Teacher Award
Recognising outstanding service in the classroom
The Institute of Physics regularly presents awards to teachers of Physics (at second level) in Ireland and the United Kingdom. The award is to recognise outstanding service in the classroom in the teaching of Physics.
If you have a teacher in your school, or are aware of such a teacher whom you feel would deserve such an award please contact:
Dr Eilish McLoughlin
School of Physical Sciences
Dublin City University
Glasnevin, Dublin 9
eilish.mcloughlinATdcu.ie
Tel.: +353 - 1 - 700 5862
The 2009 award was made to Dr Catherine Donnelly of Ballymena Academy (Co Antrim).
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Dr Catherine Donnelly of Ballymena Academy (Co Antrim) receiving her 2009 IOP Teacher of Physics Award from IOP president Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
The Award Citation states: “In the opinion of the Institute of Physics, Michael is an outstanding teacher and an exemplary role model. His life is permeated with his passion for science, and his personality lends itself in a unique way to enthuse others with some part of that passion. He has a wonderful ability to make complex points clear and is always ready to go the extra mile to help and encourage his students”.
Asked for his comments, Michael Grehan writes: 'A bit of affirmation does you good. So does constructive criticism. I value both especially from those who know teachers very well – our students. However feedback can arrive from elsewhere as a complete surprise.
At The Institute of Physics they do things extremely well and they know how to throw a party. On January 24, following a scintillating after-dinner speech by Sir Michael Atiyah in the Intercontinental London, Park Lane, they made presentations to 44 remarkably varied award winners. The work ranged from the physics classroom to condensed matter research, quantum entanglement and opening the way to new quantum information technologies.
Previously I’ve enjoyed many IOP activities, including those which brought physics teachers together in Armagh, Belfast, Bundoran, Cambridge, Cardiff, Cork, Dublin, Dundalk and a lot more of the alphabet too! However it was only at the Awards Dinner in London that I saw something of the extraordinary breadth of the Institute’s work in supporting physics research not only in universities but in industry.
If Sir Isaac Newton stood on the shoulders of giants, we had dinner with them. The guest list of 400 included Sir Michael Atiyah, Professor Peter Saraga, Dr. Simon Singh, Professor Anton Zeilinger and, from Ireland, Professor Denis Weaire of TCD and Dr. Tony Scott of UCD. It was most enjoyable to be invited to dinner in their company. It appears that qualities which the IOP value in teachers include enthusiasm, passion for science and willingness to help and encourage students – but then which of those could you do without in any science classroom? Many of the excellent teachers I know would agree with Socrates that Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.
I felt very honoured to be one of the five to receive the Teachers of Physics Awards 2008 and I’m most grateful to the people who kindly and discreetly responded to enquiries from the IOP last year. The other four recipients are John Cullerne, Winchester College in Hampshire, David Harries, the John Bentley School in Wiltshire, Michael McVey, Lourdes Secondary School in Glasgow and Ronna Montgomery, Bearsden Academy in Glasgow.
The whole experience makes me more aware of how important it is for us to honour good work done by our students. In Robert Bolt’s play: A Man for all Seasons Sir Thomas More suggests to the politically ambitious Richard Rich that he’d be a fine teacher. Rich asks “And if I was who would know it?” to which More replies : “You, your pupils, your friends, God. Not a bad public that.” '
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