two or three people in the state who really have their finger on the pulse of both Nebraska teachers and Nebraska communities.
And while she's been busy doing all this, Carol has acted on her belief that educators need to educate the populace as well as their students. She has taught us that educators must be advocates for each other. She has served on the Academic Freedom Coalition of Nebraska and the Nebraska English/Language Arts Council, written letters on education to the Lincoln Journal-Star, participated in conversations with School Board members, and repeatedly argued that good teachers have the skill s and knowledge to make wise decisions about their classrooms.
As Carol MacDaniels has shown us, a successful Nebraska educator can be centered in writing, connected to the community, and publicly active on behalf of other educators. Her work over the past decade has provided us a model we might try to emulate. But even further, her work with Nebraska education is full of such strengths. In the communities in which she's worked, Carol has regularly unearthed the success stories of Nebraska education: the elementary teacher, at first fearful, who discovers the joys of writing and develops a community-school writing club through which to share them; the computer teacher whose high school class develops web pages recording local oral history; the group of educators who decide to work together to actually get something sensible done about assessment.
With this award, the Nebraska Writing Project honors Carol MacDaniels and hopes to honor over the coming years teachers like her. Through this award, we are in part saying thank you to Carol for helping NeWP grow up, and in part saying thank you, as Carol has guided us to discover, to the best teachers in Nebraska schools and communities and to the excellence and expertise we know is there.
Past Award Winners
Jennifer Long (2023)
Jan Knipsel (2022)
Sue Anderson (2021)
Brenda Larabee (2019)
Ada Hubrig (2018)
Danielle Helzer (2017)
Jeff Grinvalds (2016)
Diana Weis (2015)
Daniel Boster (2014)
Susan Martens (2013)
Anne Walden (2012)
Jane Coneally (2011)
Dorothy Miller (2010)
Deborah Coyle (2009)
Cathie English (2008)
Linda Beckstead (2007)
Paul Olson (2006)
Sarah Brown (2005)
Sally Burt (2004)
Sharon Bishop (2003)
Dick Schanou (2002)
David Martin (2001)