Edwin Parr Award nominees from Medicine Hat and area find out winner this week

Leilani Leighton is the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education’s nominee for the Edwin Parr Award for first year teachers.

She teaches Social Studies and Language Arts to Grades 7 through 9 at St. Mary’s School.

Leighton said she is excited and honoured to be nominated for this.

“It’s nice to know, as a first-year teacher, being recognized for it, and knowing that all the hard work has paid off,” Leighton said.

“There are so many great first-year teachers in this district, so it was just, I’m so humbled and honored to have been nominated.”

Leighton said she didn’t know she wanted to be a teacher until her grade 12 year.

“I did a scholarship program with the Moose. You apply and you go teach kids a lesson that normally they wouldn’t have in the school, and I talked about service animal etiquette,” Leighton said.

“I made the lesson, went to the classrooms, taught the kids about it, and I won first provincially with that, and then in 2020, I went to Nationals. It was online during the COVID year, and I got third doing that,” she added.

“After that, I was kind of like, well, I really liked, enjoyed making the lessons and teaching kids. I think this is something that I want to do long-term.”

Kayl Davies the Prairie Rose Public Schools nominee teaches Grades 3 to 6 at Oyen Public School.

Her classes include Physical Education, Social Studies, Art, and flex that involves her reading to students.

Davies said she enjoys working with kids and had an interest in babysitting in her youth.

“When I was 16 years old, my principal’s wife actually took a huge risk and she hired me to work at her day home. She really lit that flame in me to work with kids. That was where I discovered this love for working with children,” Davies said.

“I was really young, which is nice. She actually always told me, you’d be a great teacher,” she added.

“She’d tell me this all the time, and I’d kind of dismiss her. I’m like, no, no, I’m not smart enough. I’m not this, I’m not that. And I never took her word for it.”

Davies originally from Taber worked with children throughout her career path.

She said the self doubt, delayed the start of her teaching career.

“To be able to enter this profession as a mature student, and then to receive that nomination, it’s a huge honor. I feel very privileged,” Davies said.

“I have talked to the kids, and I’ve told them that I feel as though it’s just as much their honor as it is mine,” she added.

“I don’t know if I would have been able to have gotten this far with a different group. They’ve taught me a lot about myself, and about teaching.”

Davies said there is no amount of school that prepares you to be a teacher.

“I knew I didn’t know everything, that’s for sure. As the years progressed, I’ve learned so much from the children, and all the things that maybe I thought I knew that I definitely didn’t,” Davies said.

“I just feel like being a teacher has changed my entire perspective. It’s changed how I feel about the community. It’s changed how I want to parent my future children. And it changes my interactions. It’s changed everything.”

Leilani Leighton the Edwin Parr Award nominee from the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education teaches at St. Mary’s School. Bob Schneider/CHAT News

Leighton said it’s nice to know her hard work has paid off and is humbled by the nomination.

“I just love the connections that I’m building with my students, and also with the teachers here,” Leighton said.

“I went to St. Mary’s as a student, too, so to be like working with the people who taught me and learning from them, even now today, is just so amazing.”

A nominee was not chosen this year for the Medicine Hat Public School Division as they didn’t have a teacher that met the criteria for the award.

by Jesse Gill

Edwin Parr Award nominees from Medicine Hat and area find out winner this week

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