Prize-winning teacher busts stereotypes
Mathematics teacher Dr Michelle Dalrymple knows her subject isn’t every student’s first choice, but bringing her dogs into the equation certainly helps.
The Christchurch teacher uses videos of her bullmastiffs, Cornelius and Daisy, to get her points across, showing how complicated classroom principles work in the real world through homemade clips with her pets.
Dalrymple has won the 2019 Prime Minister’s Science Teacher Prize, the first mathematics and statistics teacher to nab the premier teaching award, at a live-streamed event of the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes yesterday.
The Cashmere High School faculty head said she always knew she wanted to be a teacher, taking up a job at the popular school 16 years ago after completing her degree at the University of Canterbury.
‘‘It’s so important that students feel safe and cared for and trust me, and know that I will never give up on them ... I can’t expect them to take risks to make mistakes and push themselves unless that relationship has been formed.’’
She films her dogs to demonstrate concepts liked random sampling, sometimes using her pigs Marilla and Dorothy as case studies for example questions.
Dalrymple was devoted to sharing her knowledge with other teachers around the country, and was nominated for her cuttingedge research, originality and creativity.
For students who struggled, she built their confidence by moving ‘‘away from the classic picture of a math classroom’’. Shifting away from the stereotype encouraged each student to succeed by aligning with different learning styles, she said.
Cashmere High School principal Joe Eccleton said Dalrymple being named a finalist was ‘‘huge’’ for the school.
‘‘First and foremost she believes in the potential of our young people and providing them with the very best platform to be at their best.
The $150,000 prize will go towards the rebuild of Cashmere High School’s mathematics and statistics block.
Other prizes bestowed by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern were to University of Auckland lecturer Miro Erkintalo, who took the emerging scientist prize. The science award went to a group of Kiwi scientists behind the break-through discovery that Antarctica’s melted ice sheets could have a significant impact on global sea level rise, and the communicator prize went to Waikato University professor Rangi Matamua.
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