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Each year, the Edwin Parr Award is presented by the Alberta School Boards Association to six first year teachers in the province of Alberta. The recipients are chosen for their demonstration of outstanding initial teaching proficiency, for going beyond the duties normally expected of teachers, and especially for ensuring that students feel cared for and respected in the school setting.

This year, Lisa Mol, Interactions teacher at Parkview School and Concordia alumnus 2011, received the Edwin Parr Award as the representative for Edmonton Public Schools. Lisa was selected because of her outstanding demonstration of the Teaching Quality Standard. Daily, in her classroom, she creates social stories along with visuals and sensory integration to teach social skills to her students with autism. She initiated a music class for her students and is so pleased because some of her non-verbal students have begun to sing. Lisa emphasizes the importance of assessment for learning and reflection for her students and herself. She uses technology – Boardmaker, Writing with Symbols, SMARTBoard, iPads for augmentative communication, and Alpha Smart keyboards, to prepare her students for 21st Century learning. Peer mentors from the school and the community visit and volunteer in the classroom. Enhancing student self-worth and providing students with opportunities to make choices led the class to be involved in giving back to the community by holding a fundraiser for Canadian Lutheran World Relief (students made caramel corn, packaged it & sold it.) She organizes bi-weekly community outings using Edmonton Transit to take her students on field trips and to give them additional experiences.

Lisa Mol continues to make time for personal professional growth. She takes many professional development workshops and has taught three different classes at Grant MacEwan University College. Lisa values volunteerism and this past year was a captain for the Heart & Stroke Foundation, personal advocate for a patient on the dialysis unit at the University Hospital, and served during the summer with LAMP (Lutheran Association of Missionaries and Pilots.)

For Lisa, students always come first.