The French-Second-Language Champion of the Year Award recognizes the exceptional work being done any staff member at the school or school division level.
The recipients are positive advocates for and contributors to the French-Second-Language learning environment, in their school and school division community. They also inspired students of all abilities and backgrounds to learn French.
2023-2024 FSL Champion of the Year Award Nominations
Nominations are now closed for the 2023-2024 FSL Champion of the Year Award. Thanks to everyone who submitted a nomination. Winners will be announced soon.
2022-2023 FSL Champion of the Year Award Recipients
Brianna Dunstan – École St. Thomas, Lloydminster
Mme. Dunstan is an FSL Champion as she demonstrates passion for French language for her students & colleagues every day. She is always found sharing new and engaging French oral games with her students and colleagues. She leads French Professional Development sessions at our school and brings the culture alive with her classroom activities. She models love and respect for the French language and culture by coaching her students basketball and volleyball en français. Previous students are always coming to visit her for some type of French activities, or just to hang out en français!
Gilberte Michaud – École St. Thomas, Lloydminster
Mme Michaud is an FSL Champion as she goes above and beyond for her students and colleagues. In the classroom, Mme. Michaud can always be seen working on French reading with her students. As a Professional Learning Team Leader, she facilitates all team meetings & functions en français. She promotes her love of learning French by sharing with her colleagues, students and families fun and engaging ways to connect to the language outside of school.
From left to right: Brianna Dunstan and Gilberte Michaud
Camille Matheson – École St. Paul, Saskatoon
Camille is the office coordinator at École St. Paul. From the second students, parents and staff enter the facility, everyone can sense this is a French immersion school and moreover they embrace the French environment. She makes French fun for the students by interacting with them, by providing daily jokes and riddles (they often use dictionaries independently to solve them), and by supporting them through new words and corrections. Students have never been more confident and enthusiastic to learn French and proudly and authentically use the language. Her commitment to fostering a French environment at school in the hallways and in the office helped to push classroom teachers to do the same in their classrooms. If this is not enough, she also organizes a “Poisson du mois” program where students who are “caught” speaking French are entered in a draw to win a prize. She is a true champion of French as a second-language.
Leeanna Rook – Father Robinson School, Saskatoon
Leeanna is an innovative advocate of FSL learning. She works tirelessly to meet the needs of her diverse FLS learners. Leeanna is a dedicated educator who often works extended hours after school to coach her students in learning French. She also has developed and curated rich support resources which are posted on her website to facilitate parent engagement and teacher planning.
From left to right: Luisa Giocoli Clark, Superindendant of Education Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools, and Leeanna Rook
Lindsey Leik – École St. Michael’s School, Yorkton
Mme Leik completely gives of herself as a teacher and member of this school community. When we have new French teachers or ones that are here temporarily, she goes above and beyond supporting them and making them feel welcomed. French is a #1 priority for her. Her students feel safe and are engaged and because of her teaching want to learn French. As more and more students enter education with different need, Lindsey always finds a way to meet those needs of her learners so that they feel confident in their French language acquisition. Her students enjoy learning French and she is one of the reasons why the program is so strong.
From left to right: Lindsey Leik and Steven Boucher, Principal of École St. Michael’s School
Rhonda Gingell Munteanu – École Gravelbourg School, Gravelbourg
Rhonda Gingell Munteanu has 26 ½ years of top notch teaching in the French Immersion Program (mostly in the middle years), with many years as also Vice-Principal. She embraces the French language and culture and encourages her students to do the same by inviting French speaking guests to her classroom, making Kahoot games, taking her students on fun, adventurous and educational field trips. The learning environment she has created has improved her students French written, oral and listening skills in such dynamic and diverse ways. She has been a great collaborator with fellow teachers in sharing great and new French resources and assisting new French immersion teacher with tricks, tips and available resources in the classroom, school library and community. She is a positive, passionate, nurturing, and inspiring teacher who made a huge difference in her student’s learning and their passion for learning in French.
Patty Brady – Prairie Valley School Division
Patty Brady proudly provides leadership for the French Immersion Program and support all PVSD French Immersion schools. She encourages administrators to focus on Professional Development to increase the capacity as instructional leaders in FI schools. Patty also coordinated opportunities for FI teacher leaders to meet and collaborate to develop plans to enrich the culture and language experiences in the schools, lilke curating in-school-wide FSL Education Week activities.
