Premier John Horgan, Rob Fleming, Minister of Education, and Lt. Gov. Janet Austin present Jordan Smith with a Premier's Award for Excellence in Education.
Kamloops Teacher Jordan Smith received a Premier's Award for Excellence in Education during a ceremony at Government House in Victoria Oct. 4. She won the award in the category of Indigenous Education.
Smith is a teacher and program coordinator at Twin Rivers Education Centre and an Aboriginal School of Choice, Four Directions school. Smith works hard to connect students with Indigenous culture and history and to create an environment of safety and belonging. Each year, she identifies a thematic focus that connects experiential learning, art, community involvement and field trips to an elective course that all students are enrolled in. In keeping with the theme, students engage in a variety of hands-on learning opportunities such as traditional fishing, gathering with local Elders and working with Indigenous artists. This year, she secured a Vancouver Foundation grant to pilot a program desinged to integrate Indigenous ways of knowing alongside western curriculum by involving familiy, Elders and knowledge keepers.
She is one of 10 award winners, chosen from among 140 nominees, four from SD73, in the second annual Premier's Awards for Excellence in Education. Winners of this year's awards received a commemorative work of art by Claire Jorgensen, a 17-year old Reynolds Secondary student from Victoria. They also received a $3,000 personal bursary for professional learning and a $2,000 contribution to their school community for professional learning.
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For more information
1383 Ninth Ave
Kamloops British Columbia
Canada V2C 3X7
www.sd73.bc.ca
