Dr. Toulouse gets teaching award

SUDBURY – Dr. Pamela Rose Toulouse has been named the recipient of Laurentian University’s Teaching Excellence Award for Full-Time Faculty for 2013-2014.

An Associate Professor in the School of Education at Laurentian University, Dr. Toulouse, Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation, is entering her 21st year of teaching in the formal education setting. At the forefront of Dr. Toulouse’s approach as an educator is her passion for teaching and nurturing community within the classroom.

The official announcement of her award notes that Dr. Toulouse “successfully integrates Indigenous teaching philosophy to build rich relationships among students”.

Pamela Toulouse began her career as an elementary school teacher and moved to higher education 14 years ago. She currently teaches Primary/Junior Methods, Junior/Intermediate Methods, Primary/Junior Literacy and Native Social Welfare. Her areas of specialty are classroom management, lesson planning, learning cycles, assessment, technology, and First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) Education. She has also published well over 40 resources, including books, curriculum pieces and articles.

Pamela Toulouse’s teaching philosophy is at the forefront of her approach as an educator and lifelong learner.

“Kinoomaage is the Ojibwe word that is closest to the English term known as teaching,” she says. “It is with this cultural teaching that I continually grow and reflect as a teacher and as a human being. Kinoomaage is my teaching philosophy that guides my practice every year, every day and with every student. It is more than just an Ojibwe word that emerges from my culture. It is a way of being that places the integrity of students at the heart of a classroom.”

The Teaching Excellence Award will be presented at the 2014 Spring Convocation.