Manitoba Early Childhood Educator Awards of Excellence

Tips To Help You Prepare a Compelling Award Nomination

An award recipient is selected based entirely on the documentation you provide. The nomination description(s) should paint a complete and compelling picture of your outstanding candidate.

To write a compelling nomination description for your proposed candidate(s), consider these tips:

1. Provide supporting evidence
   In addition to saying that your nominee is outstanding, you must provide evidence to demonstrate it. Provide specific examples, stories, anecdotes and data to illustrate how the nominee meets the criteria for the award category. Describe specific characteristics, qualities or examples that you believe make the nominee stand out or show how they go above and beyond.
   Characteristics may include showing outstanding initiative, leadership, teamwork, creativity, innovation, volunteerism, behaviours or attitudes. Indicate what outcomes have resulted from the nominee’s outstanding work.

2. Present the big picture
   The nomination description should address all the criteria identified for the award category. Rather than focus on a single action or a single example of excellence, demonstrate how your candidate excels by going above and beyond to help the community, overcomes challenges or issues, provides mentorship and role modeling and makes a difference.

3. Focus on excellence in education and care
   Working in child care and/or community committees (or simply working long hours) does not in itself demonstrate excellence in early childhood education. Rather than only listing the committees that the nominee may be on, provide specific examples of how the nominee’s work meets the criteria for the award category and demonstrates excellence in education.

4. Be clear and precise
   The language in the nomination description should be succinct and to the point. Clear and precise examples specifically focused on excellence in early childhood education carry much more weight than long, detailed descriptions that lack appropriate focus or connection to the criteria for the award category.

5. Give different perspectives
   Submit a comprehensive nomination package with supporting evidence based on different perspectives. Make sure the nomination description highlights various elements, while avoiding repetition.