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 educators 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

OTF congratulates Karyn Bélanger-Sherman, the recipient of the 2024 OTIP Teaching Award in the Elementary Teacher category.

Karyn’s colleagues describe her as a person who makes a difference in everyone’s life at her school. She is completely dedicated to her students and their families.

As a leader in culturally sensitive and responsive pedagogy, her classroom is a space where her students can explore their own families’ countries of origin and learn about those of their peers. Karyn finds ways to raise the self-esteem of her students and motivates them to succeed—especially those who are struggling—through the use of positive reinforcement and strategies such as math games and numeracy talks.

Karyn actively seeks out opportunities to learn about Indigenous culture and ways of knowing and doing for herself and her students by scheduling visits with members of the local First Nations community. In addition, she also organizes an enriching experience annually for Grade 2 and 6 students to attend a local powwow.

Karyn completed additional qualifications in reading and, this past year, was an elementary literacy leader in her school. Karyn has always been an innovator with technology and is eager to share her knowledge with her colleagues. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Karyn created, and generously shared with colleagues, an incredible number of online-ready resources such as lessons, projects, support sessions.