Three Vancouver teachers have been honoured with Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence.
Thunderbird elementary kindergarten teacher Janey Lee was recognized for developing a partnership with the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC) to teach her students about food security.
With the help of a high school tech teacher, students built wooden planters for a school garden that serves as an outdoor classroom.
Lee also uses technology to teach her students digital literacy and to engage students with special needs. With the help of the media, she compelled Vancouverites to help fund a breakfast program at the school at 2325 Cassiar St. Some students also participate in a program that sees them bring food for their families home on weekends. Lee raised almost $30,000 by presenting teacher workshops over two summers and donated that money to Thunderbird to purchase a playground.
Retired teacher Margo Murphy, who taught at Grandview-Woodland’s Templeton secondary, was honoured for turning a cafeteria program into a competitive culinary arts program with more than 160 students and for providing students with opportunities to work with Vancouver’s finest chefs.
Kindergarten teacher Gina Wong at Florence Nightingale elementary in Mount Pleasant was recognized as a leader in interactive whiteboard use in the classroom who shares her proficiency and literacy expertise with other teachers and through local and international volunteer work.
She and her colleagues invited students from the University of British Columbia to work with her kindergartners to implement a unit on United Nations Rights of a Child. Students learned about the challenges children in developing countries face and raised money to send a child to school in Uganda.
Peter Katsionis, law and social justice teacher at Sir Winston Churchill secondary in Oakridge, received a Certificate of Achievement for pioneering online education in B.C., organizing off-site mock trials at a local courthouse, creating an online computer-based course for students to access curriculum when there wasn’t enough money to purchase textbooks, and for designing a course to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities.
History winners
Two of four students from across the country who recently saw videos they made screened at the Canada’s History Forum in Ottawa in conjunction with the Governor General’s History Awards were from Vancouver.
Nicolas Cain from Captain James Cook elementary in Killarney won with his video about legendary Mountie Sam Steele, who dealt with unruly prospectors during the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1890s.
Helena Kantowicz of Osler elementary in Shaughnessy won with her video about the legacy of Indian residential schools in Canada. The pair attended a reception at Rideau Hall and a dinner at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Emily Mittertreiner of Vancouver received honourable mention for her video Search for the Northwest Passage.
The students were recognized by Canada’s History Society, which publishes Canada’s History (formerly The Beaver) magazine and Kayak: Canada’s History Magazine for Kids.
Britannia Open House
Britannia Community Centre, elementary and secondary schools are hosting an open house Thursday, Nov. 28 complete with free recreational events, live performances and food. The event runs 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information, see britanniacentre.org.
