McGill University

Bachelor of Education - Elementary

Jean M. Gwynne/Miriam (Khaner) Marcus Award

Nominee: Alida Manoian

Cooperating Teacher:

Grade 6 English, Math, Science, and Social Studies & 5\6 English and Social Studies

McGill Supervisor:

4th Year Practicum: Souvenir Elementary School

Dear Award Committee,

I really did not want a student teacher this year. I thought that it would be too unfair to the student teacher to have to be graded on
such an outrageously challenging class.

The week before Alida started her stage my class got a new lunch time supervisor. They had walked all over and manipulated the old
one so that she was being replaced. The new one is tough but is having a hard go of it. She was even heard down the hall this week as
she lost her temper at the outrageous lying and misbehavior. The day Alida started her stage, my two classes got a new French teacher
as their old one just went on leave due to the stresses of dealing with my homeroom class. The old teacher was popular, fun, vibrant,
and seasoned, but she was distraught over how my homeroom class would not abide by simple rules of decorum. The old French
teacher had an emergency substitute one day for an hour, another veteran teacher replaced her, and months later that teacher will still
bring up how that one hour has traumatized her as the minutes stretched for an eternity. So, then, Alida needed to handle my class
while they were in an upheaval with their new French teacher. My students are kicked out of gym, and one is now being threatened
with not being allowed back till the end of the year. Every day it feels like my students are in trouble for disrespecting teachers on
supervision during recess. They are in trouble for swearing, lewd comments, oppositional behavior, and ridiculous scenarios. (One
student told another student, who confided that he liked a girl, ‘’Why don’t you punch her in the arm and rape her?” instead of giving
her a flower as he intended.) There is a constant flow of my students in the office for a variety of offenses.
On the Sir Wilfrid Laurier Math Diagnostic, they scored between grade 1-6. On the Canadian Achievement Test, CAT, their reading
scores were from grade 1-12.

How could I possibly welcome a student teacher into this madness and expect her to still want to be a teacher at the end of it? Could I
fail a student teacher because she could not cope better than teachers who have had decades of experience? My ‘easy’ hours of the
day are a split grade 5/6 class where they have placed some wonderful students but to balance the classes, they also placed a girl who
came from Montreal a few months ago who was in a special education class and functions at a grade 1-2 level. There are also a few
boys who were constantly out of class last year. How could I grade a student teacher on what was overwhelming an entire staff of paid
professionals who are in their positions because of years of experience?

How could we expect her to flourish, where we were waning? We were setting her up for failure in literally the last days of her
bachelor’s degree program.

And then in walked Ms. Alida.

Calm. Organized. Self-assured.

Oh dear, I thought, they are going to eat her alive.

And then, I sat back and watched Alida in action over the weeks that followed.

Ironically, come evaluations, I tried to find a way to rationalize not giving her all 5s in her evaluations but alas could not find a way to
justify not giving her top marks. I wracked my brain to try to think of a way that she fell short but regrettably I came up wanting. Alida is
flawless across the board. Sometimes one will see a teacher, for she is one already, who is organized but slightly boring. Alida is not.
From time to time one will find a candidate who is dutifully careful in her planning and yet Alida also implements her ideas
meticulously. Now and then one will see a stagiaire who is current and technologically savvy but doesn’t quite have the knack to choose
the right clip or length of clip to add pizzazz and yet maintain the goal of the teaching component. Alida had students bring in their
devices, and our school IPADs, to work on assignments. Alida has a flare for the precisely appropriate. Every now and then one may find
a young teacher who has the mental gymnastic ability to ponder and then to implement the nuances of having special needs in the
class, but Alida sees past the IEPs and codes and reaches into their minds to appreciate who they are and what their abilities are
instead of worrying about their weaknesses, faults or flaws. Alida is all these things, and more. She is the rare jewel that can plan,
implement, and evaluate her own abilities and talents, and do all that within the classroom milieu, while still maintaining decorum and
a learning environment. Alida has the inborn intuition and intellect to know when to push, when to back off, when to encourage, when
to discourage when needed, and yet Alida does not leave the reprimand of a discipline hanging too long. She will make her point, have
the child comply, have the child feel the compliance and then she will surreptitiously reconnect with the student. This last step is so
often forgotten and that is one of the facets in which Alida shows her excellence.

Alida’s exceptional achievement in this practicum is shown in how seamlessly she accomplished so much in a classroom that has the
propensity to go out of the control of seasoned experienced teachers. The academic expectations that I handed to her were arduous.
She took them on and made them innovative and interesting. She completed two sections in Decimals with a higher pass rate that I
managed to pull off. She read an entire novel and had the students enjoying every minute of the reading, the centres, activities,
technology, and the assignments. Alida had the students complete an individualized family tree (adapted to reflect if they only had
contact with one side of a family or the other) and an oral of the historical events that were happening in Québec when their family
members arrived here hence combining English with Social Studies and Québec history. She introduced them to desert plant life
connecting the English novel with Science class. I wished her focus to be the classroom, and she strove to make it the best environment
for the type of students who were there before her. Alida stayed afterschool and tutored students who needed help and were at risk for
failing a test. She was available and involved in all aspects of school life that touched near her during her stage.

In the crux of the matter, Alida, did not get side tracked with fancy projects that looked good on paper. Alida stayed focused on who
these kids were and how could she teach them what they needed and not necessarily just what they wanted. She is an outstanding
person, and an exceptional teacher in the truest sense of the word.

If this award is to commend an exceptional student teacher whilst on practicum, then Alida Manoian is the candidate who was
brilliantly extraordinary in how she taught an exceptionally difficult class.

Thank you for considering Alida,