Erin teacher wins environmental award

Erin Public School teacher Cathy Dykstra received this year’s fifth annual Edward Burtynsky Award for Teaching Excellence in Environmental Education, and the honour came as a complete surprise.

“I got an email saying ‘congratulations you’ve been selected as the grand prize winner,’” Dykstra said. “What a thrill.”

She still doesn’t know who nominated her.

Dykstra is a Grade 6 teacher at Erin Public School and creator of the “Water Rockers” program that teaches students about water and conservation and disseminates that knowledge throughout the Erin community.

“There’s a group of adults who care deeply about the environment and they’ve been so supportive I think because they are excited about kids learning about the environment and being excited about it too,” said Dykstra.

“And it’s that school community connection that [has]been a big ‘ah-ha’ for me.”

She said people now approach her asking to have her students speak about water at church functions, on the radio, in front of town council and at golf tournaments, to name a few.

“It’s neat because then the kids feel valued,” she said. “They feel that they’re doing something important and the adults feel they’re excited. They’re excited … that they can learn from these kids and kind of partner up with these kids and hopefully make a difference … environmentally down the road.”

The Edward Burtynsky Award was established at The Laboratory School at the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, part of the University of Toronto.

“It recognizes and celebrates outstanding elementary school teachers in the province of Ontario who, through their exemplary teaching methods, create learning opportunities that inspire students to become environmentally conscious, responsible world citizens who take sustainable action to protect and restore the environment,” a press release stated.

The award includes $500 to put towards professional development opportunities. As of May 15 Dykstra did not have a plan for how she was going to use the funds.

“I’m always on the lookout, for sure, for … anything that’s going to help me as an educator and anything that’s going to help my classroom,” she said.

“There’s no shortage of environmental workshops around for teachers so I’m excited about that.”

Dykstra will also receive a print from internationally-renowned artist and photographer Edward Burtynsky.

The school was also awarded $1,000 to go towards environmental education learning opportunities for students.  

The Water Rockers’ most recent initiative was to raise $5,000 through a community fundraiser to contribute half the funds ($3,100) for the installation of two water-refilling stations at the two Erin arenas. The town is supplying the other half of the funds.

The group surpassed its goal, reaching $5,595 as of May 15. The remaining funds, plus the $1,000 received from Dykstra’s award, will go towards funding the Water Rockers next year.

“We’re starting off the year with this unbelievable amount of money to do some pretty cool things with,” she said.

“For sure it will help pay for the T-shirts and the water bottles for next year but it will also help pay for water guest speakers to come and talk at school assemblies and things like that.”

The funding came at an opportune time because next year will be the first time the Water Rockers program won’t be eligible, due to guideline changes, for the State Farm grant that has been its source of funding for the past two years.

“We’ll make sure that we do something extra special with the money, for sure, because it’s a gift and we’ve been given this money with the trust that we’re going to do something pretty amazing with it and for our students,” Dykstra said.

She said it’s the community that makes the Water Rockers program possible.

“This is such an amazing, amazing community and people have been just above and beyond,” she said, citing the support of Liz Armstrong and Kathryn Cooper from Transition Erin.

“They’re both so unbelievably supportive of all our Water Rocker activities.”

For Dykstra one of the highlights of the Water Rockers is how the community support shows the students that they can be global citizens and make a difference in the world.

“It will be neat to see where some of these students go down the road,” she said.

“And neat to see what kind of impact this has on them.”

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