| This Year's Award Winners | Award Criteria | Past Winners |
MSLA Outstanding Teacher-Librarian of the Year
Rhonda Morrissette
Teacher-Librarian, Winnipeg Adult Education Centre (Winnipeg School Division)
Rhonda exemplifies the qualities of an outstanding teacher and leader in her field. She is a strong leader and a team player who has forged invaluable connections with and among students and staff at the school’s various locations, as well as the community at large. She has developed a library that is warm, inviting and supportive of students and staff. Evidence of Rhonda’s sensitivity to and awareness of the interests and needs of students at WAEC, as well as to curriculum requirements, can be seen in the development of the library collection. Under Rhonda’s guidance, the library collection continues to grow to reflect issues relating to areas including multiculturalism, aboriginal perspectives, gender issues, social justice, environmental issues and others. She has expanded the adult literacy collection for students requiring simplified text or audio as well as developing a family literacy collection of picture books for students and their children.
Through small steps, and collaborative efforts, Rhonda has been steadfast as she worked to enhance the culture of respect and caring within the library and throughout the school. Her response to the population of somewhat marginalized individuals and the educators working with them has been to pay attention, reflect, and respond with non-threatening and creative support that enhances learning. Always exploring ways to improve learning in the library, she has created a positive environment where literacy is celebrated; often, tea and cookies, questions and ideas and resources are shared.
In 2007, Rhonda envisioned, established, and chaired the launch of what has become the school’s annual Literacy Fair; through her vision, she has inspired both staff and students to celebrate one’s individual and communal dance—one’s struggle and one’s success-- with literacy and language. She has formed connections for our students and staff with artists such as Fred Penner who involved students in creating special songs, and with artists and elders of the Aboriginal and immigrant communities who enhance our work with drumming and storytelling. This is an amazing event as the WAEC Family itself has 5 satellite programs that support students from across the city, in fact across the world - http://www.wsd1.org/waec .The Fair themes have included literacy, diversity, sustainability, and this year, “Stories and Drums from the Four Directions. It was truly remarkable, as Rhonda and her committee brought together the drums of the Red Shadow Singers, Hinode Taiko, Rastafari and Kyle Borley playing first separately in their own direction and then together as one voice.
Always wanting to share knowledge and the power of reading, Rhonda has accessed funding to annually present a book to the children of her students, as well as encourage them to participate in book making, and of course, book reading. In her commitment to preserving and celebrating the oral traditions of the elders she is involved in working with others to create and sustain a Medicine Wheel Teaching Garden on Isbister School grounds. This was a project close to Rhonda’s heart and she has diligently worked towards bringing this project to fruition. She applied for funding from numerous funders such as The Winnipeg Foundation. She worked with architecture to flesh out a perfect design for the garden, she worked with the Winnipeg School Division Aboriginal Education Support Teachers, and she connected with community people and Aboriginal Cultural advisors to assist in the planning so that we stay true to cultural teachings. She has invited community people, cultural advisors and students to the table to take part in the development of this project. She orchestrates interaction to ensure everyone has a voice.
Recently, her innovative, collaborative work with technology resulted in the launch of eBook and audio additions to the library, and a more pronounced connection to the Winnipeg Public Library. One has only to go to Library Link on the WAEC website to appreciate her 21st century visioning for information literacy, learning, and libraries. The Library Page highlights not only the first digital collection in the Winnipeg School Division - the WAEC Digital Library http://waec.lib.overdrive.com but an Academic Honesty Wiki, a Library Blog and WIFI connectivity fostering and enhancing student success. The WAEC Library transcends the walls of this heritage school creating a learning culture of universality and sustainability.
Besides all of the wonderful programming support she provides, Rhonda is always behind the scenes with any school event, fund raising initiative, cultural event / field trip, special project, etc. She is totally involved in the life of the school. This is a testament to her belief in providing an exemplary school program for all of our students. She does this by supporting and working to enhance all curricular areas and student supports whether they be cultural, educational, and personal. You can be sure that Rhonda is playing a role to make sure it gets done.
Rhonda’s contributions to life-long learning reach far beyond WAEC. She has published a MLA Handbook: Essay Guide for Students… which has been appended to the Academic Honesty Report: Implications for School Librarianship in Winnipeg School Division (January 2011). She has presented at MSLA professional learning events on “Web 2.0 and Social Networking” – links available for anytime, anywhere access at http://thewiredlibrarian.pbworks.com
The recipient of the Dianne Oberg Award (2009) for superior academic achievement and contributions to education, Rhonda is completing her Masters of Teacher-Librarianship, University of Alberta in spring 2011. Collaborating with the 4 urban library consultants/co-coordinators she has been instrumental in bringing Dr. Jennifer Branch, University of Alberta to a TL Learning Commons event in February 2012. She is a consummate professional and a tireless advocate for students and their unalienable rights to education for all.
MSLA School Administrator Award for Distinguished Service
Jason Drysdale
Principal, Bernie Wolfe Community School (River East Transcona School Division)
Jason Drysdale has consistently been a valuable support to his teacher –librarians in his schools. When he first worked in a school with a T-L, he was quick to ask what a teacher-librarian actually did. Jason would frequently visit the library to observe what was going on and to provide encouragement and positive feedback. As well, he often called upon the T-L to discuss ideas both about the library and about the integration of technology into classrooms. His knowledge of curriculum, assessment and information literacy helped to determine ways to make new ideas workable. He has recognised the importance of collaborative teaching and has asked each staff member to sign up for an IBL time. The importance Jason has placed on the program has had a big impact on its success.
Jason has also supported the library financially. While at John de Graff School he convinced the Parent Advisory Committee to support the library with $2500. He matched this sum with money from the school budget. Other money was also provided throughout the year to purchase books. Jason not only provided financial support, but also helped to suggest ways in which the money could best be spent to support all programs in the schools. He clearly understands how books help to support the curriculum and student learning.
Linda Prystupa-Cyr wrote, “Jason shared my vision of the library as the hub of the school, and as a comfortable place where students would feel welcome and would enjoy coming to learn. To this end, he supported my purchase of bean bag chairs, plants, carpets and other items to make the library more aesthetically pleasing. “
With Jason’s guidance, Nicole Ziemianski, the T-L at Bernie Wolfe Community School was able to create a program that involves a well-used and well-stocked library and an IBL program that has become an integral part of the school programming. With respect to the financial support to the library, it has been substantial. Each year he has budgeted for library development. Staff and students have commented numerous times on how many new and beautiful books there are in our library.
Jason always supports library initiatives. I Love to Read Week has always been encouraged, and Jason sets aside time to read to kindergartens as a special treat during that week. Book fairs and space allotted in the newsletter are other ways in which the library has been supported. This past year his school hosted a Literacy Event and Jason was involved in the planning of this event as well. He has demonstrated his value of the library program and this value has transferred to staff and students.
MSLA Distinguished Service Awards
Colleen Einerson
Supervisor of Library/Media Services (St. James-Assiniboia School Division, retired)
Colleen has consistently demonstrated both superior skill and great insight in her work during her 35 years in the St. James-Assiniboia School Division. She was a librarian for 15 years and then moved to the position of Supervisor of Library/Media Services which she held for 20 years. Prior to working in the division, she was a librarian for Parks Canada.
Colleen has been the driving force in the automation of the libraries in the division. She set up online booking for audio visual materials. She wrote the Library Handbook with policies and procedures as well as the “Supplement of Library World” manual. Colleen trained and supported new library staff for all 26 schools and trained students on work experience. Colleen implemented school library web pages and online database access.
Together with Donna Nentwig, the division’s Curriculum Coordinator, Colleen worked on the design of many educational initiatives designed to support school-based administrators and classroom teachers in their work with students. Some of these include assessment and evaluation, collaborative and cross-curricular learning, differentiated instruction and multiple intelligences. Colleen also facilitated after school training sessions for Senior Years English language arts and social studies teachers. These sessions focused on accessing information from various database systems, and assessing, citing and documenting information from a variety of sources.
Colleen’s love of libraries has been evident in all she has done for the staff and students in the St. James-Assiniboia School Division.
Dr. John Tooth
Coordinator Instructional Resources Unit (Manitoba Education)
The MSLA DSA is presented for outstanding service to an individual who helps teacher-librarians to deliver their programs more effectively. This year, we are proud to present it to Dr. John Tooth.
Dr. Tooth has been active in the education field for almost forty years. Thirty-five of those years have been at Manitoba Education Library. He graduated from Glenlawn High School, U of W in 1970, U of M in 71, 73, 80 and 2008, and in 1991, from University of Western Ontario. John’s latest degree was a Doctorate in Education. Congratulations on joining that rarified Ph. D atmosphere, along with Dr. Jenkinson, Dr. Hlynka and Dr. Welsh all in the school library and information services field.
People in Manitoba schools and across Canada generally will have heard of or met John Tooth in one of his many roles: leading, mentoring and encouraging educators. He began his library career as a Reference Assistant working evenings and Saturdays at the University of Winnipeg from 1970-74. Then he moved to St. James Collegiate from 1972-76, at which time he came to Manitoba Education and as they say … the rest is history.
As Coordinator of the Instructional Resources Unit’s Education Library, Educational Resources Branch, Special Programs Division, Manitoba Education, John has a job that is challenging and exhausting. He is conscientiously on the job every day ready and willing to help teachers, educators, and school library personnel across the province. He is a manager, comptroller, referee, innovator, team player, association leader, and historical source. John has a wealth of knowledge about people and libraries in the province. (He also has a huge pile of paper, documents, and records piled around him on his desk … but he can find the answer give a few moments).
Manitobans know John as a leader. Check his 20 page resume and you will conclude that since becoming a member, he has rarely missed a conference for CLA (since 1976), MLA (since 1978), MSLAVA or MSLA (since 1972), and more recently he’s been active in the Manitoba Library Consortium in many capacities. John was president of MSLAVA from 1975-77 and has been regularly active since that time in the Association. John is usually doing presentations, chairing panels, making reports, or working on a committee in one or another of these organizations. He has also been a member of the Editorial Board for School Libraries in Canada, Canadian Education Index, and Education Manitoba. At the same time, he has been steadily working on his own personal professional development so that he can share with colleagues here on the home scene. His most recent accomplishments are in the area of French language studies at St. Boniface College.
For school library personnel and District leaders, the area of Cataloguing and Records Management has needed a strong mentor, a guide and an advocate for standards, manuals, quality control, including the potential for a new version of AACR 2. Can you imagine the changes that have occurred in the field during his time in office? To see the changes, one just has to look back over some of the early manuals in the Department Archives that were issued from the Supervisory and Consultative personnel.
Intellectual Property and Copyright have been two areas where John has been an ardent watchdog and spokesperson. He has prepared a wealth of papers, reports, briefing notes, and presentations across Canada on the topic. We are confident that John will keep a close eye on the legislation through the CLA Committees now that we have a majority government in Ottawa.
Organizing and doing on-site presentations for students in education and library studies from Red River College, the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg have been an important outreach activity at the Department. Similar presentations at SAG on a regular basis help teachers become aware of the broad scope of resources available at the Manitoba Education Library. John is at ease meeting people and sharing solutions to their problems with them.
Along with Dave Jenkinson, John Tooth can be considered to be the step-father to CM, the electronic reviewing journal for children’s and young adult literature and related educational materials since it was taken over from CLA by MLA. He played a key role in having the back issues of CM digitized which has been an invaluable access tool to Canadian children’s literature for almost three decades.
Some colleagues will remember that John Tooth and Jean Swift as the Co-Chairs for the outstanding 1990 Canadian Images Canadienne Conference held in Winnipeg. It drew delegates from across the nation and gave Manitoba recognition in the field of Canadian children’s literature. John was also actively involved in succeeding conferences in 1994 and 1998.
And this brings us to his awards, other than various scholarships for his studies. Dr. Tooth received the prestigious Margaret B. Scott Award for Leadership in School Libraries in Canada in 1991. In 2002, he received the Manitoba Library Association Librarian of the Year and in 2010, he was one of the recipients of the Angela Thacker Memorial Award along with the other members of the CASL Publications Editorial Board. Tonight MSLA is honoured and pleased to present the MSLA Distinguished Service Award to Dr. John Tooth. Thank you for being such a fine leader and a great role model.
