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Devon Ross - Winner of PM's Award for Teaching Excellence!

We are very proud to offer our congratulations to Devon who recently won the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence, afforded each year to only 16 Canadian teachers in the K-12 system.

Since she graduated from UBC’s Teacher Education Program in 2001, Devon has taught science and geology at VanTech Secondary School in Vancouver. Devon, supported by her colleagues at VanTech, initiated a school-wide, then a district-wide science fair, now (possibly) the largest of its kind in Canada. One of Devon’s students was awarded the top Math Project in all of Canada, an entrance scholarship to the University of British Columbia, and was published in an Inequalities’ Academic Journal for her original proof of Blundon’s Inequality. Four other VanTech students won at the Regional level and again at the Canada-Wide Science Fair. Two students received multiple university scholarships. On their own initiative, the pair also entered a virtual science fair and won a trip (and laptops and $2400 each) with their teacher, to Qatar. In the years since instituting the Science Fair, provincial science exam results at VanTech have rated consistently higher than the District and Provincial averages. In 2004, VanTech ranked as the 4th highest public school in the province and the 9th highest overall.

About the teacher education program at UBC, Devon speaks strongly of her appreciation of the hands-on methods courses in science. Her strongest instructors, she says, were former teachers. She is particularly enthusiastic about the summer courses in the field e.g. environmental education. She found the ePortfolios particularly useful, emphasizing their usefulness in job interviews as well as for professional development.

For further professional development, Devon graduated from UBC’s MEd Urban Learner cohort in 2006.

As a teacher-mentor hosting new teacher candidates, Devon’s aims to engage new teachers successfully in her department’s commitment to hands-on learning, teacher collaboration, and hard-work ethic. As this school culture has influenced her high school students, it likewise will inspire beginning teachers.

UBC is grateful to Ms. Ross for sharing her expertise and enthusiasm with our teacher candidates, and we congratulate her on this important and well-earned award!