Basalt High School teacher Leticia Ingram has been awarded the English Language Development Educator of the Year Award for the 2014-15 school year by the Colorado Department of Education's Office of English Language Development.

She was honored at the Language Culture and Equality Academy awards dinner April 30 at the Marriott Hotel in Golden. Principal David Schmid introduced her at the awards dinner.

The Colorado Department of Education and the BUENO Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder annually co-sponsor the Language, Culture and Equity Academy. All 178 Colorado school districts are invited to send two coordinators, directors or English-language-development/bilingual specialists to the academy. Each year, the academy honors a director and an English-language-development educator of the year.

"Leticia just wowed the audience, which represented about 80 school districts in Colorado, by sharing who is her inspiration: her students," Schmid said. "Her speech was so moving and profoundly demonstrated that an (English-language-development) teacher does much more than teach English. An (English-language-development) teacher's work is about relationships with students and families."

"I believe an (English-language-development) teacher's work is about equity, holding high expectations and believing students can achieve more than what we can imagine despite the hardships and challenges that they may face," Ingram said. "An (English-language-development) teacher's work is about culture, and it is about valuing and incorporating students' experiences, strengths and cultures into the classroom to make learning relevant and meaningful. It is also about reciprocity. Our students teach us. When we intentionally learn from our students, everyone benefits."