Recipient: Craig McLeman 

School: Elgin Street Public

Number of Years Teaching: 10

Grade: 5

Craig McLeman is in his 10^th year of teaching.  This year he is teaching grade 5 at Elgin Street Public School.

Craig really enjoys the interaction with his students.  He loves seeing them get excited and he uses their responses and interests to determine "where to go next".  He believes that if something doesn't work, then move beyond it.

Craig recognizes that some think of him as a "bit crazy" but doesn't mind as keeping things ‘spiced up' has the kids waiting for what is going to happen next.  He believes that you need to be involved and interacting with your students to provide them with plenty of opportunities to succeed and to fail.  In their successes and their failures, he is there to guide, support and celebrate.

Craig has never taught a "bad kid", just a kid with "bad circumstances".  He focuses on their strengths and then waits and watches for them to succeed.

The staff at Elgin Street Public nominated Craig.  They wrote:

We believe Mr. McLeman is a "Hometown Hero" in our school and in our community.  Our school vision is "respect for self, others and the environment".  Up until four years ago, we felt we were paying equal attention to each area, but then Mr. McLeman joined our staff.  He quickly showed us that we could be planning, teaching and celebrating "respect for our environment" much more.  He investigated our local community; set goals for our students and their families; and asked our staff to investigate the ways we need to be conserving more.  He reminded us that the most important thing we need to do is lead our students by example.  As a result, the staff and students are respecting our environment more and we respect Mr. McLeman.

On any given day, if you were to come and observe Mr. McLeman you would be guaranteed to see him travelling from class to class at lunch time checking and rewarding students for packing litterless lunches and ensuring that they are properly recycling anything that might not be litterless.

During assemblies, you would see him motivating students with his wise words, presenting a personal slide show or handing out prizes for a celebration of environmental awareness.  On yard duty, you'll find him carrying large bags of litter that have just been collected by our students.

Mr. McLeman is the kind of person who gets things done for our environment and he deserves a big pat on the back.