How to decline a teacher of the year nomination
Administrative pressure and peer expectations often make it difficult to refuse unwanted nominations. Forcing teachers to accept the extra workload leads to unwanted classroom observations and personal time being consumed by a popularity contest they never wanted to enter.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Campaigning against oneself in the voting process
- 2Asking administration directly to be left off the ballot
- 3Citing outside personal obligations and workload constraints as an excuse
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I tried to turn it down. My admin would not let me. Too much work for a popularity contest.”source ↗
“I’ll be very upset if I’m unable to opt out. I’m not able to fulfill the requirements at this time due to obligations outside of work that are going to take up a significant amount of personal time.”source ↗
“I have been nominated 3 times. Each time I campaigned against myself. The nomination comes from my peers. The award comes from Admin. It also comes with more clueless strangers coming to observe my room and being used as a dancing monkey all year.”source ↗
Where this came up
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