December 2021 - 22

Making Light Work
Josée Hammill is ABTA's Teacher of the Year
By Chip Dombrowski
Toronto is home to two of the
world's most famous bridge teachers
- Audrey Grant and Barbara
Seagram. Perhaps the shadows of
those titans make the area a harder
place for a bridge teacher to gain
recognition. That wasn't the case for
Josée Hammill, who was chosen as
the 2021 ABTA Master Point Press
Teacher of the Year.
Students nominating Hammill described
her as enthusiastic, thorough,
readily available and friendly with a
gift for making lessons fun. " It's a joy
to be in her class, " one said.
" It's not quite real, " Hammill said
of the award. " It's quite an honor. "
Originally from Quebec City,
Hammill studied as a translator and
moved to Toronto after college in
1982. A marathon runner, she got
bored translating legal documents
(into French, her first language) for
an insurance company, and after a
few years found another job in insurance
until choosing to become a stayat-home
mom in 1990. At a friend's
suggestion, she began learning bridge
in 2000, taking lessons with John
Rayner. " It was hard, " Hammill says.
" But I just loved it. "
After a few years of lessons and
social play, she joined the ACBL in
2006 and began playing duplicate at a
few Toronto clubs, including Barbara
Seagram's. At a local tournament she
took Audrey Grant's teacher certification
course. She was looking for a
" jobette " : something that would keep
her busy a few months in the spring
and fall without being too demanding.
She tried offering a beginner
course in a small lakeside town
where she summers and decided she
would prefer to teach in an established
program.
Josée Hammill of Toronto with the trophy
for Teacher of the Year.
So she approached Seagram and
asked to teach at her school, which
at that point consisted only of Seagram.
" Barbara agreed to give me a
try - my first lesson she was hiding
around the corner listening to me -
and for this I will be eternally grateful, "
Hammill says. " I shadowed her
through the whole course. She has
been pretty amazing to me. She has
been the most supportive and giving
person all these years. "
Hammill has been a teacher at the
Barbara Seagram School of Bridge
in Toronto for 14 years. Seagram, a
member of the awards committee
who selected Hammill, calls her
an engaging person who is a superb
bridge teacher. " Her students love her
and she always goes the extra mile
to help them one-on-one, " Seagram
says. " She has a wonderful sense of
humor. She is a delight to work with. "
Hammill has become the lead
teacher at Seagram's school, teaching
everything from beginners to advanced
classes. After years of honing
her skills with in-person classes, she
converted her courses online quickly
last year, offering lessons to record
numbers of beginners all over North
America.
At Seagram's in-person school,
teaching was a seasonal job; Hammill
had summer and winter off. Since
going online, it's been nonstop yearround,
with three classes each week.
" It's more than a jobette, " Hammill
says.
Hammill shared her teaching philosophy
with the selection committee.
" I think at the very foundation of my
teaching approach is that bridge is a
difficult game, " she says. " That my
students need to be kind to themselves,
forgiving of themselves and
their partners and that ultimately this
has to be fun. " In order to stay focused
on the present hand, she recommends
not just forgiving but forgetting whatever
happened on the last one.
Hammill also encourages teachers
to share their mistakes in order to
seem relatable and create a bond with
their students. " Students are very
accepting of our 'less than perfect
moments,' " she says. " Students need
to feel that you are human - not some
such high guru that they are afraid of
coming to you. "
The American Bridge Teachers' Association
award committee members
are chairman Richard Braunstein,
Mary Jane Orock, Enid Roitman,
Betty Starzec and Seagram.
Seagram notes that Hammill
arranges supervised play and partnerships
as needed to encourage and
facilitate the students playing duplicate
bridge.
" In all these years, we have never
had one disagreement, " Seagram
says. " We discuss approaches, and
she runs with new ideas and is just a
great big success story. "
22 | Bridge Bulletin | December 2021
December 2021

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