The Janice Thomson Memorial Award will offer $2,000 each year to a project to help
practising secondary school teachers who develop creative learning resources related to
the implementation of the Ontario curriculum.
The award will support projects that are related to the arts, history or special
education programs or are directed at students at risk. Projects must enhance classroom
instruction, adhere to the evaluation standards of the Ontario Curriculum Centre and, when
completed, be shared with others.
"We know that there is a tremendous need for practical and relevant teaching and
learning resources. Our ongoing financial awards program will be geared to the concept of
teachers helping teachers help students learn," says Terry Lynch, director of the
Curriculum Foundation.
Thomson taught secondary school in Hamilton for 17 years before joining the Ministry of
Education, first as an education officer at the Central Ontario Regional Office and then
as co-ordinator of the Liaison Services Section. In 1997, Thomson was appointed
Implementation Project Co-ordinator for the newly formed Ontario College of Teachers and
subsequently became Manager of the Accreditation Unit at the College.
Throughout her distinguished career, Janice Thomson was both an eclectic learner and a
passionate teacher, with an abiding interest in what went on in the classroom. She was a
noted history teacher and author, a strong supporter of the arts, and a tenacious advocate
for special needs students and programs. Long before the education system began to
acknowledge "at risk" students, Thomson was doing something for and about the
increasing number of students who required alternative education programs.
The Curriculum Foundation is a charitable organization dedicated to funding awards for
learning resource development projects at the grassroots level. The foundation operates
under the umbrella of Curriculum Services Canada, a not-for-profit standards agency for
the evaluation of learning resources.
For more information about Curriculum Services Canada and the work of the Curriculum
Foundation, visit their web site at www.curriculum.org.
