Edgewater College’s Desirè Truter was awarded the NEXT Foundation Expert Teacher Award at The Mind Lab by Unitec’s graduation in Auckland last month.

The specialist English teacher recently completed her Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice (Digital & Collaborative Learning) and was recognised alongside 215 fellow teachers from the July 2015 cohort.

She was awarded a $5,0 0 0 cash prize and runners up Simon Woudberg from Opotiki School and Harvey White from Waitakere College were also recognised.

“I’m thrilled to have won the NEXT Expert Teacher Award,” said Truter. “Having the oppor tunity to collaborate with other teachers meant I never wanted to miss a session. When studying through The Mind L ab, you’re never in isolation – you’re amongst other teachers who are all on the same learning journey.”

The three finalists went through an interview process where they discussed key learnings from the Postgraduate Certificate and implementation of their studies into their teaching.

Thinker and problem solver

“Desirè is a thinker, problem solver and an extremely reflective teacher. We’re delighted that she has been awarded the NEX T Foundation E xper t Teacher Award. She has integrity, a passion for digital and collaborative learning and is a well -deserving winner of this accolade,” said Frank Janssen of the NE XT Foundation.

Frances Valintine, Founder and Chair of T he Mind Lab by Unitec, congratulated the recent graduates from Auckland, Gisborne, Wellington and Christchurch, and thanked NEX T Foundation for its on- going support.

“Our par tnership with NEX T Foundation is grounded in a shared long-term strategy to achieve greater education success in New Zealand. Ultimately, the digital and collaborative skills our teachers gain through our postgraduate programme will help ensure Kiwi kids are prepared for the jobs of the future, and it’s hugely rewarding and satisfying to see over 1,700 educators to date who have stepped up to meet this challenge,” she added.

Launched in 2014, NEXT Foundation provided 1,350 teacher scholarships in 2016 to allow public primary and secondar y teachers to undertake The Mind Lab by Unitec’s postgraduate programme in digital and collaborative learning.

More at themindlab.com and nextfoundation.org.nz