Green Valley School teachers win Excellence in Teaching Award

Three Green Valley School teachers have been awarded the Excellence in Education Award for Outstanding Team Collaboration for their work in looping.

Grade 5 and 6 teachers Katelyn Hart, Kelly Mikkelson, and Rachel Novak received their award during a ceremony at the legislature in late April.

“We’re very honoured and humbled for sure. We truly feel like we’re just doing our job and enjoying what we do and it was really humbling to be recognized and to be nominated by our principal and vice-principal – Angela Burtnack-Schinkel and Dean Hardern – had nominated us and it’s really humbling that they value our work and see what we’re doing day in and day out,” said Hart, who has been a teacher for eight years.

The three collaborated on how best to meet the needs of their students, how to support the looping model, and how to support their lives at home with their children and to help each other to make home life more manageable.

Looping is the act of teaching a class and following that class as it progresses to the next grade. The teachers worked collaboratively to implement looping at Green Valley for the first time in the school’s history. They followed their Grade 5 classes into Grade 6, which resulted in the students getting better grades by being in a familiar “family-like” setting which reduced stress and anxiety for the children.

“That relationship piece you really teach kids through the heart. If you have that strong relationship with them you’re going to make more progress. And because we all really did have a strong relationship with our kiddos that trust is there and we can dig further and work together quicker,” said Hart.

Looping is not new to Hanover. According to the division, there are a number of schools already practicing it. About 54 kids are currently looping through Hart, Mikkelson, and Novak’s classes at Green Valley.

“We work really well together because we both have busy families at home and just sharing the load has been really helpful…We just work together really well because we all recognize the stage of life that we’re in and we really value our students getting a good education. That’s what brought us to looping in the beginning,” said Hart.

Unfortunately, this will be the last year the teachers are doing looping as the school will no longer have Grade 5 classes as they will be moving to South Oaks School, since there is not enough room at Green Valley.