TORONTO – The Holodomor Research and Education Consortium (HREC) announced on October 1 that its national panel of four education adjudicators had selected the 2018 winners of the HREC Educator Prize for Holodomor Lesson Plan Development, awarded this year to mark the 85th year of commemorating the Ukrainian genocide known as the Holodomor. This year the judges awarded a total of five prizes to educators, totaling $4,200.
The top three winners, who will receive a $1,000 prize, are: Michael Anthony, Weston Collegiate Institute, Toronto District School Board, Ontario (for Grades 11 and 12 lesson plans); Jeff Kozak, Springfield Middle School, Sunrise School Division, Winnipeg, Manitoba (for Grade 7 lesson plan); and Olga Chassé, St. Martin Catholic School, Edmonton District School Board, Alberta (for Grade 5 lesson plan).
Individual prizes vary up to, but do not exceed $1,000 and are awarded per grade level based on the quality of submissions.
“This year’s entries were strong, and the judges were pleased to see a variety of disciplines and grade levels represented amongst the submissions,” stated Valentina Kuryliw, HREC director of education, who created the prize. “We received submissions from teachers in provinces from Alberta across to Québec. The prize is intended to foster the development of innovative, creative and interactive lessons for Grades K through 12 in school curricula which develop critical thinking skills while addressing the topic of the Holodomor.”
The winning submissions will be posted on the HREC Education website under “Learning Activities” for educators to download and use in the classroom. The top three prizewinners will be presented with their awards at local Holodomor memorial events.
HREC Education welcomes educators’ submissions for the prize in 2019, which will be announced in the New Year in the HREC Education newsletter, on the website education.holodomor.ca and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/HREC.Education/.