An Abbotsford teacher has been named a recipient of the 2022 Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence.
Nerlap Sidhu, a Grade 6-7 teacher at Eugene Reimer middle school, is among 12 educators across the nation who have been recognized for teaching excellence, teaching excellence in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and excellence in early childhood education.
The Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence honour outstanding and innovative elementary and secondary school teachers in all disciplines.
Recipients are recognized for their remarkable educational achievements and for their commitment to preparing their students for a digital and innovation-based economy.
Sidhu is being recognized for her dedication and success in promoting inclusion and social justice in the education system.
She has planned and executed a series of community and school projects that include Lean on Me, We Are Canada, Character Matters, Walk of Integrity, Random Acts of Kindness, Voices of Courage, Empathy Fence, and the Antiracism Education Project.
She most recently co-authored a chapter published in Ellyn Lyle’s Rehumanizing Education with 10,000 copies sold across Canada and is working on her next publication.
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The chapter reflects Sidhu’s passion and commitment to creating systemic change in education for generations to come. She wrote the chapter with a fresh lens on education that centres children as the living curriculum. The aim is to make classrooms safer spaces that honour each child’s identity.
Sidhu also created the Equity Backpack Project, which focuses on anti-racism and has drawn attention from educators across B.C.
The project involved students making personalized backpacks – using cardboard and other materials – where they examine their identity, privilege and cultural capital.
Another one of her projects involved the creation of a music video to the song Lean On Me as a dedication to front-line workers at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taking part in the video were seven school principals, 13 students from eight schools, 13 teachers from several schools, and local doctors, paramedics, police officers and others.
Sidhu is the 2021 recipient of the Betty Urquhart Community Service Award from University of the Fraser Valley.
She is also among three Abbotsford educators who are finalists for the 2022 Premier’s Awards for Excellence in Education. The recipients will be announced Oct. 14 at a ceremony at Government House in Victoria.
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