Shari Klumpenhower may have been a late starter with her career as a school teacher but after just one year she is already turning heads as a gifted educator.
The 42-year-old Grade 1 teacher at Penhold's Jessie Duncan School has been nominated by the Chinook's Edge School Division for this year's Alberta School Boards Association's Edwin Parr Award, a distinction that honours the most outstanding novice teacher in each school zone in the province.
The Edwin Parr Award winner for Zone 4, a group of eight Central Alberta school divisions – including Chinook's Edge, will be announced at the Lacombe Memorial Centre on May 26.
Reanna Windsor, Grade 3 teacher at Sundre's River Valley School, and Leah Olstad, Grade 5 teacher at Cremona School, were also considered among this school year's 54 novice teachers in Chinook's Edge for the award.
“All three candidates bring such strong skill sets to the table, it makes it very difficult to choose just one to go forward,” said Lee Tipman, division principal who evaluates all novice teachers in Chinook's Edge.
“With Shari, it is extremely obvious how well she connects with children. She has an amazing way of working with each child individually, and her strong literacy expertise has resulted in remarkable student achievement for a Grade 1 class.”
Klumpenhower's nomination for the award, named after the respected late board chair with the Athabasca School Division and president of the Alberta School Trustees' Association, comes after almost two decades of dedicated service as a child care worker and educational assistant in the Red Deer public and Catholic school systems.
“A lot of my background training and work that I have done over the past 20 years with children and youth has definitely contributed to this award,” said Klumpenhower.
She left the Red Deer Catholic system in 2007 to raise her family and to start a day home service for children. At about that time she put together a plan to go to university to earn a teaching degree, something that had been enthusiastically suggested to her over the years by teachers who had worked with her.
“It was really important for me to attain that goal. I had always wanted to be a teacher,” said Klumpenhower. “I think finally when I did choose to go back I was working at St. Patrick's Community School in Red Deer, working in the Turning Points program with severe behaviour students. That was a real turning point for me.
“The program was kind of the last stop for these kids. They were the rough guys that needed the most love,” she added. “That was probably one of the best experiences I've had with children because they were those challenged kids that really needed somebody to make a difference.”
In evaluating Klumpenhower over the past year Tipman noted her varied experience working with children, which he added, allowed her to be comfortable in the classroom, moving quickly forward with the children and creating a high level of engagement and understanding that resulted in many positive results in the classroom.
Klumpenhower admits that her extensive background working with children helped her bring a distinct style in the classroom that created outstanding results in her first year.
“We do a lot of cooperative learning and a lot of collaborating with each other. We are not a worksheet kind of classroom, but a hands-on kind of classroom. We do a lot of learning on our feet,” she said, noting her class of 12 boys and six girls led to a “lot” of active learning.
“We partner up a lot and work with each other a lot so kids learn a lot of those skills as well.
“It is definitely an honour for sure,” added Klumpenhower of the current recognition of her stellar first-year teaching performance. “It is nice to be recognized for the hard work I have put into the school year and my students. It is an amazing experience actually.”
