Year: 2018 – Province: Prince Edward Island
Certificate of Achievement Recipient
Summerside Intermediate School
247 Central Street
Summerside, PE C1N 3M5
School telephone: 902-888-8470
School website: https://sisowls.wordpress.com/
Subjects and grades taught: French and Language Arts, grades 4–8
A native English speaker, Stacy Thain successfully mastered French and now works in both languages. Leaving the elementary school class for a year, she is currently on an assignment with the province's education department to teach Grade 4–6 educators about preparing French-language lessons.
Teaching approach
Understanding the importance of authentic, relevant learning for adolescents, Stacy creates opportunities through which students can connect what they are learning in school with the world around them. She also teaches leadership skills to empower students to stand up and make a difference.
In the Classroom
- Uses technology to make connections: students collaborate on projects and interview authors online for research papers; Stacy updates students and parents on student progress, providing regular, descriptive feedback online to connect home and school
- Designs lessons with academic excellence at the forefront but also incorporates ways to empower students beyond the classroom: lessons at school went on to involve students teaching seniors at nursing homes how to use email and helping them write out their Christmas cards
- Devotes time and energy to giving students chances to be leaders at school and in the community: for example, for many years under her guidance, students coached peers across the province in the areas of community involvement, leadership development and healthy lifestyles
Outstanding achievements
- Her students won first and second place in the 2017 provincial writing contest sponsored by the PEI Writers' Guild
- Wrote and recorded a song, "We Remember," that has been performed at countless schools and Legions across Canada in conjunction with Remembrance Day observances; she also wrote music and created lessons about verbal abuse, which she and her students shared with classes across P.E.I.
- Has been chosen to represent educators on numerous committees, including one supporting new teachers, the diversity education committees for both the Department of Education and the teachers' federation, and a provincial body looking at class composition and the related funding
Rave reviews
"As the principal of the high school receiving her junior high 'graduates,' I observed firsthand the lasting impact of Stacy's influence on young people. They would work their hardest and change their behaviour just to make her proud."