ARCHIVED—Recipient Bios
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Year: 1999 – Province: Ontario
Certificate of Achievement Recipients
Linda Dickson
School: Summit Alternative School
Principal: William Langdon
Grades/Subjects Taught: Language arts, communication and media, mathematics
Teaching Approach:
- Foster academic responsibility by allowing significant student input into academic decisions.
- Exploit important learning opportunities outside the classroom, such as centres for performing arts and museums.
- Integrate knowledge and skills into thematic units rather than teaching discrete subjects.
- Encourage students to develop their personal learning profile to give them insight into their strengths, weaknesses, personal learning preferences and predominant learning styles.
Outstanding Achievements:
Spearheaded drastic increase in enrolment: from two classes and 65 students to five classes with 130 students since 1996.
Ms. Dickson and her students recreated school life of the 1930s at the Sadler Schoolhouse, an historic building owned by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. Students took the parts of typical students of the time. In preparation, they studied such historical events as the Great Depression and the dustbowl of the 1930s. Graduating students remember it as a highlight of their elementary school years.
Ran a series of professional development workshops for Canadian teachers preparing to teach in Third World countries.