2024 Winning Teachers
The Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan (OTIP) and the Ontario Teachers’ Federation (OTF) have recognized three outstanding Ontario teachers with the 2024 OTIP Teaching Award for teaching excellence.
2024 Winning Teachers
September 24, 2024
OTIP (Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan) and the Ontario Teachers’ Federation (OTF) have recognized three outstanding Ontario teachers with the OTIP Teaching Award for excellence.
On Tuesday, September 24, the following teachers received the OTIP Teaching Award:
Jessica Duncan
Morse Street Junior Public School, Toronto, ON
OTF congratulates Jessica Duncan, the recipient of the 2024 OTIP Teaching Award in the Beginning Teacher category.
Jessica is a homeroom teacher for Grades 2–3 students. Jessica’s program is full of innovative and effective teaching methods that respond to the interest and needs of each student. This allows all learners to engage and participate simultaneously, reducing stigma and eliminating singling out of students. Jessica is committed to inclusion. She deliberately builds a space where structured, purposeful instruction combined with student voice and choice nurture her students’ engagement and growth.
Jessica embodies the concept of lifelong learning; she seeks opportunities to fold new knowledge and skills into her teaching practice. For example, Jessica has embraced opportunities to harness artificial intelligence to support differentiating the reading level of texts and making literacy accessible to all.
Colleagues describe Jessica as a teacher who empowers students to build independence and become critical thinkers. Jessica welcomes opportunities to collaborate, co-teach and learn from her colleagues.
Susan Shoemaker
Brooklin High School, Whitby, ON
OTF congratulates Susan (Sue) Shoemaker, the recipient of the 2024 OTIP Teaching Award in the Secondary Teacher category.
Sue teaches Business, Technological Education and Student Success. Sue not only leans on her 30+ years of teaching experience, but embraces and adapts ever-evolving technologies and collaborative software to create new and engaging lessons.
She has inspired student leadership during her 32-year teaching career. For example, with her support, her Grade 12 Business Leadership classes organized school-wide events, such as Relay for Life, Festival of Lights, Cure Cup and Breakfast with Claus, raising over $700K for the Canadian Cancer Society. As well, her student teams, prepared to be emerging leaders and entrepreneurs through DECA, qualifying for six of its International Career Development Conference competitions.
Sue is committed to removing barriers and creating equity of opportunity. She set—and met—an ambitious goal of fundraising $8,000 to remove financial barriers for students, from families without the means, to access leadership training. She provided opportunities for students from various backgrounds to experience transformational leadership and to become effective leaders in their community by celebrating their diverse identities and backgrounds. She revamped the Grade 9 Technological Education program to be more inclusive to girls and her entrepreneurship course to include marginalized groups. She also inspired her senior-level female students to become leaders and to enter post-secondary business studies programs.
Karyn Bélanger Sherman
Académie de la Tamise, London, ON
Katherine is a champion of equity, diversity and inclusion at her school. She assisted in the co-creation of learning and reflection around the land acknowledgement for the school as well as assisting in setting collaborative processes to learn about the Grandfather teachings. She compiled resources that contain various activities and methods for integrating Indigenous knowledge throughout the entire school year. She actively seeks knowledge on the histories and present realities of First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities and passes her knowledge on to her classrooms and colleagues. She initiated her school’s first Safe Space program and challenges her students to expand their knowledge on gender identity. Her passion for social justice is evident in her commitment to continuous learning about diversity and identity. Her methodology reflects on the importance of emotions and feelings by empowering her students to feel and articulate their emotions.
Congratulations, Katherine!
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