Earlier this year, I nominated one of our teachers for the 2025 Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence. She didn’t win, but I don’t think that really matters. Writing the nomination gave me the chance to reflect on her incredible impact and to put into words what so many of us see every day. This is the first excerpt from the nomination.
Imagine a classroom where time moves slower…where the flow of your thoughts is welcomed and encouraged, where the idea of learning is associated with excitement, collaboration and empowerment. Now imagine a teacher in that space who is far more interested in what you are doing than what you are not, a teacher who sees each of your actions as speaking to needs and works with you to identify and fulfill them. A teacher who sees you as a wealth of ideas and opinions and works tirelessly to help you know your own greatness and learn how best to share it with others.
This “classroom” exists! Not so much as a location but in the immediate area around one of the greatest teachers I’ve ever known. Her name is Miriam. She has been teaching for over twenty-five years and I have had the greatest fortune of working with her for the last ten of them
Miriam once said to me that she finds it hard to say what she does when so much of what she does is nothing. I love the humility but have to remind her of the hours she spends outside of school: researching, learning, planning. The hours she spends in school: guiding, instructing, supporting. She smiles, but is not convinced.
Miriam’s “doing less” creates a space where time slows…allowing the thoughts, ideas and inspirations of those in her sphere to percolate, be flipped, twisted and spread out, then tossed around again…all while expanding outward into an expression of awe and wonder.
Miriam is a timekeeper, and in this unique space where time is stilled, she gives each of her students the freedom to think, to explore, to ask questions and to seek out answers, absolving them of the judgement that comes with expectations and giving them the trust that builds their confidence to learn.
Not being satisfied with simply adjusting time, Miriam also hands each student the power to shift their perspective; to move from the forest floor to the tops of the canopies, a shift that sparks conversation, curiosity and reflection. Ideas emerge, a bit of information is added; a word of support, encouragement and love. The ideas expand and take root, growing stronger through shared trust and wonder.
Spending time in Miriam’s class feels like standing in a forest: alive with quiet growth and connection. The roots reaching wide and deep while the canopy grows fuller each day.
This is not the story of specific outcomes; it is the story of a forest…and of one tree within it who attends, nurtures, and supports.
