ARCHIVED—Recipient Bios
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Year: 1999 – Province: Ontario
Certificate of Achievement Recipients
Michelle Hurley-Desjardins
School: Good Shepherd School
Principal: Paul Fortier
Grades/Subjects Taught: Grade 2, all subjects
Teaching Approach:
- Be flexible, ready to change plans, expand or substitute as moments of readiness are identified.
- Establish a positive atmosphere of love, respect, praise and trust within the classroom, encouraging personal growth, self-confidence and a spirit of sharing and co-operation.
- Encourage children to become self-motivated and independent learners who strive to be the best they can be, and foster good work habits.
Outstanding Achievements:
Encourages communication, independence:
- children create posters describing lost items, a common occurrence
- students bring favourite objects from home to show classmates, keep daily journals of stories and experiences, read them to each other
- physically and developmentally challenged students encouraged to join all class activities.
Fosters each child's uniqueness:
- celebrates each child's birthday, has an end-of-year birthday party for summer birthdays
- organizes an awards day during which children present awards to each other for talents
- encourages imagination and creativity: children stage puppet shows, drama productions, Remembrance Day ceremonies, and go on field trips to sing at hospitals, nursing homes.
Develops love of learning:
- uses an activity-based mathematics program – "math bags" filled with practical exercises and games to teach abstract math lessons for parent and child to use together
- employs a whole-language reading program: sets all language activity in a meaningful context; both receptive and expressive activities based on classic children's literature.