North Surrey Learning Centre teacher wins PM's Award for Teaching Excellence

October 9, 2012

If Surrey teacher Jonathan Rempel had a mantra, it would be “no student left behind.”

Winner of a Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence, Rempel teaches at the North Surrey Learning Centre. As much a learner as he is a teacher, he will tell you that it was when he learned about himself that he learned how to teach.

He constantly asks himself if what he is doing is the best he can for his students and creates a sense of community where students learn to help each other out. Rempel prepares his students for a competitive and rapidly changing world.

Rethinking his own points of view, Rempel changed his practice when it wasn’t working and now embraces an approach where no student is left behind. A teacher in a school where students come from a variety of challenging backgrounds, Rempel does whatever it takes to get them â'” and keep them â'” interested and make learning accessible to all of them. He doesn't limit himself to a single approach and offers alternatives when he sees something isn't working.

“One of the things that I admire most about Jonathan is his remarkable ability to stimulate students and add personality to the course material,” said one of Rempel’s colleagues. “I believe that part of his success is due to his ability in viewing curriculum through the eyes of the students he teaches. With his pulse on current trends, he is able to adapt curriculum to his modern day students.”

Rempel developed the Learning Adventure Co-op to inspire a sense of community in his students through a series of hikes, overnight camping experiences and ropes courses. It was a huge success and the community it created within the class allowed students who would normally never speak to each other to interact on the trails. The sense of community transferred back into the classroom and students now go to each other for help.

As the aboriginal teacher advocate, Rempel works with the approximately 70 aboriginal students in the school. His mandate is to increase graduation rates and overall academic success, but his reach is much further; he helps teachers and students integrate aboriginal content into lessons and does whatever it takes to identify needs and support students, conducting home visits when necessary and connecting with parents and students outside the classroom walls.

The 2012 Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence were presented in Ottawa to 94 recipients on World Teachers’ Day Oct. 5 to honour outstanding elementary and secondary teachers who, through the innovative use of information and communications technologies in the classroom, help students develop the knowledge and skills to succeed in the digital economy.

Surrey teacher Jonathan Rempel receives a teaching excellence award from Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa.