Best Teacher
Rachel Harris – Timberlea Public School
107 Brett Drive, 780-743-5771
www.fmpsdschools.ca
PHOTO: Supplied
Born and raised in Fort McMurray – it’s a phrase heard more, and more, in recent decades as families settle their roots to call our city home. With record-number birthdates to prove it, many children are entering the school system each year.
Through recent decades, educational recruitment throughout Canada was essential to keeping up with Fort McMurray’s school board demands. However, if you look around the community today, some of those children have grown up. And, after spending years learning through the branches of our local education, they’ve found themselves teaching in a classroom of their own.
Meet Rachel Harris. Born and raised in Fort McMurray, Rachel is a fourth-grade teacher at Timberlea Public School, who “goes above her duties with quiet confidence and consideration for the needs of her students, and as a member of a school team,” said Timberlea Public School Principal Waleed Najmeddine.
In 2011, Rachel graduated from Keyano College’s Bachelor of Education Elementary Generalist Degree, a collaboration program with the University of Alberta, and started her first position as a teacher with a class of grade five students.
The following year, she stepped into the fourth-grade classroom and has been there since - aside from two very important breakaways to become a mother to her now four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter.
“With her students, she is a role model of politeness. She treats every child with respect and is treated likewise by them. Her students look forward to spending time with her because she is gentle and caring to everyone, and is always mindful of each student's unique qualities when making decisions about what is best for them,” Waleed said.
