Manitoba's Celebration of Excellence in Teaching
Minister's Award Recipients 2011-2012
Teaching Excellence Award – Early Years
Recipient:
Mrs. Sharen McDermit
David Livingstone School
Winnipeg School Division
For the past 10 years, McDermit has been the classroom teacher for the Primary Bridges Program, which supports special needs students with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Focussing on the unique gifts of each child, she helps students discover strategies to overcome specific challenges. By involving her students in projects such as Pennies from Heaven, the Ladybug Foundation and Project Love, they learn to draw on their strengths to help others and become responsible citizens. She calls her students the "yes I can" kids. Every year, McDermit welcomes professionals from across the province, country and world to share her knowledge and successful strategies about working with students with FASD.
Teaching Excellence Award – Middle Years
Recipient:
Mrs. Barbara Hamilton
École Seven Oaks Middle School
Seven Oaks School Division
As a former Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra musician, Hamilton is committed to offering exciting and diverse musical experiences to her students. She provides instruction in band, choir and fiddling to the students in her school. She works tirelessly with students to compose original music and arrange contemporary pieces. Hamilton and her students have created music that integrates traditional fiddling and hip-hop. She has also been the school division's catalyst for developing its ever-growing fiddling program in eight of its 21 schools. She was a leader in starting the Sistema program in the Seven Oaks School Division, one of only four Sistema programs in Canada. Through this program, Hamilton uses activities related to social justice and human rights to teach students about the power of music to bring social change.
Teaching Excellence Award – Senior Years
Recipient:
Mr. Steven Deighton
Joseph H. Kerr School
Frontier School Division
Deighton's teaching practices promote practical learning through student connections to the physical, human and economic geography of their northern Manitoba mining community. His physical education classes include winter camping and wilderness survival. In his science classes, students research the processes and effects of local mining operations, and in his art classes, students create projects such as Reach for the Sky, in which they express their hopes and goals on a plaster cast of their arms. In addition to teaching, Deighton serves as president of Zone 11, Manitoba High School Athletics Association, and as a member of the Frontier High School Games Committee, through which he has organized numerous zone and Frontier Games regional championships in various sports. Deighton's exemplary community service and encouragement for students to become involved demonstrate his commitment to providing meaningful educational experiences and lifelong learning.
Outstanding New Teacher Award
Recipient:
Mrs. Rosanne Massinon
Carman Collegiate
Prairie Rose School Division
Massinon is a Grade 10 science teacher filled with enthusiasm, commitment and dedication for her students and her subject matter. Since her arrival at Carman Collegiate, she has developed several new initiatives in the science program at the senior years level, which have since expanded to include other schools in the division. Massinon introduced her students to the Envirothon Provincial Competition and is now hosting the regional competition. She was instrumental in developing an Agroecology Discovery Day for all Grade 10 students, which involves six hands-on stations: soils, weeds, entomology, meteorology, riverbank assessment and biodiversity. Tapping into the local agricultural industry and agricultural research centre and its local experts, Massinon's efforts have greatly increased student awareness of agricultural opportunities and the importance of sustainability and agroecology.
Team Collaboration Award
Recipients:
Mr. Adrian Deakin
Mrs. April McKnight and
Mr. Robert Striemer
Shaftesbury High School
Pembina Trails School Division
What began as a simple brain-storming session among these three talented and committed teachers about noon-hour club opportunities for students has evolved into a multi-disciplinary, highly scientific collaborative community project called the Shaftesbury High Altitude Robotics Project (SHARP). To date, the club has launched two weather balloons with payloads consisting of a variety of scientific instruments, has tracked their movements, conducted high altitude experiments, and analyzed video and scientific data collected in the process. The three teachers provide leadership and critical supports for the project based on their respective areas of expertise in the general sciences, physics, chemistry, technology and media relations, making this a truly collaborative educational experience.
Outstanding School Leader Award
Recipient:
Mr. Gordon Campbell
Principal
École Saint-Avila
Pembina Trails School Division
As principal of a kindergarten to Grade 6 French Immersion school in a multicultural suburban neighbourhood, Campbell has distinguished himself as a remarkable educational leader. He is motivated by his belief that the integration of arts and culture is an avenue for learning, and this is evident in a diverse array of initiatives such as arts and cultural exchanges with educational organizations in China, the hosting of a joint art exhibition with the Winnipeg Art Gallery, exploration of Aboriginal culture and lifestyle, hosting a musical extravaganza celebrating African food and music, community collaboration in the planning, construction and maintenance of the Carol Shields Labyrinth at a nearby park and school-ground greening projects.
