January 13-20, 2021 Feature Teacher Archive

2021 January 13 - 20

Jolene Kwaznitza // Ernest Morrow School

Sara Richey // Branton

Jolene Kwaznitza // Ernest Morrow School

 

Jolene is a dedicated PLP teacher working with students with mild cognitive disabilities in junior high. Jolene 'gets' that her students learn differently and has become an advocate for them in all aspects of her work. Students in her program are made to feel accepted and acknowledged and are supported in achieving the goals they set for themselves.

Sara Richey // Branton School

 

Sara is so amazing, her colleagues are half convinced she's a robot. She can do anything. She's incredibly knowledgeable and organized. If she doesn't know the answer, she finds it in half a minute. Sara launched herself into her work when she joined our school a few years back. She dug right into grade 8 and 9 math and built incredible things in D2L - content, exemplars, links, and practice quizzes. She is the quiz 👸. Ever since building it, she's been giving it away, sharing with new colleagues and anyone else. When Sara returned from a maternity leave, she returned to new math grades and a new subject - FLA. (Yes, she teaches math in French.) She dove right in, once again developing thoughtful, rich tasks for her students, including collaborating with peers to record French stories for our remote learners. This year? Sara's on a new adventure on the hub. Her task has changed yet again: she is teaching science in addition to math, across two grades. The gist is that Sara has four different curricula to prepare, in French which has limited available resources. She also teaches 85 students in both grades, equaling essentially 170 online students (when you count each class individually). Sara's students come from nine different schools and reflect even more learning teams through their diverse hub teachers. Sara does it all, and she does it with a toddler at home and a smile on her face. She is kind. She is intelligent. She is helpful. She is relentless. She is positive. She is a force to be reckoned with and one heck of a colleague.