Lanceford Grant, English language and literature teacher at the St Thomas Technical High School (right), collects the National Technical High School Teacher of the Year trophy from Henry Gray, manager, Educational Technology Management Unit, HEART Trust /NTA, at a function held at the Runaway Bay Heart Academy in St Ann on August 14. - JIS Photo

The latest positive for the St Thomas Technical High School is the awarding of the National Technical High School Teacher of the Year Award to Lanceford Grant.

He is the school's language and literature teacher and emerged winner of this prestigious prize from a field of 30 nominated participants from 14 technical high schools. The award was presented at the Runaway Bay Heart Academy, in St Ann, on August 14.

As part of his prize, Grant will attend the Annual Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) Conference in Orlando, Florida, next March. HEART Trust/NTA's Technical High School Development Project will take on all expenses.

Launched in November 1994, the award was a strategy aimed at upgrading technical high schools. It also seeks to motivate teachers to perform well.

not a one-day event

Being recognised as the best teacher is not a one-day event. At the beginning of each school year, flyers are sent to all technical high schools as a reminder of the assessment process in April or May.

Explaining how the selection process was done, Loveda Jones, former director of the HEART Trust/NTA's Technical High School Project, said teachers were nominated by their colleagues. "Then we select the top three teachers in each school based on the evaluation by their colleagues," she said, adding that assessments are also done by students and principals.

Finally, she said, all 14 teachers would be interviewed by a panel which comprises representatives of the private sector, the Ministry of Education, and the HEART Trust/NTA. According to Jones, the panel would then get a clear idea of the achievements of each teacher, their academic and extracurricular activities as well as their leadership skills.

improving exam results

Teachers are also allowed to take videotapes, pictures, notes of their lessons or new ideas that they have implemented to improve the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) or internal examination results.

Jones, one of the panellists who interviewed Grant, said he had a passion for helping students to excel.

"He comes from the position that all students can learn and all students can achieve. He utilises strategies to help both those who are achieving and those who are not.

Grant explained how he motivated his students.

"I use group work; I motivate the students to be leaders and to share with their colleagues. I am the teacher, but I am not the only one who can make them learn. They sometimes learn better from their fellow students," said Grant.

The literature teacher said his achievement would not have been possible without the support and encouragement he received from the head of his department.

He mentioned a book recycling programme as one of the initiatives implemented to help students. This programme allows students to sell used books at the school and collect money to buy books that they might not have been able to purchase at book stores. "We have found that instead of having 10 out of 50 persons in the classroom with a textbook, we now have at least 30 out of the 50, and it makes a better teaching/learning environment," he said with pride.

Additionally, Grant said he was responsible for changing some of the teaching methodology in his class. "When you walk into a literature class you become someone who is designated to have fun learning and at the end of the learning you see the formal concepts being implemented," he said.

"This style of teaching helps students to become more confident in their ability to perform. The school has had 100 per cent passes at the last Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exams. We also saw improvements in the CXC and students have been obtaining more grade ones than threes and fours."

"We are not where we want to be yet, but at least we are seeing how we want to get there," said Grant.

This feature is a special collaboration between The Gleaner Company and the Jamaica Information Service.