The Information Technology Educators ACT (InTEACT) are delighted to announce the 2021 Educator of the Year and 2021 Outstanding Achievement awards. President Mrs Toni Falusi announces this year’s two recipients.
The 2021 InTEACT Educator of the Year Award recipient is Mrs Bridgid Sutton from St Clare’s College. Bridgid is a Science and Digital Technologies Teacher at St Clare’s College. She is awarded not only for the work she does in ensuring that students are engaged in STEM subjects but also for the work she performed during the Canberra Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. In the midst of a global pandemic she ensured that the College and its students were prepared and capable of continuing learning using online technologies.
Bridgid successfully oversaw the review of the Digital Technologies Curriculum at St Clare’s College in 2020 to ensure that the students were challenged and that outcomes continued to be aligned with the Australian Curriculum. She then assisted other Technologies subjects in reviewing their subject content and outcomes to ensure the whole Faculty had reviewed their content and assessment.
In March 2020 as the College moved to roll out MS Teams to prepare for the expected lockdown and with three days’ notice, Bridgid was instrumental in working with IT staff to ensure the privacy and access permissions were correct, protecting students in an online environment. Sheassisted in the delivery of training creating help files and instructional videos for both staff and students. She continued to support the College throughout the pandemic in use of MS Teams and the SEQTA LMS to facilitate online lesson delivery and communication. Bridgid’s exceptional effort toward ensuring staff and students were supported in the successful delivery of remote learning should be commended.
Through this time, St Clare’s College acknowledged her role by employing her as a Learning Technologies Coach. Bridgid continued her own learning of the MS Teams and 365 platforms and was recognised as a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert. She continues to ensure that the applications are used across College by providing training and support for staff and students as she continues to contribute to the global Microsoft Education Community.
The 2021 Outstanding Achievement Award recipient is Mr Murray McKay.
Murray McKay is the Director of Digital Literacies within the ACT Education Directorate. During the 2020 COVID situation, Murray was the key person in the Education Directorate who led the shift to online and then blended learning as a response to COVID-19.
To achieve this Murray ably led a dynamic team of educators to design and deliver a wide range of professional learning, supporting the teachers within ACT Government Schools to quickly adapt to an online learning environment, and then to transition to a blended online / face-to-face learning environment as schools began to re-open.
It is widely recognised within Australian Education Systems, the ACT Government System led the way with these shifts in teaching and learning during 2020. The ability of the ACT Public Education System to adapt so quickly and so smoothly to the COVID situation was in a large part to the strategic systems and structures that Murray designed and co-delivered in support of ACT teachers.
The InTEACT President, Toni Falusi and Committee congratulate Mrs Sutton and Mr McKay on their awards and thank them for their service to the Canberra education community.
For more information please contact:
InTEACT President Toni Falusi toni.falusi@inteact.act.edu.au
Or
InTEACT Secretary Juliette Major juliette.major@inteact.act.edu.au