Aynne Johnston received the Principal's Leadership Award. Katie Hurst (BEd'13, MEd'16) nominated her for the award.
Aynne Johnston is the most creative and innovative teacher I’ve had the opportunity to study with. Aynne strives to provide every student in her class their “best chance” for future success. She takes personal interest and paid attention to unique details that students could maximize in their unique career paths and took the time to discuss and coach them in these life-changing decisions required of them. She made an incredible difference in my own life. I learned so much from Aynne in her classes, I was excited to TA for her, and then my own life became fraught with tragedy, and she could have dismissed me, but stood by me, believing in me when I could not. The second year I TA’d for her my life was on a better keel and Aynne shared her entire practice, protocols, philosophies for me and encouraged me to have administrative tasks and conversations with the students to build community and to have me understand the nature of the program from the students, the teaching, the admin, the experiences, and the community. She allowed me to feel like a colleague and team member, not like a “tacked on” TA. I was not just marking their papers. I was included in the community of the ACE class. She was generous but also provided me with experiences that were foundational for work I do today in my school, in my administrative union positions, with choirs and in beliefs I hold about educational communities.
At the very beginning of my journey to becoming an Arts Educator, as I decided which programs to apply to, I read the course description for FOCI 230 – Drama in Education. I was particularly excited by the idea of doing an alternative practicum, although I had no clue of the impact it would have on my teaching and the trajectory of my career. The very first day of FOCI 230, we were going to begin to decide on our “alt-pracs”. I was terrified, but Aynne put me at ease. She handed out large pieces of paper and markers and told us to “dream BIG”. So, I did. I began to write down all my favourite places, places I’d never been, large arts organizations I happened to know the names of, when Aynne walked by and pointed out the Lincoln Institute. As a result of that writing and Aynne’s connections, I ended up spending a month learning and working at the Lincoln Centre Institute for Arts Education. I shadowed Teaching-Artists (dancers, puppeteers, sculptors, print makers) as they held workshops in schools in Queen’s, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. I followed along as a Teaching-Artist took a class of students to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These experiences colour my teaching practice to this day. Aynne would refer to our goals and dreams throughout the rest of our classes together, continuously stoking the fire in our bellies. Aynne was responding to our needs as learners, it was intentional, but it looked effortless.
Aynne Johnston is an exceptional educator. She is my teacher, my mentor, my birthday-twin, and more importantly, Aynne is my friend. I am honoured to nominate her for the Principal’s Educational Leadership Award.
Read more about the award winners and their innovative teaching practices.
Katie Hurst is a full-time Performing Arts and Integrated Arts teacher at Faraday School in Winnipeg School Division, located in the heart of Winnipeg's North End. As the Performing/Integrated Arts teacher, she sees all students at Faraday from Nursery/Kindergarten to Grade 6, teaching music, drama, and dance. Under Katie's leadership, Arts programming at Faraday School has included film-making, choir, ukulele, and ballet, hip hop, and ribbon dancing. Faraday School will celebrate it's 100th Birthday this year, and to mark the occasion, Faraday is creating a whole-school mosaic that will be the first piece of art to be displayed on the exterior of the building. Katie serves on Winnipeg School Division’s Arts Leadership Committee, and is also active with the Winnipeg Teacher's Association (WTA), local of the Manitoba Teacher's Society; she chairs both the WTA's Equity and Social Justice, and Workplace Safety and Health committees. Beyond her professional life as an educator, Katie is politically active and works to empower and elect BIPOC women to public office, including the successful campaign of Leah Gazan, MP for Winnipeg Centre. Katie is also a musician and ceramic artist. Katie Hurst is a graduate of Queen's University with both Master and Bachelor of Education degrees, and holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Manitoba.