Provincial award for Sydenham Manufacturing Technology teacher

Jeff Green | Jun 24, 2010

Mike Mol is the kind of teacher who favours the practical over the theoretical. That’s why he takes his students out to the woods for chainsaw training. That’s also why he recently had his students design and build a log splitter for the Limestone Learning Foundation.

His teaching style has drawn the appreciation of his students at Sydenham High School, and this year his abilities as a mentor led one of his student teachers to nominate him for Associate Teacher of the Year to the Queen’s Faculty of Education.

Each year 1,500 teachers in schools throughout southern Ontario provide support for student teachers for 12 weeks at a time. Student teachers must complete a practicum in order to graduate. Earlier this year, Bryan Flikkema spent 12 weeks at SHS, and he was so impressed with the supervision that Mike Mol provided to him that he sent a letter of nomination to the practicum placement office at Queen’s.

Last week at the June 16 meeting of the Limestone Board, Mike Mol received one of the five Associate Teacher of the Year awards that Queen’s hands out. A less formal presentation also took place at SHS on June 23 at lunch time.

In the letter of recommendation that he wrote, Bryan Flikkema talked about the personal support Mike Mol gave him, and made particular mention of Mike Mol’s teaching style. “He has a great deal of patience and has shown me that taking a caring approach while being firm is a pedagogical approach that will never fail. His approach to classroom discipline has been one that I would like to copy during my practice,” Flikkema wrote.

Nancy Thompson, who works in the practicum placement office at Queen’s, said it is quite an accomplishment to win the Associate Teacher of the Year award. “The award winner is not only a great teacher, but someone who is willing to share everything they have learned over time and is committed to the future of the profession,” she said.