LAKELAND – Among 20 other nominees up for a prestigious first-year teaching award, Cold Lake teacher and former Bonnyville student Alexandra Shapka was named the 2022 Edwin Parr winner for Zone 2/3.
Each year, the Alberta School Board Association’s (ASBA) names an Edwin Parr Award winner for each of the association’s five zones. The recipient is someone who has excelled in the teaching profession during their first year in the classroom.
In 2021, Shapka began her teaching career as a French Immersion Kindergarten teacher at St. Dominic Elementary School.
Shapka first learned that she was a recipient of the award on May 27 during a ceremony in Edmonton, where all the nominees and their accomplishments were acknowledged.
Before the Cold Lake teacher was announced as the award recipient, she didn’t imagine she would win the award.
“Not to say I didn’t count myself on par with the other candidates but just hearing how amazing they were and the things they were doing in class, it was quite a shock to me to find out that I won,” Shapka told Lakeland This Week. “I thought, ‘Whoa, I guess I'm just as good as they are’.”
Most recently on Nov. 20, Shapka spoke at an ASBA convention where she received a plaque and a watch, which is a tradition of the Edwin Parr Award.
Shapka said the whole experience was a roller coaster.
From finding out she was nominated by the Lakeland Catholic School Division’s Board of Trustees, then going through an interview process, learning about the accomplishment of her colleagues, to being named the award recipient, “It was definitely a lot of ups and downs,” she recalled, with a laugh.
The new teacher also had the added strain of entering the profession during a time still impacted by the pandemic.
“As a first-year teacher it was just hard to find a groove at first because what they teach at university is nothing like what they teach you in class. They teach you a fancy theory here and a strategy there, but putting it to class in reality, it's so much different because kids aren't going to do necessarily what you expect them to do,” she acknowledged.
A big part of Shapka’s nomination and success in winning the Edward Parr Award was her implementation of French immersion learning techniques.
The program AIM Language Learning uses gestures, story-telling and active collaboration to help young students learn to speak and write French faster than conventional methods.
Shapka also noted that trustees referenced her ability to create relationships with the students and create a safe and caring classroom environment.
“I am just so honoured and grateful that Lakeland Catholic nominated me for this award and to have received it through them and to be an ambassador for Lakeland Catholic because they have been a great help in allowing me to be able to receive this award,” she said.
The young teacher also attributes her success in the classroom to being able to accept feedback and not being afraid to ask her colleagues or administrators for help.
“And just really focusing on collaborating with those around me versus just trying to independently go about this because the teaching profession is really based on collaboration,” she said. “You have to go and find those who can help you and to be a knowledge seeker.”
The homegrown teacher said she is happy to be able to return to the Lakeland community, “to give back to the school system that gave so much to me.”
