Edwin Parr nominee Chris Moraes has met challenges
By Dale Woodard on March 17, 2021.
In a challenging school year, first-year teacher Chris Moraes has met those challenges.Now, Grade 6 teacher at Master’s Academy and College in Calgary has become the Edwin Parr nominee for the Palliser School Division.Established in 1964, The Edwin Parr Award is named after a long-time school board member from Athabasca, and a former president of the ASBA’s predecessor, the Alberta School Trustees’ Association.
The winner from Zone 6, which includes Palliser School Division, will be announced at a banquet on May 19. The six provincial winners will be acknowledged at the ASBA’s fall general meeting in November.
As school divisions across the province struggled with the COVID-19 pandemic and the adjustments it brought to the classroom, Moraes has embraced his position as a Grade 6 teacher.
“As a first-year teacher there was a lot of uncertainty and I certainly feel for a lot of my peers who I have seen trying to get started in the substitute world. So I feel extremely blessed I’ve been given the opportunity to enter into a full-time Grade 6 classroom with an amazing team of teachers my first year. COVID definitely presented a number of different challenges. But I feel like as a first-year teacher I’m kind of in the same boat as many experienced teachers.”
Moraes received the news of his nomination through Master’s Academy and College principal Linda Dyck
He completed his education degree through the University of Calgary’s online community-based, two-year after-degree program.
He said that online format gave him a head start on some of the teaching trends brought on by the pandemic.
“We were actually doing Zoom before it was trendy,” said Moraes. “So I felt like a lot of technology integration was stressed in school and it actually set us up really well to be able to still make meaningful experiences for students with those kinds of physical limitations in place using different online platforms for studying and assessments and all of these oppotunities.”
Moraes accepted his position with Master’s Academy and College one week before the school year began.
“It was a very strange time and I think a lot of divisions were just, at that point, getting their funding numbers and things,” he said. “It seemed like when that call came for Masters they all started coming one after the other that week. But my Masters interview was first. I really loved the atmosphere of the school. So I decided to take a leap of faith and commit, not actually knowing at that time because of the larger set of circumstances, how long I might have the opportunity to be there. Fortunately for me, the position has been extended a couple of times now and soon it will be extended to the end of the year.”
Having worked in Ottawa as a political staffer before completing his education degree, Moraes did his practicum at Auburn Bay School, working with teacher Randy O’Connor.
“I have adapted a lot of his teaching practice into my classroom,” said Moraes. “I was really impressed by his engagement with students and just being able to really meet where they were at as the world was entering into the pandemic, and that was a new word for a lot of the Grade 4 students that we were with that year. I really learned a lot in my practicums that I can apply and I think that is a continuation of being influenced by incredible teachers throughout my life. That really said to me ‘That’s the job for you.’ I did my undergrad and I thought I would just go right in to teaching.”
Now, Moraes has settled in as a Grade 6 teacher, the same grade his son is in, but at a different school.
“So I can really feel for these young people where they’re at right now,” he said. “Not only is the world changing around them, but they’re changing themselves. They’re at a time where they’re discovering what they’re passionate about and I see it in some of our activities in class.”
Drawing from his work in Ottawa as political staffer, Moraes likes to bring a question period into the classroom.
“So it’s really neat to see the students discover things they didn’t know they were passionate about,” he said. “We’ve done a few projects where they’ve been able to take some action themselves. The feedback from the parents have been one of those most rewarding things. It’s just about really giving the students confidence and giving them a voice to move up into the next level of school and give them the independance and organization they need to really thrive. We’re in a unique position this year with not having provincial achievement tests with Grade 6. So we hope to be able to really set the table for them for success in Grade 7 as they move up to junior high.” Follow @DWoodardHerald on Twitter 3
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