The 2010 Capital Educators’ Awards

The 2010 Capital Educators’ Awards will be presented to 20 of the region’s most ground-breaking and esteemed educators on Thursday, May 20 at the 9th Annual EduGala Awards at Algonquin College. Our Board is honoured to acknowledge our 19 nominees who will attend this special event.

Nominations for the awards were put forward by students, parents, friends, and colleagues. To be eligible you must be an educator who is the classroom, interacting with students, on a regular basis, and employed by one of the four publicly-funded Ottawa school boards, two colleges, and or the four universities located within Ottawa.
 
A panel of judges on behalf of business, education, and community-based organizations will review the 66 finalists and select 20 award recipients. Hundreds of nominations were received, so those who have made it the finalist stage are in fact already winners.

Presented by The Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI), Ottawa’s premier economic development agency, the gala event will showcase the gifted and committed professionals who have demonstrated teaching excellence, acted as role models, and instilled self-confidence and enthusiasm for learning in their students.

Congratulations to all of our nominees! View their photos and biographies below (in alphabetical order).

Donna Blakeley
W.E. Gowling Public School
Grade 5 Teacher
 

Donna Blakeley has been in school since kindergarten and likely will never leave. She is the embodiment of a lifelong learner. Her passion for education is unquenchable. Her thirst for knowledge of new and exciting teaching techniques can be seen in her classroom as she supports the gifted and the struggling student with the same commitment. The ultimate goal is always the same — student success.

Donna’s classroom is a safe and welcoming environment where mistakes are seen as teachable moments and risks are viewed as the building blocks to individual and classroom success.

Donna has a gift for getting her students to share, to mentor, and to support each other. Thanks to her quiet and supportive manner her students begin to believe in themselves and then good things start to happen for them. No one is happier than the woman they call teacher. Many of her former students put it this way, “She told me I mattered and then I did!”

Brian Chiasson
D. Roy Kennedy Public School
Grade 5 Middle French Immersion Teacher

Brian Chiasson’s approach to teaching is simple. He believes all children have the capacity to learn and it is the teacher’s role to harness that gift and to encourage the love of lifelong learning. He does it the old-fashioned way with compassion, with support, with encouragement, and with high expectations.

Brian understands that when a student is supported at school and home their potential is limitless. He reaches out to parents as partners in their children’s education. As a result, parents feel their input is welcomed and their child’s individuality is respected. To enter Brian’s classroom is to enter a world of discovery. The love of learning is evident in the faces of the children and their teacher.

Whether his students are studying math, Canadian government, or square dancing, Brian’s unique teaching methods bring life into the classroom. He encourages his students to do their very best.

Kerry Chick
Huntley Centennial Public School
Grade 2/3 Teacher

Kerry Chick represents all that you hope to see in a primary teacher. What distinguishes her from others is her innate ability to know how to reach all children so they will learn no matter how the odds are stacked against them. Kerry believes in her students so they believe in themselves.

Kerry is extremely well read in both literacy and numeracy and highly skilled. Her mentoring and guidance in the school has inspired many teachers to develop their own skills and become better teachers as a result.

Kerry is a very generous professional who works closely with the parents of her students. She feels that keeping parents well informed and getting them fully engaged in the academic success of their child has a big impact on their learning. She instills in her students the deep belief that they are capable learners, able readers, strong citizens, and that they are valued by their class and their community. 

Heather Counsell – Award recipient
McHugh Education Centre
Child Life Teacher

Heather Counsell has created a unique classroom at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Each day students who are well enough to leave their rooms, head to the bright, welcoming fifth floor classroom. Within this group, where their ages can range from 6 to 18 years, a wonderful bond is fostered with creative and passionate teaching provided by Heather.

Her students often feel like giving up as they are cut off from everything that is normal in their lives. Heather is able to create an environment that excites her students and helps to provide them with a healthy new norm in the midst of the other difficult and often chaotic things in their lives.

It is not easy to teach children of diverse ages who are facing complex illnesses. Heather has been able to generate a real sense of community caring within her classroom and learning that is able to transcend illness.

Christine Heath
Huntley Centennial Public School
Learning Support Teacher

Christine is a tireless educator who is known by many as simply the go-to person, whenever a teacher has concerns about a student’s progress. Christine has the ability to know exactly how to reach learning-disabled students and teach them so they are able to absorb and consolidate concepts.

This highly motivated and engaging educator is also referred to as ‘the heart and soul’ of her school. She knows the staff, the community, and the students very well and cares deeply for everyone. She has the ability to work with people in difficult situations and her strong people skills and deep convictions allow her to bring a resolve that is always in the best interest of the child.

Christine’s strong perceptive skills, solid pedagogical knowledge base, and common-sense approach to things are immensely valued and inspiring to others. She reminds us by her words and her actions that we are there for one reason — the students.

Debbie Hoey
Ottawa Technical Learning Centre
Educational Assistant

Debbie Hoey is an advocate for students who are not able to advocate for themselves. She encourages students to see their individual strengths and capabilities. Debbie has made an indelible mark on the students she has worked with.

Debbie has a great capacity to support a student, hear a student, and respect a student while providing the positive advice and guidance needed. She always addresses inappropriate student behaviour in a positive manner. When dealing with students she encourages feedback, risk taking, questioning, and experimentation by establishing a non-threatening learning environment. She never tells a student how to behave. She guides them to reach the decision themselves.

Debbie is an exceptional educator who has a positive impact on all whose lives she touches, be they staff or students. Debbie’s professionalism and unswerving devotion to the students with whom she works is an inspiration to all who know and work with her.

Lisa Irwin
Katimavik Elementary School
Junior Kindergarten Teacher

Lisa Irwin is the epitome of perfect balance. She runs a wonderfully smooth program while being friendly, firm, fair, and fun. This is no easy feat when teaching junior kindergarten students new to the school system. Lisa has a high expectation for behaviour and the students do as she asks because she trains them well. Lisa uses a variety of strategies in the classroom and knows which method will work for each student.

Lisa uses every opportunity for teaching and truly brings out the curiosity of the children and their love for learning.

Lisa’s love of teaching goes beyond her classroom. She mentors fellow teachers, she advises parents, and she relishes the success of all. She goes above and beyond for her students with the perfect balance. Lisa lets the shy child shine in his or her own way and the gregarious child feel the joy of center stage.

Susan Jones
Queen Mary Street Public School
Learning Support Teacher

Susan Jones is a one-of-a kind learning support teacher who has touched the lives of many students and their families. She is a role model to her professional community. She has worked tirelessly to support the needs of some of the most vulnerable students. Dozens of at-risk children benefit from her devotion of providing the best educational support possible. They listen to her, they look to her for guidance, and they believe her.

Susan is a selfless educator and an exceptional team player. She has an extraordinary ability to diffuse and de-escalate the volatile behaviour of students with behavioural challenges. She can do this because she cares, because she does not judge, and because she believes, with every fibre of her body, that when a child knows that an adult respects and believes in them they respond positively.

Susan is a teacher. No greater compliment could be given to her.

Carolyn Lamoureux
Queen Mary Street Public School
Educational Assistant

Carolyn Lamoureux is an exemplary educational assistant who has made a profound impact upon the lives of children and families and the quality of her professional community. She is keenly aware of educational trends, techniques, and research and readily applies what she learns to her work. This lifelong learner knows that every new technique she learns will some day benefit a child who needs her help.

Carolyn’s students adore her and work passionately to improve their learning according to her expectations. She is an excellent role model who demonstrates for her students — the curiosity, enthusiasm, and joy of learning. Carolyn encourages not only intellectual growth but also growth in individual students’ abilities, interests, and character. She is highly attuned to multiculturalism and ethnocultural equity. The children under her care absolutely ‘blossom.’

Carolyn’s consistently positive attitude and incredible enthusiasm related to student success have greatly enriched her colleagues and the school community.

Tanya Larabie
Castor Valley Elementary School
Grade 1 Early French Immersion Teacher

Tanya Larabie’s commitment to creating a family atmosphere in her classroom is not something she works on, it is simply the only way she knows how to live, learn, and teach. She models her classroom and her life on the District’s philosophy known as Community of Caring where acceptance, appreciation, cooperation, empathy, fairness, integrity, optimism, perseverance, respect, and responsibility flourish. Tanya teaches and emulates these 10 character traits and fosters their development constantly and consistently among all her students.

Tanya uses examples from her own personal life to engage her students and to create a bond with them. In doing so she makes her classroom a safe environment where her students challenge themselves, take risks, and learn without fear of being wrong.

Tanya understands the importance of strategies that address the needs of the whole child, not just a learner’s academic needs. Her positive and caring approach to life is an inspiration for her colleagues, students, and the parent community.

Tricia Leduc
Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School
Geography, History, Law Teacher

Tricia Leduc is a gifted educator. The passion she brings to the classroom has made a significant difference in the engagement of her students in their learning.

Trish is most passionate about social justice issues and environmental education. At great expense to herself she has gone on educational trips to the rainforests of Central America and educational trips to the genocide sites of Rwanda. These trips have given her lessons the first-hand credibility and the authentic voice needed to stir the passion in her students to become environmental stewards and human-rights activists.

Trish wraps her lessons around big themes and essential questions that allow her students to draw deep meaning from her lessons and apply the learning both to their courses and to their lives. She is currently working hard to develop and introduce a new course on genocide education. Trish believes deeply that this course will empower students to make positive changes in their community.

Roger Lemelin
Woodroffe Avenue Public School
Grade 3 Teacher

Exceptional teachers have creativity, passion, patience, willingness to think ‘outside the box,’ and capture the hearts and minds of students. This is Roger Lemelin.

Roger is credited with doing the unthinkable — he has made his students like homework. Parents believe that it is his absolute love and enthusiasm for learning that has turned homework into a game versus a chore. He uses technology and a variety of different teaching methods to match student-learning styles and connect to their lives beyond the classroom.

Roger’s classroom may be hi-tech but it has great emphasis on human interaction. He gives children the tools, technology, and life skills to guide their self-directed lifelong learning. After they leave his classroom, students continue to use the skills he helped them develop to guide them in both their personal and academic learning. This is the mark of both an extraordinary person and an exceptional teacher.

Ching Lim – Award recipient
Cairine Wilson Secondary School
Mathematics and Art Teacher

Ching Lim is loved and he will be missed; he retired this past February. His teaching style was simple — a small man at the board, with no notes, writing with his right hand, and erasing with his left. He was innovative with his ability to convey an abstract concept equally to those who loved math and to those who hated it, modifying his tactic to reach everyone.

Award nominator Jonathan Gravel wrote, “The fact that I still refer to my high school math notes while doing my masters speaks volumes to the effectiveness of his teaching. These notes are an invaluable resource and a friendly reminder of his teaching creativity — they are about 50 per cent hilarious metaphors and small artistic depictions — yes, this was calculus. To this day I can still teach a lesson on what a function is, using the infamous ‘blender and brick’ analogy that Ching was so famous for.”

Like the Facebook group states, “This man is a legend.”

Karen Nimmo
Ottawa Technical Learning Centre
Educational Assistant

Karen Nimmo is a student advocate. She ensures that students have access to programs and supports they need to be successful in school and in life. Karen is the facilitator for the Aboriginal Circle Outreach Program. Her goal is to provide students with a connection to their cultural heritage so they can feel a sense of honour and be proud of their importance in Canadian society.

Karen’s advocacy efforts know no bounds. She aches for those being bullied and for those who bully knowing both are suffering. She spearheaded a program focused on the perpetrator. The objective was to help the bully understand how their victim felt. The results have been inspiring — those who once caused pain and suffering are now reaching out to their victims in reconciliation.

Karen is an educator whose dedication and professionalism are unparalleled. Her commitment to her students is without question. She is an example for us all.

Tanya O'Brien
Featherston Drive Public School
Learning Resource Teacher

Tanya O’Brien is a gifted educator. She inspires students to want to learn, parents to collaborate, and she encourages herself and her peers to try new things — to be better teachers tomorrow than they were today.

Tanya knows that students learn differently and she looks for clues to see when a student has become discouraged. Recently she took a student struggling with addition to visit the grocery store. This stressed student was able to practice addition in a positive and motivating environment and achieved success. The student now thinks math is cool.

Tanya lives by the ‘I caught you being good’ motto and in doing so motivates students to be the best that they can be. She is quick to call or e-mail parents to report student successes. So a call from their teacher no longer means bad news for the child, in fact it can be a shining moment. Tanya is an educator who loves her job and it shows.

Carol Sabean
W.E. Gowling Public School
Grade 3 Teacher

Carol Sabean believes every child can learn and she will do what she can to ensure that happens. She will not allow social, cultural, or financial backgrounds to become an excuse for low performance. She holds high expectations for each student, ensuring she starts where they are and guides them to greater learning.

Carol is a dedicated teacher whose impact on her students has been profound. With a calm, thoughtful, and thorough approach she sees the whole child in her teaching, realizing the impact of her performance as a teacher in the classroom. Her ability to listen to the emotional needs of her students is significant. Her main focus each day is to support her students to become strong, independent, literate young people by giving them the tools necessary to be successful.

Carol models excellence in teaching and problem solving every day. She is a role model for her students and for teachers she exemplifies best practices.

Brian ‘Schmidty’ Schmidt – Award recipient
Woodroffe High School
Health and Physical Education Teacher

Brian ‘Schmidty’ Schmidt is a student advocate. Everyone is welcome in his classroom, which happens to be a gym, a field, a court. He has the innate ability to transform lives and he does it in such a subtle way — he simply creates active opportunities for his students. He understands the fundamentals of student success and how a sense of belonging contributes to greater achievement.

Schmidty sets the bar high for his students and mentors them as they learn essential life skills that will help them adopt a healthy lifestyle. Under his leadership, as a physical education teacher, every student belongs whether he or she is athletic, non-athletic, or an exceptional student.

It seems that without exception every student gets a nickname and feels part of the class. Schmidty has single-handedly transformed the lives of students. He instills confidence and passion in them not only to succeed in class but to succeed in life.

Kim Simpson
Huntley Centennial Public School
Grade 7 and 8 Teacher

Kim Simpson is nothing short of extraordinary. She is highly skilled and is a leader in literacy, math, and science. Kim is passionate about teaching mathematics; she makes it fun.

Kim believes that the 21st century learner needs to be a critical thinker. She encourages students to exchange ideas with peers in order to generate multiple options for solutions. Kim fosters a learning environment of trust and freedom. However, behaviour expectations are high. She does not accept half measures because she knows that a harmonious environment is key to good learning and good relationship building.

Kim’s quiet confidence can be seen in the classroom, on the schoolyard, and working in collaboration with her peers. She is a teacher who believes that she learns as much from her students as they do from her. All who have the privilege to watch her teach know they are watching educational excellence in the making.

Cynthia Tinker
John Young Elementary School
Grade 1 EFI Teacher

Cynthia Tinker is energetic, enthusiastic, and determined to make a difference. Her students cannot help but learn. She’s been known to spend countless hours preparing materials for her class, collecting many educational games and classroom materials.

She takes her job seriously, yet presents the material in a light-hearted way that engages her young students. This strong foundation and her encouraging and reassuring manner create a very positive learning environment. Her classroom motto is Fais de ton mieux and she instills the children with the confidence to do just that.

One parent wrote the following in a note, “I used to think Ms. Frizzle, of the Magic School Bus, with her zesty spontaneity was the archetype of a terrific teacher. However, Mme Tinker has proven that well-structured and well-paced activities, delivered in a calm and nurturing manner, can be the best way to turn little learners on for life.”