Last night I won a Capital Educators' Award - sort of. My colleague Al Overwijk and I got a joint
nomination from our principal. There
were over 600 nominees from junior kindergarten to post graduate, 65 finalist
and 15 individual winners. Nominations from students and parents - touching
testimonials of teaching talent, passion and compassion. It is a real honour to be included in this very
inspiring group of professionals. Yet in
the 12 years of the award we were the first co-nominees since there was no such
type of nomination - until now. That's our brilliant principal - not afraid to
bend the rules when the rules need bending.
Two and a half years ago Al and I each had a section of
grade 10 applied math. We started with a
germ of an idea and rebuilt the course on the fly. The students would do activities every day and
the math would build over the semester. We
met almost every lunch hour to talk about the latest activity and plan the next
steps. Our approach worked better than
we imagined. We are now helping other
teachers change their practice to help more students have success in
mathematics.
I think that Al and I are pretty good teachers but when we get
together we produce our best work. I believe that advances in education come when
teachers talk and work together. The best
teaching comes from collaboration.
It was wonderful to be recognized for our work together, as
a team of two. I hope that this is the
beginning of a trend for the Capital Educators' Awards where the work of collaborators
will be recognized and celebrated.
I have a slab of acrylic with my name on it sitting on my
mantle. Al has one with his own name as
well. One nomination and two wins. But I
didn't win anything really - we won together.
I will have to take my little trophy somewhere to have Alexander
Overwijk's name etched on it. The only
question is the order of the names. Does
Al come before Bruce or does McLaurin come before Overwijk?
The irony of all this is that my last class of the day
before I left for the awards ceremony was lousy. I had a collection of grade 9 students that I
failed to engage, interest or control. I
always say that you are only as good as your last class. Wednesday was good, but Thursday was lousy. Thank goodness that Friday's class was
fine.
Now when my last class of the day is lacking, I can look at
the acrylic trophy and console myself - or maybe it
will just make me feel like a fraud.
