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Your LOCAL Media since 1918! Volume 106 Issue 34
www.tofieldmerc.com
Tofield 4-H Show Pages 15 & 16 Wednesday, April 24, 2024
First-year teacher’s passion results in award nomination John Mather Staff Reporter
Tofield School teacher, Kaden Doerksen is the Battle River School District nominee for the prestigious Edwin Parr Teacher Award described as an award that “recognizes exceptional Kindergarten to Grade 12 teachers who positively influence students.” The award was established in 1964 after Parr’s passing to honour the significance of exceptional first year teachers within his own school division. From Zone four, in which BRSD is located, six nominees are selected. “I felt extremely honoured and it almost came as a shock to me,” said Doerksen. “It was sort of out of the blue and I felt I was doing good year in my first year of teaching.” Doerksen grew up in the Mundare area on an acreage just south on Highway 855 south of Highway 16. His family moved to the area 13 years ago. “It takes me about 25 minutes to get to Tofield in the morning, but a lot of my colleagues travel from Edmonton which takes them 40 minutes, so I say I’m beating them.” Doerksen graduated from Grade 8 at Mundare School and then attended high school in Vegreville. Having attended school in a rural setting makes him much more attuned ton the Tofield setting he finds himself teaching during his first year. “I would say it makes a big difference,” he said. “Just being a part of a small community makes you really understand being part of that community. “It gives you a bit of an edge with the students because you know what they are going through growing up with their peers their entire lives. “If you’re in a larger city you don’t really know everybody so you just kind of go through your day and you can’t make as many relationships as you can in a smaller community.” Being a teacher from a smaller community really helps you teach in that smaller community, “because you really understand what the students are going through.” Doerksen was nominated for the award by Tofield School principal Zenovia Lazaruik. “Mr. Doerksen is a student-centred teacher who has been a welcome addition to Tofield School and to the division,” said Lazaruik. “He is passionate about everything he teaches, especially math, and he shows perpetual dedication and commitment to the teaching profession and to his students.”
Tofield School first year teacher Kaden Doerksen works with a young volleyball player during one of his practice sessions at the school. Doerksen has been nominated for the Edwin Parr Award, an award that recognizes excellence in first-year teachers.
Doerksen has totally immersed himself in the school activities including outside the classroom. “When I was in high school I also attended a baseball academy and then I attended a year of college in the US on a baseball scholarship,” said Doerksen. “I have experience in athletics so I'm passionate about sports and math.” “I coached volleyball, and then coached the senior high basketball team and I just finished up coaching badminton.” He is also a coach with the Under 15 age group playing Tofield Minor Baseball. He has 14 students on his team and he teaches about nine of them. “It’s a good way for me to make new relationships with the students in the community, some whom I may teach down the road,” he said. While primarily a math teacher, he also teaches a high school phys-ed course this year. “I’m open to anything that keeps me working with the students.”
For Doerksen the joy of teaching is when he sees “the aha moment” when a concept clicks with a student and when that happens, “I feel I’ve done something corrective and that feels really good to me. “I don’t know what it is, but it brings me joy,” he said. “If I can do my best to help them then I feel I’ve done a good job. “After all, those students are our future.” He said he likes the school schedule and environment. He gives credit to his colleagues for giving him support throughout the school year. “The first year can be a wild card and you just don’t know what’s going to happen on a day-today basis and thanks to them being so supportive have made my year so successful.” On May 27, he will have a dinner with his principal and the other nominees from Zone 4. From that a winner from the Zone is selected and then the final winner from across five provincial zones is presented at the Alberta School Board Association’s fall meeting.