St. Catherine Kindergarten teacher named Edwin Parr Award recipient

Sep 22, 2023 | 1:16 PM

A St. Catherine Kindergarten teacher is being recognized for her dedication to her students.

Angela Sheppard has been named the Zone 1 recipient of the Edwin Parr Award, recognizing exemplary and outstanding teachers in their first year.

Sheppard described her first year at St. Catherine’s as an amazing experience.

“Kindergarten is a really amazing place to be!” Sheppard says. “The children are just ready to learn and I get to work at a school filled with amazing teachers and colleagues who all work together. It’s really been an amazing blessing.”

(Photo Credit: Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools)

She says an exemplary teacher is one who is always present with their students and understands their needs.

“Meet their needs and to meet them where they are each day,” she says. “To be able to find out what they’re wanting to learn about and to go with that. We really do a lot of hands-on inquiry-based learning, and in Kindergarten that’s just magic.”

Sheppard says she was honored and surprised when she was told she’d been nominated for the award.

“Actually I was in the classroom and I was teaching. We were learning about motion and 3-D objects and my principal came in and told me right in front of the kids and they were so excited! It was really fun.”

Sheppard and the other award winners will be formally recognized at an award ceremony in Edmonton sometime in November.

(Photo Credit: Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools)

by Nathaniel Leigh