Each year, the School of Education celebrates teacher candidates and faculty with a number of teaching awards. With 185 faculty, staff and teacher candidates in attendance for the virtual ceremony in late April, recipients were congratulated with loud cheers and applause and smiles, in what was a joyous event.  

This year in particular was extremely special with the announcement of Trent Durham Instructor Karin Schmidlechner as the recipient of the 2020 Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) Teaching Excellence Award, which ‘recognizes educators who excel at unlocking the potential of Ontario’s young people. Successfully engaging individuals in the learning experience depends on an instructor's ability to spark students' curiosity and desire to learn.’

Speaking about this award, Ms. Schmidlechner said, “I have come to humbly appreciate that my learning path is never-ending.  I am so excited to share my curiosity and passion for teaching, learning and leading with my Trent students. Each class and student experience brings me new learnings and perspectives to grow, and this is why teaching is so important to me.”

Also celebrated during the ceremony was faculty member, Dr. Katie Tremblay-Beaton who received the School of Education’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Reflecting on the award, Ms. Tremblay-Beaton shared that, “Teaching is important to me because it gives me the opportunity to build relationships with my students. I enjoy facilitating and guiding students as they engage with the creative and problem-solving processes. I think we all have a responsibility to each other in this space and that idea is a critical component of what I think it means to be a teacher.”

Teacher Candidates in the Bachelor of Education program were also feted for demonstrating leadership, creativity and teaching excellence. The Trent School of Education would like to congratulate all of this year’s teaching award recipients and their continued contributions to the field. The full list of recipients are:
 

Teacher Candidate Awards:

Primary/Junior Innovation in Teaching Award – Heather Moore  

Intermediate/Senior Innovation in Teaching Award – Xhek Troka

Responding to Diversity Award – Sierra Paschalis

Education Student Association Award – Brittney Vandersel

OECTA Award – Tessa Pozzebon

Margaret Lightbody Award – Justine Deloyer

Primary/Junior Mathematics Award – Katherine Flindall

French Award – Zoë Froese
 

Faculty Teaching Awards:

OUSA Award – Karin Schmidlechner

Teaching Excellence Award – Katie Tremblay-Beaton