An Estevan teacher has been recognized on the federal level for her professionalism, leadership, exemplary teaching practices, and commitment to help the next generation of Canadians gain the knowledge and skills they need for future success in a world inspired by ideas and driven by innovation.
Christa Walton a student support/technology coach and teacher for pre-kindergarten to grade 8 at Sacred Heart School/École Sacré Coeur, was awarded a Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence (Certificate of Achievement) on World's Teachers Day on Oct. 5.
"It's been pretty exciting, that's for sure," Walton said in an interview with the Mercury. "I'm honoured to be even nominated by the people that nominated me."
As one of her colleagues said in the nomination form, Walton has shown tremendous patience and leadership as she works one on one with teachers to help them set and reach meaningful goals that create incredible learning experiences for their students.
The nominee's signature was required to complete the application, so Walton learned in January 2020 that she was being nominated for the award. Usually, the awards are given out in March, but due to the pandemic, this was postponed until October this year. However, it didn't make the experience less exciting.
"It's neat that they still found a way to still continue with that," Walton said.
This year the award recipients were chosen from among 246 nominations across the country. But strong competition wasn't the main concern for Walton when she learned that she was one of the nominees.
"They said they had sent in a nomination for a lot of my work in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and project-based learning, and I was caught off guard just because I've actually been out of the classroom for the past two years in the student services area. While I still helped line up STEM nights and I created some STEM literacy boxes, I just thought that I've been out of the classroom and I didn't know if that would still be considered," Walton recalled.
Walton has been teaching for over 15 years, and about 10 of those she dedicated to Sacred Heart School. Her bio names many of her achievements and describes the unique approaches she uses when working with students and other teachers.
At school, she coaches teams, advises clubs, organizes the STEAM fair, co-ordinates a Christmas gift drive and mentors new teachers. Beyond school walls, she runs sports teams, represents her school division at the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation, and has served on the local parish council.
In her school and division, Walton leads projects in 21st-century learning and in new pedagogies for deeper learning. She attends national conferences in these fields and reviews related lessons from teachers around the world, then uses her knowledge to help her students and inspire her colleagues.
She also created a technology scope and sequence for each grade. It helps ensure students learn one foundational skill before moving on to the next, and focuses particularly on the use of one-to-one technologies, such as tablets and Chromebooks. Walton also lets students choose approaches that fit their learning styles and promotes inquiry-based learning.
Some of her outstanding achievements include spearheading a carbon-capture research project, for which students tested materials to see how well they filtered carbon dioxide, then shared findings with local government and proposed new idle-free emissions bylaw. This project was one of Walton's favourite ones.
"In 2016 I was in Grade 8 and we did a project for the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest and we ended up making it really far. It was eye-opening, it was where I started with my big interest in it all," recalled Walton.
Samsung awarded $20,000 worth of technology to the school as a result of this project.
Walton connects STEM to literacy. She devised STEM literacy boxes to help teachers dovetail engineering challenges and science experiments with books. She also started middle-school STEM book clubs and researched grade-appropriate books for many reading levels.
The STEM nights are among the projects she likes working on the most.
"We infuse literacy with it. The turn I took with STEM is trying to find books that go with the projects and putting together some classroom resources," Walton said.
"Not all of the projects have been super successful, but they've all been fun."
She also led the Legacy Project, in which students visited nursing home residents weekly to learn their life stories, worked with sponsors to create photo books for seniors, while gaining insights into history and compassion for others, honing technology and research skills and building community spirit.
Walton co-ordinated the Youth Biz initiative, which encouraged students to research business ideas and then pitch them to local professionals in a Dragon's Den format. Winning students received money to further develop their ideas.
"You usually have an idea that you draw out to the kids, and you learn in a way the projects go big and beyond the classroom when you let the kids take the lead on it," said Walton, adding that the CCS research project grew much bigger because of the students' interest in it.
"Just letting them go with the reins on some of these projects and letting the kids take it further is kind of uncomfortable but you realize where they'll go with it … For me, it's a great project if when they leave home they're still talking about it, but when the project is done, it's maybe not done, and they are going to take it and do some more follow-up."
She also helped colleagues transition to a new literacy program. She researched the Fountas and Pinnell reading skills assessment system, tracked student reading data to implement the system at her school, benchmarked students against local and provincial scores and introduced the system to all division schools.
And while she's been out of the classroom the past few years, she now gets to support other teachers' ideas and projects. She is currently helping another teacher, Megan Vanstone, with her hands-on learning Tinker Tubs project.
Walton said she was grateful to the school for the support she's been receiving through the years.
"It's a pretty great school to be at, a pretty good board to be with. They've supported me. I wouldn't be where I am, and I wouldn't have taken the risks that I've taken with these projects if I didn't have support there and definitely giving me little nudges. Even if you feel like you are not quite ready I've always been lucky to be surrounded by people here that'd do that for me," said Walton.
The Prime Minister's Awards for Teaching Excellence honour outstanding and innovative elementary and secondary school teachers in all disciplines. The Prime Minister's Awards are offered at the national (Certificate of Excellence) and regional (Certificate of Achievement) levels and carry cash prizes of $5,000 and $1,000 respectively. Each recipient receives a letter of congratulations and a certificate signed by the prime minister.
Walton was among the 71 teachers across Canada who received the country's highest honours for teaching excellence, teaching excellence in STEM and excellence in early childhood education.
Since the first awards ceremony in 1994, the Prime Minister's Awards program has honoured more than 1,900 outstanding Canadian educators. Award recipients are determined based on a rigorous two-tier selection process undertaken by over 140 volunteers from the education community across Canada.
