Recipient: Dr. Peter Salmon

Number of years teaching: completing his first year

School: Tiferes Bais Yaakov

Grades: grade 10 and 11

Subject: science and biology

Inspiration/Motivation for being a Teacher of Excellence:

Dr. Salmon was a dental surgeon for 22 years before commencing his career as a high school teacher last September.  A tremor in his hands, a result of Parkinson’s disease, prevents him from practicing dentistry. One phone conversation with Dr. Salmon revealed that he is a man of courage and inspiration.  He noted that many people had affirmed his ability to teach and to relate to students so he decided to try it.  He studied curriculum and planned lessons and then entered into his first year teaching grade 10 and 11 girls.  He strongly believes that if your mind is good, everything can be done.

Dr. Salmon believes that you must do everything in life well.  His desire is to inspire his students to see beauty in all things, to do their best and to be all that they can.  He believes that even if a student is academically challenged that the student can still see the beauty of life through science.  His goal is to inspire students, instill them with confidence and model to them that if necessary, they can rebuild their life and keep going.

One of Dr. Salmon’s students nominated him.  The letter speaks of Dr. Salmon’s tremendous impact on his students.

“Everyone knows that science is a difficult subject and many students in this school dread it.  That was then.  NOW, Dr. Salmon arrived at TBY in September 2002.  He starts class in an upbeat way, always with a warm smile.  He keeps the class motivated to learn by encouraging class input, incorporating that input into the lesson and does this all in a fun way.  I am now excited for science class, study hard for tests and have seen my grade go up 20%.

Lucky for us, Dr Salmon made a choice to apply a doctor’s special ways of caring for his patients to teaching at TBY and caring for his students.  He always tells us to aim high and be the best we can be.  With his encouragement and fine example, we all hope to succeed. “