People

Super Teacher-Mom:
Sukhdeep Kaur Named One of The Top Teachers in Canada

ROGER BELGRAVE

Brampton, Ontario, Canada

A teacher at Brampton’s Hickory Wood Public School has made the Prime Minister’s roll call of excellent educators.

Sukhdeep "Sukhi" Kaur Chohan is among a select list of Canadian teachers to receive a certificate of achievement for her work inside and outside the classroom. She teaches English as a Second Language (ESL), math, science and social studies.

The 2013 Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence and Excellence in Early Childhood Education were given to 60 educators from across country.

The annual Awards for Teaching Excellence are presented to recognize outstanding elementary and secondary school teachers who, through the innovative use of information and communications technologies, help students meet challenges in a 21st century society and digital economy.

The early childhood awards recognize exceptional early-childhood educators.

Sukhi Kaur, who is referred to as “teacher-mom” by some students, is passionate about creating welcoming, nurturing, inclusive environments for her students that provide children and their families with a sense of belonging and worth.

She is considered a driving force behind creating a school community where teachers, students and their families participate in awareness campaigns, food drives, and a wide variety of fundraising initiatives.

She said she wants every child in her classroom to feel welcomed, acknowledged and loved.

“Teaching is done from the heart,” she believes. “It’s not a profession.”

The 36-year-old Sikh-Canadian has been teaching since 2001 and has a holistic approach designed to connect children with the outside world. She said she works to provide students with an environment to blossom, gain leadership skills, develop a desire to serve humanity with compassion and make their voices heard globally.

“It is important for me that each of my students feel welcomed, acknowledged and loved, thrive in a nurturing environment, and know that their presence in the world makes the world a better place,” she said.

As a Sikh, Sukhi says, she feels truly blessed to be an educator and her efforts are led by the words of the religion’s founder, who said “Make divine love thy pen, and thy heart the writer.”

You open up a lot of opportunity for children when you begin by making them feel loved, she said and insisted her accolades reflect the efforts of her students, their families, school and community.

“It takes a community to educate a child.”

Sukhi has pioneered several programs that have been spotlighted in the Canadian Early Childhood Education Journal.

Her interactive classroom newsletter program has opened lines of communication between teachers and families and received international acclaim through the National Foundation for Educational Research in the United Kingdom.

Her home-reading program, called Smarties Read with Me, helps parents become at-home teachers and learn strategies and interactions to enhance their child’s reading. Since its inception, the program has evolved to include online reading sites that are accessible from home and become a means for Sukhi to provide regular feedback.

Sukhi also spearheaded the school’s Holding Hands program as well as a school-wide mailing program, designed to develop literacy skills, that has more than 1,000 students in kindergarten to Grade 5 writing letters.

The program has also grown to include 350 students in an e-pals program with students in other countries.

“Good educators guide, inspire and motivate us to want to learn on our own,” said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a news release announcing and congratulating the recipients. “They sow the seeds of knowledge that yield well-educated Canadians who are able to compete with the best in the world and generate new ideas and prosperity.”


[Courtesy: Brampton Guardian. Edited for sikhchic.com]
March 26, 2014
 

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