Recipient's Name: Karina Meier

School: Stewart Avenue Public School

Grade: 5/6

Number of Years Teaching: 6

Karina pursued her dream of being a teacher. She enthusiastically states that she gets to spend every day doing what she loves, teaching. To Karina each day is a new day where students are given fresh beginnings. She reminds her students that it is not how you start hungry, sad, reeling from a fight at home but how you finish that counts.

Karina builds into her students that they can do anything they want to do. She helps them find the areas in their lives where they shine. Many of her students come from difficult situations. Karina seeks to convince them why learning is important. She respects each one of them and listens to them because they want to be heard. By investing in their lives she lets them know that she cares about them and believes in them. Karina says, I want my students to know that I care for them unconditionally and that no matter what they do or what is going on in their lives I will always be here for them.

Atinuke, a parent volunteer in Karina's classroom wrote these words of nomination:

Karina pays careful attention to motivating students, particularly those with high academic and social needs. She recognizes that if students are to succeed in the classroom, then she must be attentive to their lives outside of the classroom. Therefore, the lines of communication that Karina maintains with her students' parents go beyond what most teachers ordinarily maintain. She makes herself available before, during and after school.

Karina's deep commitment to restorative justice makes her an outstanding candidate for this award. When a student's chronic misbehaviour prevents learning from taking place in the classroom, Karina approaches the student, encourages them to reflect on the disruptions they create and to offer an apology to the class. Conversely, as a class, the rest of the students discuss what they can do to welcome the student back into their midst. In this way Karina enables each student to thrive, especially those at risk of disengaging from school. Teachers and principals at Stewart Avenue sing the praises of what Karina has been able to achieve in the classroom. Karina is a great teacher who absolutely inspires all she meets. She is the very definition of a Barrday Teacher of Excellence.