Claremont Immersion School second grade teacher Andrea Fitch was named Educator of the Year as part of the Canvas Educator of the Year Awards in connection with this week’s CanvasCon Online edtech conference.

The 2020 Canvas Educator of the Year Awards recognize outstanding educators in the United States working to embrace remote learning, prepare students for the workforce, and support student success and achievement in an evolving education landscape.

People often think, “you can’t teach little ones at a distance,” and Fitch has proved those people wrong. She’s embraced the challenge of distance learning to empower and help prepare her students for a changing world. It doesn’t matter that they are 2nd graders, that many are English language learners, that they are learning at a distance, and face various challenges and inequities at home—she always tells her students that they can. She instills a growth mindset into her students by framing academic challenges as opportunities to learn, and believes strongly in providing personalized learning experiences that promote student collaboration. Having taught in her native country of Perú before arriving in the U.S. and starting her career as an educator, she has a strong foundation to educate students from a variety of backgrounds and circumstances.