Spanish teacher Michael Kraus won the Foreign Language Teacher of the Year award in Oklahoma.

Kraus was announced the winner at the Oklahoma Foreign Language Teachers Conference on September 29.

A teacher is nominated for the award by being nominated by their peers and which then after the three month nomination window is up gets reviewed by a committee.

“It’s very much an honor to be recognized by your colleagues,” Kraus said.

The next level of competition is in April in Las Vegas where Kraus will compete for the regional teacher of the year title. Kraus will also receive feedback from the committee in April.

To prepare for the upcoming competition, Kraus will assemble a portfolio that will show different teaching styles and how he helps students that need a little more attention. It will also include letters from other teachers, a letter from Principal Justin Hunt, examples of student achievement and a statement from Kraus.

“I never foresaw myself as being a teacher. My brothers were both engineers and I thought I was going to go into science until I moved to San Antonio.  I can’t imagine doing anything else,” Kraus said.

Growing up, Kraus was always interested in science. His favorite teachers taught science and Kraus went to school to become a scientist, but he did not find the lab work interesting and hated it until he went moved to San Antonio and loved communicating in Spanish and learning the culture.

“It’s really rewarding when I can get a student to communicate in Spanish,” Kraus said.

Kraus isn’t the first Oklahoma Foreign Language Teacher of the Year. Six years ago, French teacher Sally Ziebell earned the title.