Celebrating Saskatchewan’s 2026 Teachers of the Year

By: Allie Hearnden and Sarah Macdonald, STF Communications

Ask someone what they remember most about school, and it’s rarely a specific lesson.  It’s a feeling. It’s the teacher who made them laugh on a hard day, who noticed when something was off, who encouraged them when they were ready to give up. It’s the classroom where they felt like they belonged.

Rawlco Radio’s Teacher of the Year and Golden West’s Golden Apple Awards capture those moments through the words of students, families and colleagues. The nominations don’t just highlight good teaching; they tell stories of care, connection and impact that stretch far beyond the classroom.

This year, hundreds of submissions came in from across Saskatchewan, each one offering a glimpse into the relationships that shape students’ lives in meaningful ways. From those nominations, four teachers were recognized for the difference they make each day:
• Brenda Knisley, Erindale Cooperative Preschool (C95 Teacher of the Year – Saskatoon)
• Rachel Paterson, Jack MacKenzie School (Z99 Teacher of the Year – Regina)
• Laura Skrumeda Sawby, Haven Hutterite School (Magic 97.1 Golden Apple Award – Swift Current)
• Jessica Ivanochko, Our Lady of Hope Catholic School (Country 100 Golden Apple Award – Moose Jaw)

While their classrooms and career paths are different, their stories share a common thread: students thrive when they feel seen, supported and valued.

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Brenda Knisley

C95 Teacher of the Year, Saskatoon

Ask the families who nominated Brenda Knisley why she was chosen as Saskatoon’s C95 Teacher of the Year and you’ll hear the same themes again and again: connection, compassion and a genuine love for children.

One parent described her as “the kind of teacher every child hopes to have and every parent is grateful for.”

For more than three decades, Knisley has been helping children feel valued during some of their earliest experiences at school.

Knisley teaches at Erindale Cooperative Preschool and continues to substitute for Saskatoon Public Schools whenever she can. For her, every classroom is an opportunity to connect with students and help them feel at home.

That focus on connection has been part of her story from the very beginning. Inspired by a caring kindergarten teacher and a childhood spent playing school, she found her way into a profession that still feels like the right fit decades later.

“I just genuinely love kids,” she says. “I want them all to be the best they can be.”

In her classroom, that belief shows up in small but meaningful ways. She creates an environment where students feel safe to be themselves, whether they need support, encouragement or simply someone who understands. Her goal is not only to help children learn, but also to help them develop confidence and a sense of belonging.

It’s an approach that goes both ways. Over the years, her students have shaped her perspective just as much as she’s shaped theirs.

“They teach me to live in the moment,” she says. “A lot of us are thinking of other things, but it’s important to ground yourself in the moment that you’re in right now.”

When Knisley was surprised with the Teacher of the Year award, her first reaction was disbelief.

“Why me?” she remembers thinking. “There are so many amazing teachers.”

As the celebration unfolded, the significance of the moment became clear. Among those gathered were parents of her current students, including some she had taught years earlier when they were children themselves.

For Knisley, relationships don’t end when students leave her classroom. Over the years, she has remained connected to many of the families she has taught, often remembering students’ names and stories long after they’ve moved on. Those connections were reflected in the nominations she received.

One parent wrote that Knisley “nurtures every child with kindness, patience and genuine care.”

Another summed it up simply: “I really can’t think of anybody who deserves this more.”

The comments speak to the lasting impact of a teacher who makes students feel known and families feel supported. For many children, preschool is their first experience of school, and for decades Knisley has helped make that experience a positive one.

For Knisley, the recognition is meaningful, but it doesn’t change what matters most.

“I always say to my [students’] parents, ‘Your kids are my greatest gift,’” she says.

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Rachel Paterson

Z99 Teacher of the Year, Regina

Some of the most powerful lessons students learn in school have nothing to do with curriculum. They’re the lessons that teach them that they matter, that their voice has value and that they are capable of more than they think.

Those are the lessons Rachel Paterson’s students talk about most.

“She is kind, loving, helpful and patient,” one student wrote. “She makes me feel safe, makes funny jokes and makes school fun.”

For Paterson, who teaches at Jack MacKenzie School in Regina, creating that kind of classroom has been a goal since the beginning of her career.

“I have known I wanted to be a teacher since kindergarten,” she says. “Back when I would set up a makeshift classroom at home to teach my stuffed animals.”

As she grew older, the teachers in her own life helped turn that childhood dream into a profession.

“My teachers made me feel valued and capable, and I want to pay that feeling forward,” she says. “My goal is to make a lasting impact on my students.”

For teachers, the impact of those everyday interactions is often difficult to measure. A lesson may be forgotten over time, but the encouragement to keep trying, the patience shown during a difficult moment or the confidence built through a caring relationship can stay with a student for years.

Paterson experienced that firsthand when a former student recently came back to visit.

“At the end of our conversation, she looked at me and said, ‘You changed my life,’” Paterson recalls. “It was so meaningful and made me realize how important teachers are.”

When she learned she had been selected as Z99’s Teacher of the Year, Paterson was surprised by the recognition.

“I felt overwhelmed with gratitude when I learned that past and present students, along with family and friends, had nominated me,” she says. “Being selected was both surprising and humbling.”

The nominations reflected the impact she’s had on so many students. One student wrote, “She makes me believe in myself. She is the best teacher I’ve ever had.”

Like many teachers, Paterson hopes her students leave her classroom with more than  academic knowledge.

“I hope they always remember that they are cared for, valued and will always be my students,” she says. “I hope they hold onto a sense of wonder and magic in the world and continue to hope, dream and try new things, and no matter where life takes them, I will always be cheering them on.”

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Laura Skrumeda Sawby

Magic 97.1 Golden Apple Award, Swift Current

As the daughter of two teachers, Laura Skrumeda Sawby had strong role models growing up. She also had wonderful teachers as a child in Brandon, Manitoba. They inspired her to pursue education, a calling she has enjoyed since 2002.

Skrumeda Sawby has spent her entire career in southwestern Saskatchewan. She began at Sidney Street School in Maple Creek, which is her hometown. She served as the principal of Golden Prairie School before it closed in 2006. She was also the principal at Richmound School and Fox Valley School.

Last year Skrumeda Sawby embarked on a new teaching  path when she accepted a position teaching at a Hutterite colony, first at Haven Hutterian School, and then when a new school opened at Golden Prairie Hutterite Colony, she moved there. She teaches 15 students from kindergarten to Grade 8, and the only other teacher is the German teacher, since the Hutterites’ first language is German.

“It takes a lot of work for a teacher in a Hutterian school to teach all those grades. We talk about collaboration, cooperation, kindness and working together, and you appreciate the support you get from the other children because that peer learning helps,” she says of her new role. As a new teacher in the community, she worked hard to build relationships with each of the students, acknowledging and appreciating where they were at with their learning. She understands the importance of individualizing her teaching to get the best results from each student. She is also learning German to better understand them.

She says her efforts have paid off, and on the last day of school the German teacher even told her he was impressed with her ability to build trust with all the children in just six months.

“It felt nice to be seen and acknowledged,” she admits.

The compliments from the German teacher speak to the comments from the people who nominated Skrumeda Sawby for the Golden Apple Award. As one wrote, “She is passionate about making relationships, ensuring others are supported and teaching students to ensure they have the tools they need for the future. She always puts others before herself and her selfless attitude inspires others. She is caring, compassionate, empathetic and giving.”

Skrumeda Sawby says she was shocked when she heard she had won and admitted it brought tears to her eyes. She even wondered if she deserved it, since she doesn’t teach for the accolades, but to make a difference in her students’ lives.

“I just hope that whoever I’ve touched, I’ve left with a positive footprint. I hope they remember that I was authentic and did my best to support them and brought a little joy somehow to their lives,” she says.

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Jessica Ivanochko

Country 100 Golden Apple Award, Moose Jaw

If there’s laughter echoing in the halls or coming from a classroom at Our Lady of Hope Catholic School in Moose Jaw, there’s a good chance it’s the students in Jessica Ivanochko’s Grade 2 class.

“Honestly, we have a lot of fun in my classroom. We are continually moving. We do a lot of play, like learn to play. You can always hear us in the hallway because we are laughing or giggling,” says Ivanochko, winner of the Country 100 FM Teacher of the Year.

Ivanochko, who grew up in Melville and Gravelbourg, struggled in school but had a few teachers who went out of their way to help her, staying late after the last bell had rung, or even letting her take homework to them on weekends.

“They really inspired me to be able to do that for kids,” Ivanochko says.

She received a bachelor’s degree in French education from the University of Regina. She has been teaching in Moose Jaw since graduating in 2010, first at École St. Margaret and then at Our Lady of Hope Catholic School, which opened in 2025.

In all her years teaching, she has had the same goal: to ensure the students have fun while learning and to have her students become like a classroom family. She is very warm and caring and constantly tells her students that she loves them.

Her efforts pay off, as she has had students tell her they hope their siblings will be in her class, too, and she develops warm relationships with her students’ parents. One of the parents who nominated Ivanochko had high praise for her, writing that “She creates a warm, caring classroom where every student feels valued and supported.

Her creativity and enthusiasm make learning fun and engaging, and she has a special way of bringing lessons to life. She goes above and beyond for her students each day, inspiring them to learn, grow and believe in themselves.”

Being awarded the Golden Apple Award was a surprise for Ivanochko.

“I was truly in awe and in shock. I feel like I have a really great relationship with my [students’] parents. This recognition just goes to show that you can love their kids as much as they do and the parents can see that,” she explains.

While Ivanochko teaches her students many things, she also learns from them.

“They teach me all the time how to be resilient and how to work through stuff when it’s difficult. They teach me to laugh at myself. They teach me to be a better version of myself,” she says.

Just as Ivanochko remembers some of her teachers with a lot of fondness and gratitude, she hopes her students will remember her class too.

“I hope the students remember that we had fun. I hope they remember that it was a safe and caring place where they felt loved and that it was a joyful class,” she says.

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The Lasting Impact

Students may not remember every assignment, test or lesson, but they remember the teachers who helped them believe in themselves.

That’s the connection shared by this year’s recipients. In different schools and communities across Saskatchewan, they are building relationships, creating belonging and helping students see what they are capable of becoming. These awards recognize more than great teaching. They recognize the lasting impact teachers have on the lives of their students.

From Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation Bulletin, Fall 2026