BY AINSWORTH MORRIS

Career & Education writer

JANET Walters and Norman Malcolm

are the 2013 LASCO/Ministry of Education top teacher and principal of the year.

The announcement of the duo winning the awards, presented annually by LASCO in association with the Ministry of Education, was made on November 12 at the 2013 LASCO Top Teacher & Top Principal of the Year Awards ceremony held at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

Becoming the teacher of the year was one dream Walters, of John Rollins Success Primary School, said she never had in mind when she switched career choices seven years ago from accounting.

According to Walters, she began teaching in 2006 to share the gift she thought she had for coaching students.

“The whole idea of becoming a teacher surfaced when my daughter Shurna-Lee was doing her Caribbean Examination Council subjects,” Walters told Career & Education.

“When she got all ones, I realised that I really had the talent to coach someone to do well, so I gave up on accounting and I enrolled in the Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College where I did my studies,” Walters added.

Now, she says she has no regrets bringing on that new chapter in her life.

“Last month I was awarded by the Jamaica Teaching Council as a master teacher. Now, I am teacher of the year, so I have no regrets,” Walters said.

Walters, who hails from St James, said like every educator, she has challenges which she faces daily in the classroom, but she will not allow them to deter her from executing her lesson plans each weekday.

“For the greater part, it is the indiscipline of the students that is my major challenge. However, I try to overcome this by getting to know each student assigned to me. Each student has a challenge, but it is through getting to know them and their challenges and treating them accordingly, that I overcome my challenge of indiscipline,” she said.

Like Walters, Malcolm was elated to have been selected by the judging panel which consisted of a team from the stakeholders LASCO and the ministry.

After delivering 41 years of service to Windward Road Primary School, Malcolm told Career & Education that receiving the principal of the year award is the best recognition he has ever been given during his career.

“Having worked hard for the past 41 years without thinking that you would have been rewarded, this year the rewards just kept coming in,” he said. “First the Prime Minister awarded me, then the Governor General and now LASCO. It’s just a wonderful feeling.”

Malcolm received the Badge of Honour for long and faithful service to education in October.

Malcolm’s career as a teacher started at Windward Road Primary in 1976 when he was first employed as a physical education teacher. In the last four decades he has elevated from that position to classroom teacher, grade co-ordinator, vice-principal and ultimately principal 10 years ago.

He said after graduating from Knockalva Agricultural Training Centre in the 1970s, he was intrinsically motivated to become a teacher. As a result of this, he applied to the Mico University College and journeyed to Kingston to achieve that objective.

After completing his certificate in education at Mico, he applied to Windward Road Primary and spent his entire career serving the school.

Under his leadership as principal, the school won the TVJ Junior Schools’ Challenge Quiz four consecutive years between 2006 and 2009.

The school also won the inaugural Flow In My School Technology Competition in February.

He said his challenges in the last decade have surrounded the need for social order, camaraderie, effective communication and new technology.

“One of my main challenges has been getting people to change the work culture and to have all the necessary things that will enhance teaching,” he said.