WINNER OF THIS YEAR’S POWER NI TEACHING HERO AWARD

North Belfast teacher Joanne Quinn has told Belfast Live/ Daily Mirror that she is “overwhelmed” to have been chosen as the winner of this year’s Power NI Teaching Hero Award.

The media studies teacher at Hazelwood Integrated College was nominated by three of her A-level students, with comments hailing her as “the most genuine teacher I’ve come across”, and “a real credit to our Hazelwood family and her own”.

“To hear that they had taken the time to do that was quite overwhelming,” Joanne says. “We have such a good rapport, and I get on so well with them, that it’s good to think that they think as much of me as I do of them.”

Joanne beat over 400 other teachers from across Northern Ireland to take the Power NI Teaching Hero Award, winning £1000 for herself and the same amount for her school. And she sees it as recognition not just of her work over the hardest year of her professional life, but of the teaching profession in general.

“I’m very humbled,” she says. “There are so many fantastic teachers out there and it’s much more than a job it’s a vocation.

“Teaching has definitely come through the wars in the past couple of months. We want to feel the buzz of the classroom, so to be thrust into this online world where you just had to teach yourself was quite daunting.”

Even more so for teachers like Joanne. She says she is the opposite of a ‘sit at your desk and get the children to work on something’ teachers - she’s never happier than when she is in among the desks, talking to her students one-to-one.

“I’m very much somebody who enjoys that face-to-face, reallife interaction,” she says. “My classroom is a hive of activity, and the students are engaged.”

But even through her laptop, she made it work. Joanne made a point of beginning and ending each lesson with a ‘check-in’ and a ‘check-out’ with each student, keeping a close eye on their mental health and giving them the space to talk about their feelings. On bad days, she even helped them make ‘positivity playlists’ and led a desk yoga class.

“Some of them were joining in and some were like, ‘she’s mad’,” Joanne laughs. “I think every teacher’s pastoral role is of paramount importance. Creating a positive learning environment is so important, in order for students to be open to learn and to be educated. That has to come first.” Gemma-louise Bond from Power NI, added, “We are delighted to have Joanne as the worthy winner of the inaugural Power NI Teaching Hero Award. Her care for her students and her adjustments to teaching during the pandemic were exactly the traits myself and fellow judges were looking for. The nominations from her three students brought tears to our eyes – a true hero in their eyes, as well as ours”.

It was a special day in March when Joanne and her colleagues were finally reunited with their students after three months of talking to them through their laptop screens.

“The first day back, being in the classroom was really euphoric,” she says. “To have this ripped away from you and then to have it back again was just the most beautiful thing.

“Quite a few of us were walking around like Cheshire cats, beaming all day and going, this is what we’ve come in here to do.“it’s when you’ve had something taken away that you realise how important it is to you and how much you love it.”

With sentiments like that, it should come as no surprise that Joanne has been celebrated as this year’s Power NI Teaching Hero.

Power NI has given over £120k to around 70 charity partners and community groups and 50 schools across NI to help customers who have been impacted financially or otherwise by Covid-19.

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