Heidi MacDonald says being nominated for a Trustee Innovation Award from the Upper Canada District School Board was “a real ‘wow’ moment.”
“I just felt so proud of the teamwork and care taken by everyone involved,” says MacDonald, the principal at Maynard Public School in Prescott.
“We had amazing family and student responses to learn about the most current strategies for the teaching of reading.”
MacDonald, alongside two teachers and School Council Chair Robyn Holmes, received the award last week for a reading initiative they started this year.
The program involved working with students’ families to help improve their reading comprehension skills with at-home exercises.
“It was most definitely a team effort, and we were all thrilled to see that we were nominated,” says Shannon Scott, one of the teachers involved with the initiative.
According to Scott, plans are already being made for continuing the program next year.
“In the future,” she says, “we plan on purchasing and creating resources to use in the classroom and at home to support literacy development.”