Cel­e­brate!

By Rian McLaughlin

very year OTF, in part­ner­ship with OTIP (the Ontario Teach­ers’ Insur­ance Plan), rec­og­nizes the out­stand­ing work of edu­ca­tors across Ontario. The OTIP Teach­ing Awards were estab­lished in 1991 and are held in con­junc­tion with World Teach­ers’ Day, Oct. 5. Three annual awards are offered for teach­ers in Ontario’s pub­licly funded schools: one for ele­men­tary, one for sec­ondary, and one for a begin­ning teacher. TFO (now known as the Ontario French Lan­guage Edu­ca­tional Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Author­ity) joined the pro­gram to pro­vide spe­cific awards for fran­coph­one teach­ers. A num­ber of ETFO mem­bers are among those who have been hon­oured by this very suc­cess­ful program.

Brian Robert­son, a mem­ber of the Lime­stone Teacher Local, was named the out­stand­ing ele­men­tary teacher of 2011. Brian was described as hav­ing an envi­able gift for ensur­ing that all stu­dents were active and engaged learn­ers. He was often seen with his gui­tar in hand for French lessons or guid­ing a stu­dent walk­ing tour of Moun­tain Grove, Ontario near Land O’Lakes Pub­lic School. His efforts to address stu­dent needs would find him rewrit­ing a play to include a stu­dent with autism and design­ing courses for his young run­ners to meet each of their needs and pro­vide them with frame­works for suc­cess. Brian retired this past sum­mer, but we are con­fi­dent that his many inter­ests and pas­sions have served as exam­ples to the count­less stu­dents and col­leagues who had the priv­i­lege of work­ing and learn­ing with him. Con­grat­u­la­tions, Brian, and best wishes for a long, healthy, and reward­ing retirement!

OTF Fel­lows

OTF also cel­e­brates the achieve­ments, ded­i­ca­tion, and ser­vice of mem­bers and part­ners with whom we work. The OTF Fel­low­ship was inau­gu­rated in 1964 to com­mem­o­rate OTF’s 20^th anniver­sary. The first OTF Fel­low­ship was pre­sented to the Hon­ourable George A. Drew, then min­is­ter of edu­ca­tion and pre­mier. Since that time, ETFO (and its pre­de­ces­sor orga­ni­za­tions) have nom­i­nated many indi­vid­u­als for this spe­cial recog­ni­tion. ETFO Gen­eral Sec­re­tary Gene Lewis and Deputy Gen­eral Sec­re­tary Mar­ilies Ret­tig were named Fel­lows of the Ontario Teach­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion prior to the for­ma­tion of ETFO. ETFO pres­i­dents, first vice-presidents, and OTF table offi­cers are counted among the Fel­lows of OTF.

Many long-serving and ded­i­cated staff mem­bers have also been awarded fel­low­ships for their work on behalf of the mem­ber­ship. This past August, OTF wel­comed two of ETFO’s recently-retired staff into the Fel­low­ship cir­cle: Joan Lit­tle­ford and Chris­tine Brown.

Through­out her career ETFO exec­u­tive assis­tant Joan Lit­tle­ford worked with intense pas­sion in the area of early learn­ing and full-day kinder­garten gar­ner­ing respect for ETFO through­out the province and beyond. Chris­tine Brown, most recently coor­di­na­tor of Pro­tec­tive Ser­vices at ETFO, was the calm and ded­i­cated researcher whose work pro­vided the foun­da­tion for col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing. She was also an advo­cate for dis­abil­ity issues.

As past pres­i­dent of OTF and OTF Table offi­cer for ETFO, I was also priv­i­leged to receive a Fel­low­ship this year. The legacy of those I join is truly humbling.

Rian McLaugh­lin is ETFO’s rep­re­sen­ta­tive at OTF.