Recipient: Mary Hall

School: Elgin Street Public School

Number of Years Teaching: 7

Grade: 5

Inspiration to for being a teacher of excellence:

Energy and lots of it is the best way to describe the Mary Hall’s grade 5 students and the learning environment she creates.  When we told her students that Mrs. Hall had won a teacher of excellence award they all shouted out reasons why she really is a teacher of excellence:  “she’s really, really nice”, “she’s your friend”, “she makes it easy”, “she likes being with us”. 

Mary says that it is the spark and feedback from her students that make her desire to teach with excellence.  She strives to create a safe world in her classroom that is fun and full of learning opportunities.  One of Mary’s former principal’s inspired her with a vision of education that Mary now follows:  students can learn from each other, learning is not competitive and respect is the cornerstone of learning. Mary truly loves her students, enjoys being with them and continues to learn from them as she strives to teach and inspire them.

Mary’s nomination came from a parent of a student Mary had in her class for two years.  She wrote: 

My son throughout his experience with school has found it difficult to build relationships with his teachers based on his behaviour.  When starting with Mrs. Hall, she immediately saw his potential and struggled to adapt her program to best suit his needs.  She went beyond her job description and looked at strategies like allowing him to wear a hat in class and wearing head phones to keep him focused.  My son began her class with a ‘D’ average and within the two years he has succeeded with receiving “A’s” and an enthusiasm to do better.  I now feel that Mrs. Hall has lifted the negative feelings from my child and shown him that teachers do care.  I want to thank her for helping me with my son and finding that special person inside of him that I know and love.