Teaching Excellence Finalist Judges
We are excited to have the following community leaders and educators serve as finalist judges for the Teaching Excellence Contest:
Greg Beiles, Head of The Toronto Heschel School and Director of The Lola Stein Institute
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Greg Beiles became Director of the Lola Stein Institute in 2010 and Head of School at the Toronto Heschel School in 2014. For the 18 years prior to being named Head of School, Greg worked and taught at the school is increasingly senior capacities. From 2008 to 2010 he also served as Director of Curriculum and Training at the Lola Stein Institute.
Greg holds an MA in the Philosophy of Education from The Ontario Institute for Studies an Education and is a PhD Candidate at the Centre for the Study of Religion, both at the University of Toronto. His research explores a re-framed vision for Jewish education. Greg’s publications include “Jewish education and pluralistic engagement”, in Discipline, Devotion and Dissent: The promise and problems of Jewish, Catholic and Islamic schooling, ed. G. McDonough, M. Memon, and A. Mintz. In the PEJE publication, Jewish Day School Education, he published “And you shall love your God.” His column “Awe and Wonder” appears regularly in think magazine; his titles include; “What Makes a School Jewish?” and “Education for the Next Generation: Thinking in the Disciplines.” Greg has led workshops and presentations in a variety of settings, including The Bridges Conference at the Banff, York University, the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, and the Lola Stein Institute, A few workshops titles include: A Critical Thinking Approach to Numeracy; Five senses and the Five Books of Moses; Metaphor and God; Understanding Understanding; Discipline & Wonder: Integrating the Theories of A.J. Heschel and Howard Gardener in an Educational Context. |
Honourable Myra Freeman, former Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia
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The Honourable Myra Freeman served as Nova Scotia’s 30th Lieutenant Governor from 2000 to 2006. She holds the distinction as the first woman to serve in this position in Nova Scotia’s 400 year history, and the first Jewish woman to officially represent a British Sovereign in the history of the Commonwealth.
Myra Freeman's career as a teacher underlines the importance she has always placed on learning. She instituted the Lieutenant Governor’s Teaching Award to celebrate the positive influence teachers have on the students and communities they serve. She served on Nova Scotia’s Review Panel assessing Teacher Education Training in Nova Scotia Universities, and, recently, as Chair of the Nova Scotia Review Panel on Public Education. Her dedication to the pursuit of excellence led to personal recognition within the National Honours System. She is a Member of the Order of Canada, former Chancellor and Member of the Order of Nova Scotia, and Recipient of the Military Meritorious Service Medal. |
Henry Kim, Director and CEO of the Aga Kahn Museum
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Henry S. Kim is Director and CEO of the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, a new museum devoted to Islamic Art that opened in September 2014. He offers his expertise in developing teaching curricula around the use of museum art objects and in fostering visual literacy among students. At the University of Oxford he was Director of the University Engagement Programme, a three-year project sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, aimed at expanding the use of the Ashmolean Museum’s collections in teaching across the University. An ancient historian and classical archaeologist by training, Mr. Kim joined the Aga Khan Museum from the University of Oxford where he taught, curated collections and managed capital projects at the Ashmolean Museum from 1994 to 2012. Educated at Harvard and Oxford, he served as curator of Greek coins and university lecturer in Greek numismatics.
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Judith Leitner, Director of Integrated Arts at The Toronto Heschel School
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Judith Leitner is a passionate art educator. In 1991 she founded The Integrated Arts Programme at She’arim Hebrew Day School, and in 1996 she co-founded The Toronto Heschel School. As Director of Arts and Visual Arts teacher at Heschel, Judith team-designs and teaches arts-based, integrative curriculum. Judith was commissioned by The Lola Stein Institute in 2008 to write a Judaic Arts Compendium - a teachers’ resource guide to Judaic/arts-based thinking and curricular development.
Judith is equally passionate about the art of documentary photography. Her most recent exhibitions include the series ‘Serene Passage: A Traveller’s Prayer at Ground Zero, Madrid and Shanghai’ (Arta Gallery 2011 and Darchei Noam Synagogue 2014) and ‘Embedded’ - a self-portrait series-in-process exploring personal identity, based on the poetry of Job: 19 (Contact Photography Festival 2015). As a photography educator, Judith teaches self-portrait photography to artists with aphasia; she curated My Voice, Through My Lens - an exhibition of inspiring portrait images at MaRS Discovery District in June 2014. |
Senator Nancy Ruth, Senate of Canada
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By training Senator Nancy Ruth was a United Church Minister. Prior to her appointment to the Canadian Senate in 2005, she was internationally recognized and respected as a feminist activist, especially in matters of law and the equality section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As a Senator, she continues to evaluate how laws and regulations affect women and work to reform those that are discriminatory. She co-founded LEAF, The Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund in 1985, The Canadian Women’s Foundation in 1986 and, in 1993, The Linden School, a girls' day school for feminist leadership. Senator Nancy Ruth's commitment and expertise lie in translating values into meaningful practice, creating legal structures that deliver on their intended visions and "walk the talk". She is now working to eliminate tax credits that support gaming and films that denigrate women; she recently co-produced a documentary entitled, "Play Fair," which addresses discrimination against women in sports (www.playfair.tv); and she is building community support to restore Canada's national anthem its gender-neutral status of 1908. Her goal is to succeed in this before the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017.
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