Two St. Albert teachers were honoured last week for being some of the best educators in the province.
Dawn Rothwell and Maureen Tigner-Morison were two of the 20 educators who received Excellence in Teaching Awards from Alberta Education in Calgary on June 4.
The award recognizes outstanding teachers who demonstrate creative, effective teaching skills.
Dancer and calculator
Tigner-Morison has been a dance instructor at Edmonton's Victoria School of the Arts for 22 years. She grew up and currently lives in St. Albert.
Tigner-Morison said she got into dance through her father, who was a jazz musician and a fan of tap-dancing.
"I'm a very kinaesthetic kind of person," she said, and she knew that a desk job was not for her.
Rothwell has been at Paul Kane for eight years and a math teacher for 16, having spent most of her student life in St. Albert. She now lives in Edmonton.
"As a kid I struggled with math and I had to work really hard" at it, Rothwell said – an experience she said helps her empathize with struggling students today.
She already knew she wanted to be a teacher from her experiences as a coach. A particularly good math teacher at Bellerose inspired her to teach the subject.
Tigner-Morison said she spent about four months out of the year in Los Angeles learning dance while she was getting her teaching degree at the University of Alberta. She had a brush with Hollywood while she was in L.A., choreographing a scene for Days of Our Lives and being a backup dancer for Epic Records. She said the gig-to-gig nature of show business didn't appeal to her, so she went on to London, U.K., to get her dance certificate.
Rothwell said her first teaching job also happened to be in London.
"It was a little bit more of a rugged school than we're used to in St. Albert," she said.
She had no textbooks to work with and a photocopying budget of £5 (about CAN$9.21). Many of her students were new immigrants who didn't speak English, and most relied on government-sponsored lunches. Rothwell said the experience taught her how to deal with students of many different skill levels in class.
Rothwell returned to St. Albert after a year, teaching at Bellerose for five years before moving to Doha, Qatar, in 2006 to set up the Qatar Canadian School.
Tigner-Morison said she initially came to Victoria School to teach their summer school program and later became the school's first junior high dance instructor.
Superb teachers
Tigner-Morison is now a curriculum co-ordinator at Victoria and oversees the school's extensive visual arts season, mentoring staff and students and helping to plan productions, said school assistant principal Randy Witte. In class, she encourages her students to explore and take risks, and puts dance moves in context with her deep knowledge of dance history.
"Her classroom is a positive, positive place where her students will follow her to the ends of the Earth because they know the advice she's giving is relevant and needed and thoughtful," Witte said.
Paul Kane student Lauren Barter said Rothwell goes to great lengths to help her students, publishing guides and videos for her lessons online through Google Classroom.
"If you miss a class, you can basically be there and watch her teach the class," she said – something she said she appreciates as a page in the Alberta Legislature, which often takes her out of class.
Fellow student Hussain Abdulameer credited Rothwell with making him a math fan.
"I didn't really enjoy math because it was so difficult," he said, but Rothwell was able to explain it in so much depth that it became fun.
"She's got a very, very bubbly personality," Barter said, and is always cracking jokes and challenging students with fun, yet difficult problems.
"She really makes sure we know the math inside and out."
Rothwell is a leader on staff and has done much to train other teachers, said Paul Kane vice-principal Liane Madsen. She also created a for-credit course called Math PLUS, which combines intensive math help with lessons on learning styles and time management applicable to any course.
Math can be dull if you let it be dull, Rothwell said. The trick is to get to know your students and relate math to their interests.
"You got a kid who's really into baseball? Can you relate it to baseball?"
Knowing your students helps you bring them together as a community, she explained.
"When everyone in the classroom cares about each other and knows a little bit about each other outside the math walls, it's pretty easy to have a good time."
Rothwell and Tigner-Morison each received a pin, a certificate, and $4,000 in professional development funds as part of their award, with their schools each receiving a further $1,000.
