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<\/a>\u201cI think, particularly right now as we are going through difficult times in post-secondary education with cutbacks and other challenges for teachers, that it\u2019s important for them to get recognition for the work they do,\u201d says McAlister. \u201cAnd I think that students really appreciate the opportunity to give positive feedback to their teachers; it\u2019s just amazing what students have to say. They don\u2019t have to do this, they do this because they want to and I\u2019m just so heartwarmed by the response from students who really want to take the time to appreciate the contribution that their teachers make for them in their lives. So I think that it\u2019s good for them, for both teachers and for students. We need chances to celebrate and have something positive, because things have been really challenging in post-secondary these past couple years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The teachers who received awards at the event\u2014held at Sherri Bell Hall in the Wilna Thomas Building at the Lansdowne campus\u2014were nominated primarily by students, as well as some faculty. The Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) helped with the event by providing snacks for attendees.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEveryone who gets a nomination gets recognized,\u201d says McAlister. \u201cIt\u2019s not a competition, it\u2019s a celebration. Nominations mostly come from students, but also colleagues like other teachers, but it\u2019s almost always from students. The students will send in their words describing how a teacher made a difference for them in their education, and, yeah, everyone who gets a nomination gets recognized. [At the event] we read out the quotes that students have submitted and you can hear in the students\u2019 own words the impact that a teacher has had on them and it\u2019s just beautiful. Like, it\u2019s just so heartwarming.\u201d<\/p>\n Thuy Nevado, an instructor in the School of Arts and Science, was a recipient of one of these awards. She has been teaching biology courses at Camosun since 1999 and uses interactive demonstrations in her classes to help students understand how complex biological concepts like DNA replication come together in a tangible way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOfficial recognition is a big thing. Whether it\u2019s unofficial or official, any kind of recognition just validates what we\u2019re doing. I think I\u2019ve always wanted to do work that\u2019s meaningful, that makes a positive difference in the world, that makes the world a little bit of a better place. And when you\u2019re teaching you don\u2019t really know what kind of an effect you have,\u201d says Nevado. \u201cYou don\u2019t really know what kind of an effect you have on a student, or how they\u2019re doing overall. Not just in that course but just overall in that day, how are they doing. For a student to be able to say that, \u2018Yeah, you made a difference for me,\u2019 that\u2019s really important and that means a lot to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Nevado hopes that more instructors being recognized for helping students will make students more inclined to reach out for the help they need. She wants students to be able to ask for whatever they need to succeed in their courses and in their lives.<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing that\u2019s really great about having this information out there, for people to know that somebody else found me helpful, is I hope that other students will step forward and ask for help too. I think that one of the things I\u2019m always working more towards and a challenge I always find is how to help a student,\u201d says Nevado. \u201cIf it just helps one other student go, \u2018Hey, I saw… that all these other students like Thuy so maybe she\u2019s not so bad and I can ask her for some help, too,\u2019 that would be great because that\u2019s what I\u2019m here for. I just want to help make someone else\u2019s journey a little bit easier; that\u2019s what I\u2019m here for.\u201d<\/p>\n