ALAMOSA — Elisamaria Heredia, Alamosa Elementary 3-5 multilingual teacher, is very accustomed to being the person behind the scenes. Whether it’s in the classroom teaching her students the language skills necessary to not just achieve but excel at school, in the college classroom teaching students enrolled in ASU’s School of Education how to be stellar teachers in their own classrooms or coordinating the hugely successful annual ASD event “La Lectura en la Familia” that draws dozens of organizations and literally hundreds of students and families for an important night of connection and celebration, Heredia is consistently the person in the background making greatness happen.

And she’s been doing it for 24 years.

Heredia, who holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in education from ASU, says she is filled with “pride and inspiration when she meets college students that used

Although she might have been blown away by what was announced at an all-school event on Tuesday, no one who knows her was truly surprised to learn that Elisamaria Heredia has been selected by the Colorado Department of Education as one of eight finalists for the 2026 Teacher of the Year.

Competition for this recognition is…a little stiff. Those eight finalists were chosen out of a pool of 55,000 teachers.

“This is a testament of the hard work that she does every day and the smile that you always see on her face and the way she makes you and your families feel welcome in our school district,” Alamosa School District Superintendent Diana Jones told the gymnasium that was packed with students and teachers. She then led the resounding “hip-hip-hooray” cheer in Heredia’s honor.

Jones then handed the microphone to Heredia, who was holding a huge bouquet of flowers, a plaque, a certificate and several checks, one for $500 for materials in her classroom and a second check from the Boettcher Foundation in recognition of her nomination.

Heredia who is usually energetic and extremely outgoing, was clearly humbled by the honor.

“Thank you very much,” she said. “I’m so happy. This is a wonderful surprise, I feel blessed to be part of Alamosa School District.”

Perhaps the best testament to Heredia’s skill as a teacher can be seen in the performance of her students as an unprecedented 24 students from Alamosa Elementary 3-5 scored four out of five possible points in their latest assessment of oral and written English language skills that measure English proficiency abilities.

The Alamosa School District has been recognized for excellence at the state level a number of times recently, including when Principal Michelle Rubidoux-Wilson was named Colorado Elementary Distinguished Principal of the Year by the Colorado Association of School Executives. Rubidoux-Wilson is the principal of Alamosa Elementary 3-5 school.

Each year, the Colorado Teacher of the Year Program honors an exceptionally dedicated, knowledgeable and skilled K-12 classroom teacher to represent the entire profession in the state. The selected teacher will go on to automatically become Colorado's nominee for the National Teacher of the Year competition, a project of the Council of Chief State School Officers

The program is sponsored by the Boettcher Foundation and supported by partnerships with the Colorado Education Association, Adams State University, and Blue Bell Ice Cream.

The announcement of who is finally chosen to be Teacher of the Year is expected to happen in October.