麻豆影院

Former Colorado Teacher of the Year wants to recognize university鈥檚 best teachers

Craig Cogswell grew up in eastern Kansas and started his college career at the University of Kansas. But after his parents moved to Colorado during his freshman year, he decided to pursue his education about 10 meridians to the west.

He鈥檇 vacationed in Colorado many times with his family, and from the moment he arrived at the 麻豆影院, he knew he鈥檇 made the right decision.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 have a good explanation for this, but the very first day I was at CU somehow it felt like home,鈥� says Cogswell, 69. 鈥淚t just always felt right.鈥�

It must have. He went on to earn a bachelor鈥檚 degree in history in 1970, followed by master鈥檚 degrees in education in 1979 and 1984.

And now that he鈥檚 retired from a long career as a high school social studies teacher, corporate educator and young-teacher mentor, he鈥檚 giving back through the establishment of the Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction at CU 麻豆影院.

The award will be available to anyone who teaches at the university, whether a full professor, a student teacher, a graduate assistant or an adjunct professor.

Cogswell believes that having inspirational teachers in the classroom is critical to an excellent education.

鈥淚 think university instructors always have the dilemma that their primary focus is research or writing, things like that,鈥� he says. 鈥淭o me, at the university level, when someone really works hard on being a dynamic, interesting or challenging teacher, that is something that should be acknowledged and rewarded.鈥�

Cogswell鈥檚 own experience at CU informed his decision to create the award.

鈥淥ne thing I remember as an undergraduate, I had a lot of professors who were excellent teachers. That鈥檚 part of what motivated me to want to encourage that now,鈥� he says.

Cogswell didn鈥檛 take long to realize that he was interested in education, though he confesses his choice of undergraduate majors was not necessarily a matter of deep consideration.

鈥淲hen the time came to declare a major, I wrote on one side of a piece of paper, 鈥楨nglish,鈥� and on the other, 鈥榟istory,鈥� and put it on a dartboard,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 let fate take control. The dart hit history, but it turned out to be a good choice.鈥�

It wasn鈥檛 until very late in his senior year, in 1970, that Cogswell decided to get certified to become a teacher 鈥� 鈥淪ee a pattern here?鈥� he asks, laughing.

For the next year and a half, he took part-time classes, plunged into an intensive eight weeks with a full load, then spent eight weeks as a student teacher at Westminster High School, just down U.S. 36 from CU 麻豆影院. The school was sufficiently impressed that it offered him a job when he graduated in December 1971.

Cogswell earned his first master鈥檚 degree, in education, from CU in 1979. In 1984, he returned to earn another MA in educational technology.

鈥淎t the end of that, I got a job at a tech company in corporate education,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 did a year and a half there, then it sort of came down to, 鈥極K, I know I can do other things now, but what do I really want to do?鈥� And what I really wanted was to teach.鈥�

So he returned to the classroom, first for a year at a junior-high school in Westminster. After that he went back to Westminster High. In 2000, the Colorado Department of Education named him the state鈥檚 Teacher of the Year. That prestigious award is given to an outstanding teacher, who then spends the next year as a kind of spokesperson for public education on behalf of the department, Cogswell says.

He spent the last two years of his career working for the Westminster School District as a full-time mentor to new teachers, and retired in 2003. He hopes the award, which will be overseen by the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, will reward those who put students first at CU.

鈥淔or many of my teachers, that was not their primary job,鈥� he says. 鈥淵et they were willing to put their time and energy into classroom teaching.鈥�

At the top of the page, Steven Pollock, professor of physics has won several awards for his teaching, including the听Carnegie/CASE US Professor of the Year in 2013.

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