A pair of teachers from a Maple Ridge high school have won a prestigious Premier’s Award for Excellence in Education.
Teachers Mark Biggar and Todd Goodman from Thomas Haney Secondary have won the award for Outstanding Team Collaboration alongside a team from Britannia Secondary in Vancouver and a team from New Hazelton Elementary in the Coast Mountains.
Goodman, who works closely with Biggar, said one thing that makes collaboration work well for them is that they teach in a school that is a self-directed learning model.
Students in the school are featured in a video saying what they enjoy about the Connections program, a program the teachers oversee.
“It’s always just open to what you think is interesting and that keeps you enthralled in the class,” said Lucas.
Abbey said the tech lab is one of her favourite places in the school.
“Everyone here is so kind and willing to help and, I think, that’s thanks to Mr. Biggar and Mr. Goodman,” she said.
Goodman noted it’s fun to come to work with your friend and doing fun and amazing stuff with passionate students.
“The Connections program is kind of the core of, I guess, of what we do, which at the end of the day is quite simple, we just want to have students form good relationships with each other and good relationships with their teachers and be positive about learning,” added Biggar.
In total 34 education professionals across the province received an award.
The awards were launched in 2018 and honour public, independent and First Nations school teachers, support staff, principals, vice-principals, as well as school and district leaders, who go above and beyond to make life better for students in kindergarten through to Grade 12.
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There are 10 categories and three winners in each.
Categories include: Community Engagement; District Leadership; Extracurricular Leadership; Indigenous Education; Outstanding New Teacher; Outstanding Support-School Community; Outstanding Support-Teaching Assistant; School Leadership; and Social Equity and Diversity.
Outstanding Team Collaboration category had multiple recipients per team.
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The nomination period ran from April 14 until May 5 and was open to the public, as well as those working in the education sector.
Nominations were received from throughout the province.
The award recipients were celebrated at a ceremony at Government House in Victoria on Thursday, Oct. 26.
Each recipient received a $2,000 personal bursary for professional learning, a $1,000 contribution to their school for professional learning, and a commemorative trophy.
For more information go to: www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/excellence-in-education.