The original story appears on the Maple Grove website
In September I told my students how badly I missed traveling.
I told them about the story of “Flat Stanley/ Clement Aplati” who traveled the world in an envelope.
So I decided to have them make paper dolls with the intention of sending them around the world. One student asked “can we send it to our president?” Why not? Our Prime Minister was a teacher after all! So I sent it via “snail mail” to Prime Minister Trudeau, not really expecting a reply.
When talking about my travels and the world, I realized that these are “COVID kids”. Their only real connection to the world is COVID and what country has what variant… they are sadly too young to remember travels and trips.
Today however, I received something unexpected… thanks to Adam Scotti (the official photographer of Justin Trudeau) who worked his magic!
Our Prime Minister read our letter and took time out to make 14 students from Lachine, Qc (and their teacher too) extremely happy!
I guess it’s true what they say, once a teacher, always a teacher!
My name is Karina Sophia Iermieri. I was born and raised in Montreal. I attended Queen's University in Fall 2011 and graduated Spring of 2012. I got a teaching job 2 days after moving home from Kingston. This job later led to a permanent position. I have been teaching at the same school (Maple Grove Elementary) for 8 years, where I teach grade 1 French immersion.
I love sharing my background in children's literature with my students and my love of reading. I enjoy traveling, cooking, yoga and a good cup of coffee! I absolutely love being a teacher. Teaching a child to read is perhaps the greatest career highlight a teacher could receive. The pandemic however, has brought many challenges, especially those seen in the classroom. I love discovering and exploring with my students and the pandemic has pushed me to be even more creative and dynamic with my classroom instructions and routines.
I adored my time at Queen's University. It was such a special time in my life. The connections I made with my professors, the support I received (and continue to receive) from my classmates was and is amazing. I had the opportunity to do my last practicum in Belgium which gave me international teaching experience. I found myself attending football games and getting super involved in student life. I will always think back fondly of the time I spent at Queen's and know that it helped the teacher I am today.
You can see a photo of Karina and Justin Trudeau from a lecture held at Duncan McArthur Hall in 2012 while she was a student at the Faculty of Education.