Celebrating Our ECE Teachers at CHS

By Malakhi Beyah, 2025

Published 3/8/2024

The University of Connecticut’s Early College Experience (ECE) is a very popular and rewarding program at Cheshire High, with over a dozen courses taking part in it. From Calculus and Physics to Child Development and Human Rights & The Law, students in a wide variety of classes can take advantage of college-level instruction similar to that of UConn. However, teachers are too often overlooked for their essential role in making the program function. To be able to teach an ECE class in the first place, teachers must go through a rigorous and exhausting certification procedure. On top of that, many of them have to handle teaching students both the ECE and Advanced Placement (AP) versions of a course at the same time. Clearly, Being an ECE teacher is not easy. That is why, every year, UConn makes sure to recognize the most exceptional teachers in this program with the Professional Recognition Awards.

There are eight awards available to fifteen teachers in the ECE program. Each award acknowledges a different aspect of being a great teacher, such as “providing inspirational professional development while disseminating and demonstrating best practices” and “adhering to the academic standards and rigor of the University of Connecticut in general and the department specifically.” UConn allows many people to nominate teachers for the awards, which includes other ECE teachers, principals, and students. 

There is still a little time to show appreciation for your teacher and nominate them for an ECE award. The brief nomination form can be found at the link below. Decisions will be made later this month, and there will be an awards ceremony for the selected teachers in April.  

Link: https://ece.uconn.edu/professional-recognition-awards-form/