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Recently retired longtime teacher receives national recognition

Published

1 year ago

5 minute read

Melanie Beebe stands with students in the outdoor gardens at École Oriole Park Elementary

A recently retired teacher at École Oriole Park Elementary has been recognized at a national level for her excellence in teaching.

Melanie Beebe has received a Regional Certificate of Achievement from the Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence in STEM. She was nominated by the school’s Principal Lori Irvine.

“It’s an absolute honour to be recognized,” said Melanie. “Many names belong on this award. I have to give many people credit for this award because I couldn’t have done it alone and without the support I had from admin, my colleagues, parents, students, and the community.”

Melanie, who retired last June, began her teaching career in 1992 in Edmonton before spending the last 13 years in Red Deer Public Schools. “I’ve worked with some incredible teams throughout my career who have created some rich learning environments for students,” she said.

Teaching was always something she knew she wanted to do after having experiences in the educational system following the completion of her Bachelor of Science in Psychology Degree.

“I have always loved kids. I love their energy, and I love that they just give,” said Melanie. “Something that was really important to me was to create a classroom that was safe and caring where students felt that I loved them.”

She said she was fortunate enough to spend many years of her career in a French Immersion setting.

“Giving kids the opportunity to learn a second language is a gift. It opens your mind to learning a whole new language and a new culture,” she said. “French Immersion is challenging as it adds a layer in education, but students learn to problem solve and to work as a team, so I think it adds a good layer. It gives them a gift at the end of their school career in that they can converse in a second language.”

Some highlights of Melanie’s career include the Rethink Red Deer Capstone Educational Program which saw students plant and harvest vegetables at the Capstone Gardens beginning in the spring of 2022.

“I think giving kids opportunities and experiences to do different things really helps them grow and learn,” she said. “I saw this as a really exciting opportunity outside of the classroom and it was something that was hands-on. I saw a real difference in my classroom when we started the gardening project. My classroom changed and the kids became really cohesive and became a team.”

The project received national recognition in that Melanie and her class won the Canadian Geographic Queen’s Jubilee Classroom Challenge grand prize for their community involvement in gardening and native plant research.

“All of these successes came about through teamwork and collaboration,” she said. “The food that we helped grow was donated to the Red Deer Food Bank and Mustard Seed. It was an adventure in global citizenship and community involvement.”

She was also instrumental in bringing the Northern Coding Academy to Oriole Park. The program, funded by the Government of Canada’s CanCode program and administered out of the Telus World of Science in Edmonton, saw online instructors guide students in a 10 week coding school.

“It was an incredible technology learning experience for all of my Grade 5 students and for myself. This project incorporated the Social Studies Canadian history curriculum, French Language Arts, English Language Arts and Math,” said Melanie. “Students learned to code video games with Makecode Arcade about historical figures and moments in Canadian history.”

For Lori, she said nominating Melanie for the prestigious award was a no-brainer.

“When a teacher steps up and goes that extra mile and looks for opportunities to connect students to the community like Melanie did through the Capstone Garden Project, and when you have a group of students who you want to do right by each and every day, that is what Melanie does, and that is deserving of recognition,” she said. “She ran a very respectful and rigorous classroom and taught her students first and foremost to be good human beings. Academics are very important, but Melanie wanted to ensure her students were good people in society, too.”

 

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Censorship Industrial Complex

TDF and James Kitchen appeal Monique LaGrange decision to Alberta Court of Appeal

Published on January 23, 2025

By

TDF’s Legal Team

 

Written by 

 

The Democracy Fund (TDF), together with lawyer James Kitchen, will appeal a recent Alberta Court decision involving school trustee Monique LaGrange. Mrs. LaGrange was a trustee of the Red Deer Catholic school board until the board disqualified her as a result of memes she posted and media interviews she gave, of which a majority of the trustees disapproved.

Mr. Kitchen has now filed his Notices of Appeal with the Alberta Court of Appeal, which can be read here and here.

In 2023, Mrs. LaGrange shared a meme on her personal Facebook account outlining her concerns about the increasing indoctrination of students into Queer theory and transgender ideology. The meme featured two side-by-side images: one of young children holding swastika flags and the other of young children holding pride progress flags, accompanied by the caption, “Brainwashing is brainwashing.” The post garnered support but also criticism, especially from teachers and other school trustees. One of the trustees submitted a complaint alleging that by posting the meme Mrs. LaGrange had violated many sections of the new trustee code of conduct.

Following a hearing in September 2023, a majority of the board of trustees determined Mrs. LaGrange had breached the code of conduct. The board imposed several sanctions, including that she cease making any public statements in areas touching upon or relating to the 2SLGBTQ+ community, issue a public apology, and complete sensitivity training at her own expense.

Mrs. LaGrange refused to issue an apology and maintained that her actions were consistent with her commitment to protecting children, stating, “I was elected to stand up and protect our children, and that is what I am doing.”

Shortly thereafter, another trustee submitted a complaint about Mrs. LaGrange, alleging that she had again violated the code of conduct and also breached the sanctions by posting another meme and doing two media interviews. The meme was a popular one depicting a wolf with colourful make-up with the caption, “I just want to read some books to your chickens”.

After a second hearing, a majority of the trustees again determined Mrs. LaGrange had breached the code of conduct and the sanction regarding public comments. The board then disqualified her as a trustee, effectively kicking her off the board.

The lawyer for Mrs. LaGrange, James Kitchen, said:

“This case is the first of its kind. Never before has an Alberta board of school trustees kicked another trustee off the board for what effectively amounts to a disagreement regarding expressed political and religious beliefs (disguised, in our view, as trustee misconduct). Such an outcome has been made possible by the recent adoption of trustee codes of conduct by Alberta school boards. These new codes enable a majority of trustees to censor and cancel individual trustees with whom they politically disagree. In this case, it appears that a majority of politically left-leaning school trustees applied the code of conduct to a politically disfavoured trustee in order to censure, humiliate, and remove Monique for her outspoken opposition to the sexualization and indoctrination of young students.”

TDF and Mr. Kitchen challenged the board’s decision at a judicial review at the Alberta Court of King’s Bench. The Court varied the board’s apology requirement but otherwise upheld all of the board’s findings.

TDF litigation director Mark Joseph expressed concern over the broader implications of the case, stating:

“Disqualifying a democratically-elected representative based on public comments sets a dangerous precedent. It undermines free speech rights, tolerance for political diversity, and representative democracy by allowing officials to impose ideological purity tests on electoral candidates. The proper response to allegations of bad policy is repudiation at the ballot box rather than official disqualification. If upheld, this decision will pose a significant threat to democratic rights in Canada.”

About The Democracy Fund

Founded in 2021, The Democracy Fund (TDF) is a Canadian charity dedicated to constitutional rights, advancing education and relieving poverty. TDF promotes constitutional rights through litigation and public education. TDF supports an access to justice initiative for Canadians whose civil liberties have been infringed by government lockdowns and other public policy responses to the pandemic.

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Education

Parents should oppose any plans to replace the ABCs with vague terminology in schools

Published on January 2, 2025

By

From the Fraser Institute

By Paige MacPherson

According to a recent poll, the vast majority of parents in Canada easily understand letter grades on report cards but are confused by the nouveau “descriptive” grading adopted in British Columbia. This should serve as a warning to any province or school board thinking about adopting this type of convoluted descriptive grading.

In September 2023, despite overwhelming opposition from British Columbians, the B.C. government replaced letter grades—such as A, B, C, D, etc.—on K-9 report cards with a “proficiency scale,” which includes the descriptive terms “emerging,” “developing,” “proficient” and “extending.” If these four terms seem confusing to you, you’re not alone.

According to the recent poll (conducted by Leger and commissioned by the Fraser Institute), 93 per cent of Canadian parents from coast to coast said the letter grade “A” was “clear and easy” to understand while 83 per cent said the letter grade “C” was “clear and easy” to understand. (For the sake of brevity, the poll only asked respondents about these two letter grades.)

By contrast, 58 per cent of Canadian parents said the descriptive grade “extending” was “unclear and difficult” to understand and only 26 per cent could correctly identify what “extending” means on a report card.

It was a similar story for the descriptive grade “emerging,” as 57 per cent of Canadian parents said the term was “unclear and difficult” to understand and only 28 per cent could correctly identify what “emerging” means on a report card.

It’s also worth noting that the poll simplified the definitions of the four “descriptive” grading terms. The B.C. government’s official definitions, which can be found on the government’s website, speak for themselves. For example: “Extending is not synonymous with perfection. A student is Extending when they demonstrate learning, in relation to learning standards, with increasing depth and complexity. Extending is not a bonus or a reward and does not necessarily require that students do a greater volume of work or work at a higher grade level. Extending is not the goal for all students; Proficient is. Therefore, if a student turns in all their work and demonstrates evidence of learning in all learning standards for an area of learning, they are not automatically assigned Extending.”

So, what are the consequences of this confusing gobbledygook? Well, we already have some anecdotes.

Before the B.C. government made the changes provincewide, the Surrey School District participated in a pilot program to gauge the effectiveness of descriptive grading. According to Elenore Sturko, a Conservative MLA in Surrey and mother of three, for three years her daughter’s report cards said she was “emerging” rather than clearly stating she was failing. Sturko was unaware there was a problem until the child’s Third Grade teacher called to tell Sturko that her daughter was reading at a Kindergarten level.

Former B.C. education minister Rachna Singh tried to justify the change saying descriptive grading would help students become “better prepared for the outside world” where you “don’t get feedback in letters.” But parents in B.C. clearly aren’t happy.

Of course, other provinces also use terms in their grading systems (meeting expectations, exceeding expectations, satisfactory, needs improvement, etc.) in addition to letter grades. But based on this polling data, the descriptive grading now used in B.C.—which again, has completely replaced letter grades—makes it much harder for B.C. parents to understand how their children are doing in school. The B.C. government should take a red pen to this confusing new policy before it does any more damage. And parents across the country should keep a watchful eye on their local school boards for any plans to replace the ABCs with vague terminology open to interpretation.

Paige MacPherson

Associate Director, Education Policy
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