Exemplary Practice and Student Showcase

July 4, 2022 4 min read

Twice a year the Board of Directors recognizes staff and students for exemplary work, leadership, or contributions to the school community. In June, the Board was honoured to present Grade 10 students Sadie and Ivy and teacher Charlotte Nixon with this special honour!

We are excited to announce Charlotte Nixon as the recipient of the Exemplary Practice award for her dedication to the school community. Grade 10 Students Sadie T. and Ivy M. were honoured as the recipients of the Student Showcase award for their accomplishments in the Sustainability Summit in April 2022.

Exemplary Practice: Charlotte Nixon

The recipient of the Board’s Exemplary Practice Award for June 2022 is Teacher, Ms. Charlotte Nixon. Charlotte is described by her colleagues as someone who is passionate, dedicated and inspiring.

Charlotte joined the CA teaching community in August of 2019 but has been teaching since 2007! She quickly established herself as a great mentor, resource and leader within her team, sharing her love for literature and drama. Charlotte is a graduate from the University of Calgary where she did her M.Ed and her B.Ed from the University of Lethbridge with honors distinction in Drama Education.

Charlotte is being recognized for her above and beyond contributions and impact to our school community and her huminites teaching team. She is a published playwright and her passion for this work led to the creation of our Junior High Production, “Bibbity Bobbity Bamm”. She also worked tirelessly to support the Senior High Drama Production, “All Shook Up” sharing her theatre expertise to coach and mentor the actors and backstage support.

Charlotte is keen to connect students to literature and develop a love for words, expression, creativity, and performance. Charlotte is so giving of her time, for the past three year she has led a senior high Creative Writing Club. She also recently implemented a reimaged version of the traditional Poetry Smackdown, with a focus on all indigenous Canadian poets. The assessment of the Poetry Smackdown was centred about FNMI principles of cooperation and consensus when students selected the winning poem.

Charlotte has also been part of the English Action Group for the Balanced Assessment Committee. She is a keen advocate for this work. She is up to date on latest assessment research and tries new things in her class. She also recently partnered with another teacher to implement CA’s first ever Sustainability Summit for grade 10 students. She is passionate about trying new things and inspiring students to love the world of English.

Congratulations, Charlotte!

Student Showcase: Sadie T. and Ivy M.

The recipients of the Board’s Student Showcase Award for June 2022 are two Grade 10 students, Sadie T. and Ivy M..

Sadie and Ivy were the MCs for the first annual Grade 10 Sustainability Summit held in April 2022. The Sustainability Summit was a month-long project in which Grade 10 students researched the sustainability of an industry of their choice. S tudents were asked to present innovators within that industry that are attempting to make that industry more sustainable. The purpose of the project was to spark hope in the audience (Grade 7 and Grade 8 students) that there are role models out in the world that are addressing sustainability concerns and paving the way for future innovators to make serious change.

Sadie and Ivy decided to focus their project on the entertainment industry. They did extensive research on the social sustainability aspects of film and television. They looked at racial, gender, and minority representation within the industry as it pertained to social sustainability. They found production companies that were trailblazers in fair hiring practices and advocated for equal representation on the big screen. They also looked at the waste that a film production can make and researched individuals that were trying to reduce the amount of single production consumables being used on set. Their research was staggering, and their presentation of their findings was highly engaging. They were on task, hyper-engaged in the project, and their final product will be an example for future Grade 10 students.

Perhaps more impressive was that they took on the role of MC in addition to their own project. It is important to note that both Sadie and Ivy have expressed that they do not enjoy speaking in front of large crowds. Both ladies expressed that they find public speaking extremely difficult. Despite this, Sadie and Ivy rose to the challenge of being the central speakers of our summit. They worked on their script, practiced the land acknowledgment, and spoke with such respect that it was both humbling and emotional to watch them take on this additional challenge. They did all of this work, far exceeding the expectations teachers had of them, without being asked, without complainant, and with a go-get-them attitude.

Congratulations, Sadie and Ivy!